Arcana Coelestia #4503
4503. 'The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city' means that all his descendants destroyed that doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sons of Jacob' as descendants from Jacob, dealt with above; from the meaning of 'plundering' as destroying; and from the meaning of 'the city' as the doctrine of the Church, dealt with above in 4500. Simeon and Levi's going away after they had killed every male in the city as well as Hamor and Shechem, and then Jacob's sons' coming upon the slain and plundering the city, involves an arcanum, the meaning of which is not evident except from the internal sense.
[2] That arcanum is this: After the truth and good of the Church which are represented by 'Simeon and Levi' were wiped out and falsity and evil took their place, further falsities and evils were added, which are meant in the contrary sense by the rest of Jacob's sons. Each son of Jacob represented some general aspect of faith and charity, as has been shown in 2129, 3858, 3913, 3926, 3939, 4060.
Which aspect is represented by each, see the following:
Judah, 3881;
Dan, 3921-3923;
These general aspects of faith and charity which those sons represented become falsities and evils of that kind once the truth and good of the Church have been wiped out and those further falsities and evils have been added to them; for falsities and evils are constantly on the increase within the Church once it has been perverted and wiped out. It is these added falsities and evils that are meant by the reference to Jacob's sons coming upon the slain and plundering the city after Simeon and Levi had killed every male in the city as well as Hamor and Shechem, and had taken Dinah and gone away.
[3] That 'the slain' in the Word means truths and goods which have been wiped out may be seen from the following places: In Isaiah,
You are cast out from your sepulchre like an abominable branch, a garment of the killed - slain with the sword - who go down to the stones of the pit like a dead body trodden underfoot. Isaiah 14:19.
This refers to Babel. 'Those slain with the sword' stands for those who have profaned the truths of the Church. In the same prophet,
So that their slain are cast out and the stench of their dead bodies rises up. Isaiah 34:3.
This refers to the falsities and evils which infest the Church, 'the slain' standing for these.
[4] In Ezekiel,
The violent of the nations will draw the sword against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will profane your loveliness. They will bring you down into the pit and you will die the deaths of those slain in the midst of the seas. Ezekiel 28:7-8.
This refers to the prince of Tyre who means the leading cognitions of truth and good. 'Dying the deaths of those slain in the midst of the seas' stands for those who use facts to hatch falsities and in consequence defile the truths of the Church.
[5] In the same prophet,
They also will go down with them into hell, to those slain with the sword. You will be made to go down with the trees of Eden into the nether world, in the midst of the uncircumcised you will lie with those slain with the sword. Ezekiel 31:17-18.
In the same prophet,
Go down and lie with the uncircumcised; they will fall in the midst of those slain with the sword; the chief of the powerful ones will speak to him in the midst of hell. Ezekiel 32:19-21.
This refers to Pharaoh and Egypt. 'Those slain with the sword' stands for those who by their use of knowledge become insane; by their use of it they destroy all belief in the truth known to the Church.
[6] In David,
I have been reckoned with them going down to the pit; I have become as a man with no strength, neglected among the dead, like the slain lying in the sepulchre whom you remember no more and who have been cut off by your hand.
'The slain' in hell - those in the pit and 'in the sepulchre' - stands for those who have destroyed the truths and goods residing with them by means of falsities and evils. Anyone can recognize that these are not in hell merely because they have been slain with the sword.
[7] In Isaiah,
A city of tumults, an exultant city, [your slain] have not been slain with the sword, and they have not been killed in war. All who have been found in you have been bound together in chains. They have fled from far away. Isaiah 22:2-3.
This refers to the illusions resulting from the evidence of the senses which do not enable the truths of the Church to be seen. It refers therefore to people subject to negative doubt, and these are called 'slain but not with the sword'.
[8] In Ezekiel,
I am bringing a sword upon you and destroying your high places; and your altars will be destroyed, and your statues will be broken; and I will cause your slain to lie before your idols. When the slain have fallen in the midst of you, you will know that I am Jehovah. Then you will acknowledge, when the slain are in the midst of their idols, around their altar. Ezekiel 6:3-4, 7, 13.
'The slain' stands for those who are governed by falsities of doctrine.
[9] In the same prophet,
Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. They went forth and smote in the city. Ezekiel 9:7.
This is a prophetic vision. 'Defiling the house and filling the courts with the slain' stands for profaning goods and truths. In the same prophet,
You have multiplied your slain in this city, and have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore said the Lord Jehovih, Your slain whom you have placed in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and that is the pot; and he will lead you out from the midst of it. Ezekiel 11:6-7.
[10] Because 'the slain' meant those who have annihilated the truths of the Church by means of falsities and evils, therefore also in the representative Church those who touched one who had been slain were unclean. Such persons are referred to in Moses as follows,
Everyone who has touched on the surface of the field one slain with the sword, or one dead, or a human bone, or a sepulchre will be unclean for seven days. Numbers 19:16, 18.
Inquiry was therefore made and atonement effected by means of a heifer. In the same author,
If one is found slain, lying in the field, and it is not known who smote him, then the elders of the city and the judges shall come out and they shall measure [the distance] to the cities which are around the one slain. It shall be, that in the city nearest to the one slain the elders of that city shall take a heifer by means of which no work has been done, which has not pulled in the yoke, and they shall bring it down to the river or valley, and there they shall break the heifer's neck. And they shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck has been broken and shall say, Our hands have not shed blood, and our eyes have not seen it. Expiate Your people Israel, O Jehovah, and do not set innocent blood in the midst of Your people; and the blood shall be expiated for them. Deuteronomy 21:1-8.
[11] These laws were laid down because one who has been slain means the perversion, destruction, and profanation of the truth of the Church by means of falsity and evil, as is evident from each detail in the internal sense. The expression 'one slain, lying in the field' is used because 'the field' means the Church, see 2971, 3310, 3766. 'A heifer by means of which no work has been done' means the innocence of the external man which is present within ignorance. Without a clear knowledge of these things meant in the internal sense everyone will be surprised that a procedure such as this for making expiation should ever have been ordained.
Ezekiel 33
1
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
2
Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and tell them, When I bring the sword on a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;
3
if, when he sees the sword come on the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
4
then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn't take warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be on his own head.
5
He heard the sound of the trumpet, and didn't take warning; his blood shall be on him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul.
6
But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn't blow the trumpet, and the people aren't warned, and the sword comes, and take any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
7
So you, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
8
When I tell the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you don't speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.
9
Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he doesn't turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.
10
You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: Thus you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?
11
Tell them, As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, house of Israel?
12
You, son of man, tell the children of your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his disobedience; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither shall he who is righteous be able to live thereby in the day that he sins.
13
When I tell the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he has committed, therein shall he die.
14
Again, when I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
15
if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
16
None of his sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him: he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17
Yet the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
18
When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall even die therein.
19
When the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
20
Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. House of Israel, I will judge every one of you after his ways.
21
It happened in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city has been struck.
22
Now the hand of Yahweh had been on me in the evening, before he who was escaped came; and he had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more mute.
23
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
24
Son of man, they who inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.
25
Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?
26
You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and every one of you defiles his neighbor's wife: and shall you possess the land?
27
You shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him who is in the open field will I give to the animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.
28
I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.
29
Then shall they know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed.
30
As for you, son of man, the children of your people talk of you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, Please come and hear what is the word that comes forth from Yahweh.
31
They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don't do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.
32
Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they don't do them.
33
When this comes to pass, (behold, it comes), then shall they know that a prophet has been among them.
