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Genesis 34:28

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28 their flock and their herd, and their asses, and that which [is] in the city, and that which [is] in the field, have they taken;

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Arcana Coelestia # 1574

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1574. That 'the Canaanite' means hereditary evil from the mother in, the external man has been shown already in 1444, but that 'the Perizzite' means falsity deriving from evil is clear from other places in the Word where the Perizzite is mentioned, as in the following regarding Jacob,

Jacob said to Simeon and to Levi, You have brought trouble on me by making me stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and smite me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. Genesis 34:30.

Here similarly 'the Canaanite' means evil and 'the Perizzite' falsity.

[2] In Joshua,

Joshua said to the sons of Joseph, If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest, and cut down for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, if Mount Ephraim is too narrow for you. Joshua 17:15.

Here 'the Perizzites' means false assumptions and 'the Rephaim' false persuasions which they were to wipe out, for 'Mount Ephraim' in the internal sense means intelligence.

[3] In the Book of Judges,

After the death of Joshua the children of Israel inquired of Jehovah, saying, Who will go up for us against the Canaanite to start and fight against him? And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand. And Judah said to Simeon his brother, Go up with me into my lot, and let us fight against the Canaanite, and I will also go with you into your lot And Simeon went with him, and Judah went up. and Jehovah gave the Canaanite and the Perizzite into their hand. Judges 1:1-5.

Here 'Judah' also represents the Lord as regards celestial things, and 'Simeon' as regards derivative spiritual things. 'Canaanite' is the evil, and 'Perizzite' the falsity, that were overcome. This is how this reply, or Divine oracle, is to be understood.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Two

  

The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our "hearts" and our "heads" -- between what we want and what we know. Our "hearts" tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our "heads" tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what's good for us, we'll be pretty happy. We're built that way -- with our emotions balanced against our intellect -- because the Lord is built that way. His essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed as Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning. In His case the two aspects are always in conjunction, always in harmony. It's easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, it's reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That's the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is such a holy thing. So when "two" is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together. In rare cases, however, "two" is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because "three" represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and "two" represents the state just before it.