46. That 'beasts' means affections residing with man - evil affections in evil men and good affections in good men - becomes clear from many examples in the Word, as in Ezekiel,

Behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, so that you will be tilled and sown; and I will multiply upon you man and beast, and they will be multiplied and be fruitful, and I will resettle you ¹ to be as in your ancient times. Ezekiel 36:9-11.

This refers to regeneration. In Joel,

Fear not, you beasts of My field, for the dwelling-places of the wilderness have been made green. Joel 2:22.

In David,

I was stupid, a beast ² was I with God. Psalms 73:12.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast, and I will watch over them to build and to plant. Jeremiah 31:27-28.

This refers to regeneration.

[2] 'Wild animals' (fera) has a similar meaning, as in Hosea,

I will make for them a covenant on that day, with the wild animals of the field, and with the birds of the air, ³ and with the creeping things of the earth. Hosea 2:18.

In Job,

You will not fear the wild animals of the earth, for your covenant will be with the stones of the field, and the wild beasts of the field will be at peace with you. Job 5:22-23.

In Ezekiel,

I will make with them ⁴ a covenant of peace, and I will banish the evil wild animal from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness. Ezekiel 34:25.

In Isaiah,

The wild animals of the field will honour me, for I have given water in the desert. Isaiah 43:20.

In Ezekiel,

In its branches all the birds of the air ³ made their nests and under its branches every wild animal of the field gave birth, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations. Ezekiel 31:6.

This refers to Assyria, which means the spiritual man and is compared to the Garden of Eden. In David,

Praise Jehovah, all his angels, praise Him from the earth, sea monsters, fruit trees, wild animals, and all beasts, creeping things, and flying birds! Psalms 148:2-4, 7, 9-10.

Here the list is precisely the same - sea monsters, fruit trees, wild animals, beasts, creeping things, and birds. Unless they all mean things that are alive in human beings, they cannot possibly be referred to as praising Jehovah.

[3] A careful distinction is made in the Prophets between beasts and wild animals of the earth, and between beasts and wild animals of the field. The practice of calling goods 'beasts' extends to calling people in heaven who are nearest to the Lord 'living creatures', both in Ezekiel and in John,

All the angels stood around the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God. ⁵ Revelation 7:11; 19:4.

The expression 'creatures' is also used of people who are to have the gospel preached to them because they are to be created anew, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.

फुटनोट:

6692. 'And Pharaoh commanded all his people' means a general influx into factual knowledge opposed to the Church's truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'commanding' as an influx, dealt with in 5486, 5732, here a general influx since the command came from Pharaoh, who represents factual knowledge in general, 6015; and from the meaning of 'his people' as factual knowledge opposed to the Church's truths. The meaning of the Egyptians, to whom 'people' refers here, as factual knowledge has been demonstrated often, see 6638. The reason why factual knowledge opposed to the Church's truths is meant by 'the Egyptians' is that the representative forms and meaningful signs of the Ancient Church, a Church which had existed also among them, had been turned there into magic. For through the Church's representative forms and meaningful signs there was contact at that time with heaven. This contact existed among those who led lives filled with the good of charity, and among many it was open contact. Among those however who did not lead a good charitable life but acted in ways contrary to it, open contact sometimes existed with evil spirits who perverted all the Church's truths, and along with them destroyed all that was good, from which magic arose. This may also be recognized from the hieroglyphics among the Egyptians, who also used them in their sacred rituals. They used them as signs of spiritual things, and they used them to pervert Divine order.

[2] Magic is nothing else than the perversion of order; in particular it is the misuse of correspondences. If true order is to exist, goodness and truth as they emanate from the Lord must find acceptance in a person. When they do, true order is present in every particular aspect of the person's intentions and thoughts. But when they do not find acceptance in him as true order originating in the Lord requires and he instead believes that everything is a purposeless stream of events, or if anything does have purpose, that it is attributable to his own prudence, he perverts true order. For he makes use of what belongs to order solely for his own interests and not those of his neighbour, except insofar as his neighbour is favourably disposed towards him. This accounts for the astonishing fact that all who have become firmly convinced that everything is attributable to their own prudence and nothing at all to Divine providence are very much inclined towards magic in the next life, and also involve themselves in it as much as they can. This is especially so with those who, trusting in themselves and ascribing everything to their own prudence, have worked out many sly and cunning ways of gaining superiority over others. Once people like this have undergone judgement in the next life they are sent off to the hells of those who work magic. These hells are on the right on a level with the soles of the feet, a little way out in front and extending to a considerable distance; and the Egyptians are in the deepest ones. Here then is why 'Pharaoh', 'the Egyptians', and 'Egypt' mean factual knowledge opposed to the Church's truths.

[3] To prevent therefore any further perversion of the Church's representative forms and meaningful signs into forms of magic, the Israelite people were selected, and among them the Church's representative forms and meaningful signs were to be re-established. The nature of this people was such that it could not create magic out of them, for they were interested solely in external things and had no belief in anything internal, let alone anything spiritual. Among people like this no magic can arise such as existed among the Egyptians.