3402. 'Anyone touching this man and his wife will surely die' means that Divine Truth and Divine Good were not to be disclosed, insomuch that not even any approach was to be made towards them by faith because of the danger of eternal condemnation if they were profaned. This is clear from the meaning of 'touching this man and his wife' as making an approach towards Divine Truth and Divine Good, represented by Isaac and Rebekah - truth here being mentioned first and good second because the subject is people who belong to the spiritual Church and who are capable of adulterating and indeed of profaning truth, but not good, which is why the expression 'man and wife' (vir et mulier) is used, see 915, 2517; and from the meaning of 'surely dying' as eternal condemnation (which is spiritual death) resulting from profanation, under discussion here.

[2] For information about the Lord in His providence not allowing anyone, because of the danger of eternal condemnation, to enter into goodness and truth, that is, into an acknowledgement of them and affection for them, beyond the point where he is able to remain with them, see above in 3398. For goodness and truth, as stated and shown several times already, are such that when present with a person they retreat to an internal position that is determined by the amount of evil and falsity also present in him. Consequently insofar as the angels present with him from heaven depart, the devil-spirits present with him from hell draw near, and vice versa. To one in whom evil and falsity are present, the removal of good and truth, and consequently of angels, is not apparent, for at that time he is convinced that evil is good, and falsity is truth. This conviction arises from his affection for them and from the resulting delight. And when this is his state he is quite incapable of recognizing that goodness and truth have been removed from him. Goodness and truth - or angels - are said to be removed from a person when he has no affection for them, that is, when he no longer takes any delight in them, and instead his affection is for the things that go with self-love and love of the world, that is, when he takes delight wholly in these.

[3] Having a knowledge of goodness and truth - or holding them in the memory, and testifying to them with the lips - does not constitute possession of goodness and truth, but a heartfelt affection for them does. Nor does anyone possess goodness and truth when his affection for them springs from a desire to gain reputation or wealth by means of them. In his case he is not stirred by any real affection for them but by honour and gain, and he makes such goodness and truth the means for obtaining these. In the next life the goods and truths which such people have known, even proclaimed, are taken away from them, while the self-love and love of the world remain from which their life is derived. From these considerations it may be seen what the situation is with goodness and truth, namely that unless he is able to remain with them to the end of his life no one is allowed to approach goodness and truth with affection and faith, unlike those who actually profane them, for such people are unable to be held back from approaching them.

2051. That 'he must be circumcised' ¹ means that they, namely those inside the Church meant by him 'born in the house' and him 'bought with silver', must completely remove from themselves self-love and love of the world is clear from the representation of 'circumcision' as purification from self-love and love of the world, dealt with above in 2039. Here the requirement for them to be circumcised is repeated in the command 'he must be circumcised ¹ ' which expresses the necessity for them to be purified completely from those loves. And because it means those who are inside the Church no reference is made here to sons who are foreigners, for the latter, as shown above in 2049, mean those outside the Church.

[2] From this repetition of what has been stated in the previous verse concerning those 'born in the house' and those 'bought with silver', anyone may see that there is a Divine arcanum that is not evident from the sense of the letter. The arcanum is that purification from those foul loves is absolutely vital inside the Church, for the reason also that people inside the Church are capable of rendering sacred things unclean, something that those outside the Church, that is, gentiles, cannot do. For this reason those inside the Church stand in greater danger of condemnation. What is more, those inside the Church are capable of formulating and adopting false assumptions that are contrary to truths of faith themselves, whereas those outside the Church cannot do so because they have no knowledge of those truths. Thus those inside the Church are capable of profaning sacred truths, but not those outside. For more on these matters, see Volume One, in 1059, 1327, 1328.

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