9398. 'And they said, All that Jehovah has spoken we will do and hear' means receiving the truth that emanates from the Lord's Divine Human, and obeying it with heart and soul. This is clear from the meaning of 'all that Jehovah has spoken' as truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'doing' as obeying with the will, thus with the heart, dealt with in 9311, 9385; and from the meaning of 'hearing' as obeying with the understanding, thus with the soul, dealt with in 7216, 8361, 9311. Obeying with the heart describes obeying with the will, thus with affection and love, and obeying with the soul describes obeying with the understanding, thus in belief; for 'the heart' means will and love, 3883-3896, 7542, 8910, 9050, 9300, and 'the soul' means understanding and belief, 2930, 9050, 9281. All this explains why the words 'we will do and hear' are used. The reason why 'all that Jehovah has spoken' means truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human is that all truth emanates from there. The fact that Divine Truth emanates not from the Divine Himself but from the Divine Human is made perfectly clear in John,

Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18.

This is the reason why the Lord is called 'the Word', John 1:1-3, which is Divine Truth, and why it is said that 'the Word was made flesh', that is, was made Man, John 1:14, to the end that the Divine Himself in human form might in actuality teach God's truth. Regarding the Lord, that He is the Divine Himself in human form, see 9315. From all this it is evident that 'all that Jehovah has spoken' means truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human.

9281. 'And your female slave's son and the sojourner may draw breath' means the state of life of those governed by truths and forms of good outside the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'female slave's son' as those with an affection for external truth, for 'son' means truth, 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257, and 'a female slave' means an external affection, 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, 7780, 8993; from the meaning of 'the sojourner' as those who wish to receive instruction in the Church's truths and forms of good, dealt with in 1463, 8007, 8013, 9196, the reason why 'female slave's son and the sojourner' here means those outside the Church being that the preceding words in the present verse have referred to those within the Church, and therefore those outside the Church are meant by 'a female slave's sons' and those not born within the Church by 'sojourners' (the former are such because they are the offspring of an inferior marriage, the latter because they descend from an alien stock); and from the meaning of 'drawing breath' as the state of life in respect of the truths and forms of the good of faith. 'Drawing breath' means that state of life because the lungs, whose function is breathing, correspond to the life of faith springing from charity, which is spiritual life, 97, 1119, 3351, 3635, 3883-3896, 9229.

[2] The human being breathes outwardly and he breathes inwardly; outwardly he draws breath from the world, but inwardly from heaven. When a person dies he ceases to breathe outwardly, but his inward breathing, which is soundless and is undetectable by him while he lives in the world, continues. This breathing is regulated altogether by his affection for truth, thus by the life of his faith. Those without any faith at all, as those in hell are, do not draw breath from an inner source but from an outward one, thus from an opposite direction. Therefore also when they come near an angelic community, which draws breath from an inner source, they start to be suffocated and to become like deathmasks, 3894. As a result of this they hurl themselves headlong back into their hell, where they regain their former manner of breathing that is the opposite of the heavenly manner.

[3] Since breathing corresponds to the life of faith, this life is also meant by anima - a word for soul or breath, 9050 - because of the animation or life-giving power that lies in breathing. Breathing is referred to additionally as spiritus - which also means 'spirit' - in such phrases as 'taking a breath' and 'letting out breath', and therefore also the word for spirits in the original language comes from a word for 'wind', and in the Word they are compared to wind, as in John,

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its voice; but you do not know where it comes from, or where it goes away to. So is everyone who is born from the spirit. John 3:8.

From this also it is evident what the meaning is when it says that after the Resurrection, when the Lord spoke to the disciples, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit, John 20:22.