3875. And said, Now this time will my man cleave to me. That this signifies in the supreme sense love and mercy, in the internal sense charity, in the external sense conjunction, and in the present case spiritual love, is evident from the signification of “to cleave.” That in the external or proximately interior sense “to cleave” is conjunction, is evident without explication. That in the internal sense “to cleave” is charity, is evident from the fact that charity, or what is the same thing, mutual love, is spiritual conjunction; for it is a conjunction of the affections of the will, and a consequent agreement of the thoughts of the understanding; thus it is a conjunction of minds as to both parts. That in the supreme sense “to cleave” is love and mercy, is hence manifest, for the infinite and eternal which is predicated of charity or spiritual love, is mercy, which is the Divine love toward the human race, sunk as it is in such great miseries. For as of himself man is nothing but evil, and as that which is in him, so far as it is from him, is nothing else than infernal, and as he is looked upon by the Lord from Divine love, his elevation out of the hell in which he is of himself, and his deliverance, is called “mercy.” Hence, because mercy is from the Divine love, by “to cleave,” in the supreme sense, there is signified both love and mercy.

[2] That in the internal sense “to cleave” signifies spiritual love, or what is the same, charity toward the neighbor, may be seen also from other passages in the Word; as in Isaiah:

Let not the son of the stranger that cleaveth to Jehovah, speak, saying, Jehovah in separating separates me from His people. The sons of the stranger that cleave unto Jehovah, to minister unto Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, shall be His servants (Isaiah 56:3, 6);

“to cleave unto Jehovah” denotes to observe the commandments, which is of spiritual love; for no one observes the commandments of God from the heart, except the man who is in the good of charity toward the neighbor.

In Jeremiah:

In those days the sons of Israel shall come, they and the sons of Judah, going and weeping shall they go, and shall seek Jehovah their God. They shall ask Zion concerning the way, thither shall their faces be, Come ye and let us cleave to Jehovah with an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten (Jeremiah 50:4-5); where “to cleave to Jehovah” in like manner denotes to observe the commandments from the heart, that is, from the good of charity.

[3] In Zechariah:

Many nations shall cleave to Jehovah in that day, and shall be My people (Zech. 2:11); where the sense is the same.

In Isaiah:

Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and will again choose Israel, and set them in their own land; and the sojourner shall cleave to them, and they shall join themselves unto the house of Jacob (Isaiah 14:1);

“the sojourner cleaving to them” denotes being in a similar observance of the law; “to join themselves unto the house of Jacob” signifies to be in the good of charity, in which they are who are signified by the “house of Jacob.”

In Matthew:

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will cleave to the one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24); where “to love” denotes the celestial of love; and “to cleave” the spiritual of love; both are mentioned because they are distinct, otherwise it would have been sufficient to mention one.

[4] They who are in spiritual love are on this account called the “sons of Levi,” as in Malachi:

Who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth? He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver (Malachi 3:2-3).

That in the supreme sense the Lord is signified by “Levi,” from His Divine love and mercy toward those who are in spiritual love, may be seen in the same prophet:

That ye may know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi, saith Jehovah Zebaoth; my covenant shall be with him of life and peace. Ye are turned aside out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble in the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi. Therefore I have made you contemptible (Malachi 2:4-5, 8-9).

And as in the supreme sense “Levi” signifies the Lord’s Divine love or mercy, and in the internal sense spiritual love, therefore the tribe of Leviticus was made the priesthood; for in the internal sense of the Word the “priesthood” is nothing else than the holy of love; and the “royalty” the holy of faith (see n. 1728, 2015, 3670).

[5] As by the expression “to cleave,” from which Leviticus was named, there is signified spiritual love, which is the same as mutual love, by the same expression in the original tongue there is also signified a mutual giving and receiving; and in the Jewish Church by mutual giving and receiving there was represented mutual love, concerning which of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere. Mutual love differs from friendship in this respect-that mutual love regards the good which is in a man, and because it is directed to good, it is directed to him who is in good; but friendship regards the man; and this also is mutual love when it regards the man from good, or for the sake of good; but when it does not regard him from good or for the sake of good, but for the sake of self which it calls good, then friendship is not mutual love, but approaches the love of self, and insofar as it approaches this, so far it is opposite to mutual love. In itself mutual love is nothing else than charity toward the neighbor; for by the neighbor in the internal sense nothing else is signified than good, and in the supreme sense the Lord, because all good is from Him, and He is good itself (n. 2425, 3419). This mutual love or charity toward the neighbor is what is meant by spiritual love, and is signified by “Levi.”

[6] Moreover in the Word both celestial love and conjugial love are in the sense of the letter expressed by the expression “to cleave,” but from a word in the original tongue different from that from which Leviticus was named. This word signifies a still closer conjunction, as in the following passages.

In Moses:

Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave (Deuteronomy 10:20).

Ye shall walk after Jehovah your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and hear His voice, and ye shall serve Him and cleave unto Him (Deuteronomy 13:4).

To love Jehovah your God, and to walk in all His ways, and to cleave unto Him (Deuteronomy 11:22).

To love Jehovah thy God, to obey His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for He is thy life (Deuteronomy 30:20).

In Joshua:

Take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded you, to love Jehovah your God, and to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments, and to cleave unto Him, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul (Josh. 22:5).

In the second book of Kings:

King Hezekiah trusted in Jehovah the God of Israel. He clave to Jehovah, he departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses (2 Kings 18:5-6).

In Jeremiah:

As a girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah; that they might be unto Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for adornment; and they have not obeyed (Jeremiah 13:11).

[7] That conjugial love also is expressed by “cleaving” is manifest from the following passages:

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh (Genesis 2:24).

For your hardness of heart, Moses wrote this commandment; but from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female; for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh; what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder (Mark 10:5-9; Matthew 19:5).

The soul of Shechem clave to Dinah the daughter of Jacob; he loved the damsel, and spake to the heart of the damsel (Genesis 34:3).

Solomon loved many strange women; Solomon clave to these in love (1 Kings 11:1-2).

From all this it is now evident that “to cleave” is a term of love, received into use by the churches in ancient times, which churches were in significatives; and that in the internal sense it denotes nothing else than spiritual conjunction, which is charity and love.

2015. Kings shall go forth from thee. That this signifies that all truth is from Him, is evident from the signification of a “king,” in both the historical and the prophetic Word, as being truth (stated above, n. 1672, but not yet fully shown). From the signification of “nations” as being goods, and from the signification of “kings” as being truths, we can see the nature of the internal sense of the Word, and also how remote it is from the sense of the letter. He who reads the Word, especially the historical portion, has no other belief than that the nations there are nations, and kings, and thus that nations and kings are treated of in the very Word itself. But the idea of nations, as well as that of kings, altogether perishes when it is received by the angels, and in their place there succeed good and truth. This cannot but appear as strange and indeed as a paradox, but still it is really so, and the truth of it may appear to everyone from considering that if, in the Word, nations were signified by “nations,” and kings by “kings,” then the Word of the Lord would involve scarcely anything more than any other history, or any other writing, and thus would be a merely worldly affair, when yet there is nothing in the Word that is not Divine, and therefore celestial and spiritual.

[2] Take as a single instance what is said in this verse, that Abraham should be made fruitful and should be made nations, and that kings should go forth from him-what is this but a merely worldly matter, and in no respect heavenly? For in these things there is only the glory of the world, which is nothing at all in heaven; but if this is the Word of the Lord, there must be in it the glory of heaven, and none of the world’s glory. Therefore the sense of the letter is altogether obliterated and vanishes when it passes into heaven; and it is so purified that nothing that is worldly is intermingled. For by “Abraham” is not meant Abraham, but the Lord; by his being “made fruitful” is not meant that his posterity should increase exceedingly, but that the good of the Lord’s Human Essence should increase to infinitude; by the “nations” are not meant nations, but goods; and by the “kings,” not kings but truths. Still the history according to the sense of the letter remains true; for it is true that it was so said to Abraham; also that he was made fruitful, and that nations and kings came from him.

[3] That “kings” signify truths, may be seen from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee; thou shalt suck the milk of the nations, and the breast of kings shalt thou suck (Isaiah 60:10, 16);

what it is to “suck the milk of nations” and “the breast of kings,” is by no means plain from the letter, but it is from the internal sense, in which it signifies to be gifted with goods, and instructed in truths.

In Jeremiah:

There shall enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses (Jeremiah 17:25; 22:4);

to “ride in chariots and on horses” is a prophetical saying which signifies an abundance of intellectual things, as may appear from very many passages in the Prophets; and thus by “kings entering in by the gates of the city” is signified in the internal sense that they should be imbued with truths of faith. This is the heavenly sense of the Word, into which the worldly literal sense passes.

[4] Again, in the same Prophet:

Jehovah hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest; the gates of Zion have sunk into the earth; He hath destroyed and broken her bars; her king and her princes are among the nations; the law is not (Lamentations 2:6, 9);

“the king” here denotes the truth of faith; “the priest” the good of charity; “Zion” the church which is being destroyed, and whose bars are being broken; hence “the king and the princes are among the nations,” that is, truth and the things which are of truth will be banished to such an extent that there will be no “law,” that is, nothing of the doctrine of faith.

In Isaiah:

Before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the ground shall be forsaken, which thou loathest in the presence of her two kings (Isaiah 7:16); where the Lord’s coming is treated of; the “ground which shall be forsaken” denotes faith, of which there would then be none, and the truths of which are the “kings that would be loathed.”

[5] In the same Prophet:

I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise up My ensign to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon the shoulder; and kings shall be thy nourishers, and their queens those that give thee suck (Isaiah 49:22-23);

“the nations” and “the daughters” denote goods; and “the peoples” and “the sons” truths (as shown in Part First, where it may be seen that “nations” denote goods, n. 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849; and that “daughters” have a similar signification, n. 489-491; also that “peoples” denote truths, n. 1259, 1260; and “sons” likewise, n. 489, 491, 533, 1147). “Kings” therefore denote truths in general, by which they will be nourished, and their “queens” the goods from which they will be “suckled.” Whether you say goods and truths, or those who are in goods and truths, it is the same.

[6] Again in the same Prophet:

He shall sprinkle many nations, upon him kings shall shut their mouth-for that which was [not] told them have they seen; and that which they did not hear have they understood (Isaiah 52:15),

where the Lord’s coming is spoken of; the “nations” denote those who are affected by goods, and “kings” those who are affected by truths.

In David:

Now, O ye kings, be intelligent; be instructed, ye judges of the earth; serve Jehovah with fear, and exult with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way (Psalms 2:10-12).

“Kings” denote those who are in truths; who also from their truths are often called “king’s sons;” “the Son” here denotes the Lord, who is here called “the Son” because He is the truth itself, and because all truth is from Him.

[7] In John:

They shall sing a new song, Worthy art Thou who takest the book, and openest the seals thereof; Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, that we may reign upon the earth (Revelation 5:9-10); where they who are in truths are called “kings.”

The Lord also calls such persons “the sons of the kingdom,” in Matthew:

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the seed is the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one (Matthew 13:37-38).

In John:

The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings that are from the sun rising might be prepared (Revelation 16:12).

That by the “Euphrates” is not meant the Euphrates, nor by “the kings from the sun-rising” any kings therefrom, is evident (what is meant by the “Euphrates” may be seen above, n. 120, 1585, 1866); so that “the way of the kings that are from the sun-rising” means the truths of faith that are from the goods of love.

[8] In the same:

The nations that are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it (Revelation 21:24); where “the nations” denote those who are in goods, and “the kings of the earth” those who are in truths, as may be inferred from the fact that these words are prophetic, and not historical.

In the same:

With the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters the kings of the earth have committed whoredom, and have been made drunken with the wine of her whoredom (Revelation 17:1-2).

And again:

Babylon hath made all the nations drink of the wine of her whoredom, and the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with her (Revelation 18:3, 9); where in like manner it is evident that kings are not meant by “the kings of the earth;” for the falsification and adulteration of the doctrine of faith, that is, of truth, is treated of, and this is the “whoredom;” “the kings of the earth” denote the truths that are falsified and adulterated.

[9] In the same:

The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, that have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority [potestas] as kings with the beast for one hour. These shall have one mind, and shall give their power and authority to the beast (Revelation 17:12-13).

That these “kings” are not kings, is evident to everyone; for if so it would be wholly unintelligible that the ten kings should receive authority as kings one hour. So too in another passage:

I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war with him that sat upon the horse, and with his army (Revelation 19:19).

That “he that sat upon the horse” is “the Word of God,” is openly stated in verse 13; and it is against this that the kings of the earth are said to have been gathered together. “The beast” denotes the goods of love, profaned; and “the kings” denote the truths of faith, adulterated; these are called “the kings of the earth,” because they are within the church. (That “the earth” is the church may be seen above, n. 662, 1066, 1067, 1262.) The “white horse” denotes the understanding of truth; and “he that sat upon the horse,” the Word. This meaning is still more manifest in Daniel (chapter 11), where the war between “the king of the south” and “the king of the north” is treated of; by which terms are signified the truths and falsities that had fought, the combats being described here also in an historical manner by this “war.”

[10] As “a king” signifies truth, it may be seen what is meant in the internal sense when the Lord is called a King and also a Priest; and also what it was in the Lord that was represented by kings, and what by priests. Kings represented His Divine truth, and priests His Divine good. All the laws of order by which the Lord governs the universe as King, are truths; but all the laws by which He governs the universe as Priest, and by which also He rules truths themselves, are goods; for government from truths alone would condemn everyone to hell; but government from goods lifts everyone out thence and uplifts him into heaven (see n. 1728). Because in the Lord’s case these two are conjoined, they were anciently represented by kingship conjoined with priesthood; as with Melchizedek, who was king of Salem and at the same time priest to God Most High (Genesis 14:18); and afterwards with the Jews, among whom the representative church was instituted in its own form, by judges and priests, and afterwards by kings.

[11] But as the kings represented truths, which ought not to have command, for the reason, as before said, that they condemn, therefore the desire to have kings was so displeasing as to call for rebuke, and the nature of truth as regarded in itself was described by the rights [jus] of the king (1 Samuel 8:11-18); and at an earlier day it was commanded by Moses (Deuteronomy 17:14-18) that they should choose genuine truth which is from good, and not spurious; and that they should not defile it by reasonings and memory-knowledges [scientifica]. This is what is involved in the directions concerning a king, given in Moses in the place just cited; which no one can possibly see from the sense of the letter, but yet is evident from the several points contained in the internal sense; so that “king” and “kingship” evidently represented and signified nothing else than truth.