Los filisteos tenían el Arca de la Alianza capturada. La llevaron a su propio territorio a un templo en la ciudad de Ashdod. El templo estaba dedicado a su dios Dagón, que era mitad hombre y mitad pez.

A la mañana siguiente, los habitantes de Asdod descubrieron que la estatua de Dagón había caído de bruces ante el Arca. La volvieron a colocar. A la mañana siguiente la encontraron caída de nuevo, esta vez con las manos y la cabeza rotas. Entonces, los filisteos tuvieron miedo y trasladaron el Arca a otra ciudad y luego a otra. Cada vez los habitantes de las ciudades y sus alrededores fueron golpeados por "tumores". Una traducción más exacta es que sufrieron graves hemorroides. Estas fueron tan graves que muchas personas murieron.

Swedenborg escribe que estas hemorroides representan los amores terrenales, "que son impuros cuando se separan de los amores espirituales." 1 Samuel 6 describe cómo estas ciudades también fueron infestadas repentinamente con roedores, y esto representa la "destrucción de la iglesia por las distorsiones de la verdad". (Ver Divina Providencia 326 [11, 12])

Ambas aflicciones representan una separación de la fe y la caridad, dos partes importantes de la vida espiritual. Swedenborg habla de cómo los filisteos representan a personas en las que la fe se ha separado de la caridad. (Ver Arcana Coelestia 1197 y Doctrina de la Nueva Jerusalén Acerca de la Fe 49.) Obsérvese aquí, como en otras partes, que no debemos relacionar directamente ningún grupo de personas con las cosas positivas o negativas que representan espiritualmente. Esto significa que no debemos asumir que los filisteos eran más culpables de separar la fe de la caridad que cualquier otro grupo de personas. Por el contrario, debemos pensar que en esta historia en particular, ellos representan el desafío que todos enfrentamos para no separar la fe y la caridad. Tenemos que vivir nuestra fe para que sea real.

La estatua de Dagón, que representa la fe sin caridad, cayó de bruces y fue destruida frente al Arca de la Alianza, que contenía los Diez Mandamientos. Esta es una ilustración del poder de la Palabra Divina del Señor cuando vivimos de acuerdo con ella. Nuestra fe no puede ser sólo una creencia en la Palabra del Señor, o sólo un reconocimiento intelectual de Sus Mandamientos. Está en función de una vida llevada en base a estos mandamientos. La creencia sin una buena vida, la fe sin la caridad, es destructiva - a nivel individual y a nivel colectivo. Lo vemos representado simbólicamente en la destrucción de la estatua de Dagón.

La forma en que la estatua fue destruida es también un símbolo de la fe separada de la caridad. Por ejemplo, las manos generalmente simbolizan el poder, y la capacidad de poner las cosas en acción, ya sean buenas o malas. (Ver Arcana Coelestia 878.) Las manos fueron cortadas de la estatua de Dagón al igual que la fe sin acción, o la caridad no tiene poder.

Esto refuerza el mensaje de que la fe y la caridad deben ir juntas, si queremos mantener nuestro pacto con el Señor.

1197. 'From whom Pelishtim came forth' means the nation which came from these, and which means a knowledge of the cognitions of faith and charity. This is clear from the Word where they are mentioned many times. In the Ancient Church all were called Philistines who spoke much about faith and who asserted that salvation lay in faith, and yet possessed nothing of the life of faith. Consequently they more than any others were called uncircumcised, that is, devoid of charity. (For references to them as the uncircumcised, see 1 Samuel 14:6; 17:26, 36; 31:4; 2 Samuel 1:20; and elsewhere.) Being such as they were they inevitably made cognitions of faith matters of memory, for cognitions of spiritual and celestial things, and the arcana of faith themselves, become purely matters of memory when a person who is acquainted with them is devoid of charity. Things of the memory are so to speak dead if the person is not such that he lives according to them from conscience. When he does live according to them from conscience things of the memory are in that case matters of life as well, and only then do they remain with him for his use and salvation following life in the body. Knowledge and cognitions are of no value to anyone in the next life, even though he may have known all the arcana that have ever been revealed, if they have made no impact on his life.

[2] Throughout the prophetical parts of the Word 'the Philistines' means people such as these, as they do in the historical sections of the Word, as when Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines and made a covenant with Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, Genesis 20:1-end; 21:22-end; 26:1-33. Because the Philistines here meant cognitions of faith, and because Abraham represented the celestial things of faith, he sojourned there and made a covenant with them. So likewise did Isaac, who represented the spiritual things of faith. But Jacob did not do so because he represented the external features of the Church.

[3] That 'the Philistines' means, in general, knowledge of the cognitions of faith, and in particular people who make faith and salvation reside in cognitions alone which they make matters of memory, becomes clear also in Isaiah,

Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod which smites you has been broken, for from the serpent's root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying prester. Isaiah 14:29

Here 'the serpent's root' stands for facts, 'an adder' for evil arising out of falsities based on facts. 'The fruits of a flying prester' is their works which, because they are the product of evil desires, are called 'a flying prester'

[4] In Joel,

What are you to Me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the borders of Philistia? Are you rendering Me a recompense? Swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense upon your own head, inasmuch as you have taken My silver and My gold, and My good and desirable treasures you have carried into your temples, and have sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Javanites, ¹ that you might remove them far away from their border. Joel 3:4-6.

What 'the Philistines' and the whole of Philistia, or 'all its borders', are used to mean here is plain. 'Silver' and 'gold' here are the spiritual and celestial things of faith, 'good and desirable treasures' cognitions of them. 'They carried them into their temples' means that they were in possession of them and proclaimed them. 'They sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem' however means that they possessed no love and no faith. In the Word 'Judah' is the celestial element of faith, and 'Jerusalem' the spiritual element deriving from it, which were 'removed far away from their borders'. Further examples exist in the Prophets, such as Jeremiah 25:20; Jeremiah 47:1-end; Ezekiel 16:27, 57; 25:15-16; Amos 1:8; 19; Zephaniah 2:5; Psalms 87:4; and the people of Caphtor are mentioned in Deuteronomy 2:23; Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 9:7.

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