4454. And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brothers. That this signifies a consultation of the truth from the ancient Divine stock with the good and truth of this religiosity, is evident from the signification of “saying,” as here being to consult; from the representation of Shechem, as being truth from the ancient Divine stock (see above, n. 4447); from the signification of “father,” who here is Jacob, as being the good of truth (n. 4273, 4337); and from the signification of “brothers,” who here are the sons of Jacob, as being truths, of which above. That “Shechem” is truth from the ancient Divine stock is evident from what was adduced above (see n. 4447); for Hamor the Hivite, together with his nation and family, were remains in the land of Canaan of the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial. More than all the churches in the whole world was this church from the Divine, for it was in the good of love to the Lord. Their voluntary and their intellectual made a one, thus one mind, for which reason they had from good a perception of truth, for the Lord flowed in by an internal way into the good of their will, and through this into the good of their understanding, or into their truth; and this is the reason why this church was preeminently called “Man” (n. 477-479), and also a “likeness of God” (n. 51, 473, 1013). Hence it is evident why Hamor and Shechem are said to be from the ancient Divine stock (see also n. 4399). That the Most Ancient Church which was called “Man,” or by the Hebrew word “Adam,” was in the land of Canaan (as stated above, n. 4447), is very evident from their descendants called “Nephilim” (Genesis 6:4), who were said in Numbers 13:33 to have been in the land of Canaan (see n. 581). But at that time all that land was called the “land of Canaan” which extended from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates (Genesis 15:18).

581. That by the “Nephilim” are signified those who through a persuasion of their own loftiness and preeminence made light of all things holy and true, appears from what precedes and what follows, namely, that they immersed the doctrinals of faith in their cupidities, signified by the “sons of God going in unto the daughters of man, and their bearing unto them.” Persuasion concerning self and its phantasies increases also according to the multitude of things that enter into it, till at length it becomes indelible; and when the doctrinals of faith are added thereto, then from principles of the strongest persuasion they make light of all things holy and true, and become “Nephilim.” That race, which lived before the flood, is such that they so kill and suffocate all spirits by their most direful phantasies (which are poured forth by them as a poisonous and suffocating sphere) that the spirits are entirely deprived of the power of thinking, and feel half dead; and unless the Lord by His coming into the world had freed the world of spirits from that poisonous race, no one could have existed there, and consequently the human race, who are ruled by the Lord through spirits, would have perished. They are therefore now kept in a hell under as it were a misty and dense rock, under the heel of the left foot, nor do they make the slightest attempt to rise out of it. Thus is the world of spirits free from this most dangerous crew, concerning which and its most poisonous sphere of persuasions, of the Lord’s Divine mercy hereafter. These are they who are called “Nephilim” and who make light of all things holy and true. Further mention is made of them in the Word, but their descendants were called “Anakim” and “Rephaim.” That they were called “Anakim” is evident from Moses:

There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, of the Nephilim, and we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes (Numbers 13:33).

That they were called “Rephaim” appears also from Moses:

The Emim dwelt before in the land of Moab, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim, who also were accounted Rephaim, as the Anakim, and the Moabites call them Emim (Deuteronomy 2:10-11).

The Nephilim are not mentioned anymore, but the Rephaim are, who are described by the prophets to be such as are above stated; as in Isaiah:

Hell low down has been in commotion for thee, to meet thee in coming, it hath stirred up the Rephaim for thee (Isaiah 14:9),

speaking of the hell which is the abode of such spirits. In the same:

Thy dead shall not live, the Rephaim shall not arise, because thou hast visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish (Isaiah 26:14),

where also their hell is referred to, from which they shall no more rise again. In the same:

Thy dead shall live, my corpse, they shall rise again; awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for the dew of herbs is thy dew; but thou shalt cast out the land of the Rephaim (Isaiah 26:19);

“the land of the Rephaim” is the hell above spoken of.

In David:

Wilt Thou show a wonder to the dead? Shall the Rephaim arise, shall they confess to Thee? (Psalms 88:10),

speaking in like manner concerning the hell of the Rephaim, and that they cannot rise up and infest the sphere of the world of spirits with the very direful poison of their persuasions. But it has been provided by the Lord that mankind should no longer become imbued with such dreadful phantasies and persuasions. Those who lived before the flood were of such a nature and genius that they could be imbued, for a reason as yet unknown, concerning which, of the Lord’s Divine mercy hereafter.