908. Every wild animal that is with thee of all flesh. That this signifies all that was made living in the man of this church, is evident from the fact that “wild animal” is predicated of Noah, or of the man of this church, now regenerated, and manifestly refers to what follows, namely, fowl, beast, and creeping thing; for it is said, “every wild animal that is with thee of all flesh, as to fowl, and as to beast, and as to every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” The word in the original tongue here rendered “wild animal” signifies properly life, or what is living; but in the Word it is used both for what is living and for what is as it were not living, or a wild animal; so that unless one knows the internal sense of the Word, he is sometimes unable to see what is meant. The reason of this twofold meaning is that the man of the Most Ancient Church, in his humiliation before the Lord, acknowledged himself as not living, not even as a beast, but only as a wild animal; for those people knew man to be such when regarded in himself, or in what is his own. Hence this same word means what is living, and also means “wild animal.”
[2] That it means “what is living” is evident in David:
Thy wild animal shall dwell therein [that is, in God’s inheritance]; Thou, O God, wilt confirm the poor with Thy good (Psalms 68:10).
Here by “wild animal” because he shall dwell in the inheritance of God, no other is meant than the regenerated man; and so here, as in the verse we are considering, what is living in this man is meant. Again:
Every wild animal of the forest is Mine, and the beasts upon the mountains where thousands are; I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild animals of My field are with Me (Psalms 50:10-11).
Here “the wild animals of My field with Me” or with God, denote the regenerated man, thus what is living in him.
In Ezekiel:
All the fowls of the heavens made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches all the wild animals of the field brought forth (Ezekiel 31:6), where the spiritual church is signified, as implanted, and what is living, in the man of that church.
In Hosea:
In that day will I make a covenant for them with the wild animal of the field and with the fowl of the heavens (Hosea 2:18), where those who are to be regenerated are meant, with whom a covenant is to be made. Indeed, so fully does “wild animal” signify “what is living” that the cherubim, or angels, seen by Ezekiel, are called the “four wild animals” or “living creatures” (Ezekiel 1:5, 13-15, 19; 10:15).
[3] That “wild animal” in the opposite sense is taken in the Word for what is not living, is evident from many passages, of which only the following will be cited, for confirmation.
In David:
O deliver not the soul of Thy turtle-dove unto the wild animal (Psalms 74:19).
In Zephaniah:
How is the city become a desolation, a place for wild animals to lie down in (Zephaniah 2:15).
In Ezekiel:
And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the wild animal of the earth eat them (Ezekiel 34:28).
Again:
Upon his ruin all the fowl of the heavens shall dwell, and every wild animal of the field shall be upon his branches (Ezekiel 31:13).
In Hosea:
There will I consume them like a lion; the wild animal of the field shall tear them (Hosea 13:8).
In Ezekiel:
I have given thee for meat to the wild animals of the earth, and to the fowl of the heaven (Ezekiel 29:5), an expression often occurring.
And since the Jews remained in the sense of the letter only, and understood by “wild animal” a wild animal, and by “fowl” a fowl, not knowing the interior things of the Word, nor having any willingness to acknowledge them and so to be instructed, they were so cruel and such wild animals that they found their delight in not burying enemies killed in battle, but exposing them to be devoured by birds of prey and wild beasts; which also shows what a wild animal man is.
