8909. Verse 17 You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male slave nor his female slave, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's means that one must be on one's guard against self-love and love of the world, and so one must take care to prevent the evils contained in the preceding commandments from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it.

8318. 'Alarm and dread fell on them' means that they were without any hope of dominion. This is clear from the meaning of 'alarm and dread' - when the phrase applies to those ruled by self-love and therefore by falsities and evils, who are meant by 'the chiefs of Edom' and 'the powerful ones of Moab' - as being without any hope of dominion. Those ruled by the evil of self-love have a constant desire to dominate, but when terror caused by a triumphant enemy strikes them the hope of being able to dominate forsakes them.

[2] It should be recognized that evils arise from a dual origin - self-love and love of the world. People ruled by evils arising from self-love love only themselves and despise everyone else except those who make common cause with them. And if they love these they do not really love them, only themselves, because they see themselves in them. Evils arising from this origin are the worst of all; for those people not only despise all others in contrast to themselves but also heap insults on them, hate them for the slightest reason, and long for their destruction. Vengeance and cruelty accordingly become the delight of their life. People ruled by the evil of self-love are in hell at a great depth determined by the nature and amount of that love.

[3] As for those ruled by evil arising from love of the world, they too regard the neighbour as being worthless. They value him only for his wealth, and so value his wealth but not the person himself. They have the desire to own everything belonging to their neighbour; and when this desire rules them they are devoid of any charity or pity. Robbing their neighbour of his goods is the delight of their life, especially of those who are disgustingly avaricious, that is to say, of those who love gold and silver for their own sakes, not for the sake of any useful purpose served by them. Those with whom the evil of this love reigns are also in hells, but in ones not so deep as the hells which those ruled by the evil of self-love are in. In addition to these two origins of evil there is also a third, which consists in doing evil as a result of false religious principles. But this kind of evil is calculated as evil when it exists with those ruled by self-love and love of the world, but not when it exists with those governed by love towards the neighbour and to their God, since good is their end in view and the end determines the nature of all else, see 8311.

96. These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, signifies from whom are all the knowledges of good and truth. This is evident from the signification of "seven stars," as meaning all the knowledges of good and truth (See above, n. 72); and from the signification of "right hand," as being, in reference to the Lord, what is from Him (See above, n. 72, 79); therefore by these words, "that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand," is signified that from the Lord are all the knowledges of good and truth. It is said that He saith this "who holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, and walketh in the midst of the [seven] golden lampstands," because by "stars" are signified the knowledges of good and truth, and by "golden lampstands" the new heaven and the new church. There is thus prefixed to each description of a church a Divine characteristic that indicates the subject treated of (as to the descriptions of the churches that follow, verses 8, 12, 18; chap. Revelation 3:1, 7, 14). It is so prefixed because everything of the church is from the Lord. From this it is clear also why the Lord, in respect to His Divine Human, is described in the first chapter by the representatives that were seen by John, namely, that from these might be taken what was to be prefixed to the description of each church, for a testimony and a memorial that everything of the church is from the Lord, and indeed from His Divine Human; for from this all the good of love proceeds and every truth of faith, and these constitute the church. What immediately proceeds from His Divine Itself does not reach man, because His Divine Itself is invisible and therefore does not fall within the thought, and what does not fall within the thought does not fall within the faith; for everything that is of faith must be thought. That the Son of man, who is described (in chap. Revelation 1) by the representatives seen by John, is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, and Divine truth proceeding therefrom, see above n. 63. The knowledges of truth and good are here treated of first, because they are the first things of the church; for no one can be initiated into faith and charity, which constitute the church, except by means of knowledges from the Word that pertain to the church (See what is appended to n. 356 of the work on Heaven and Hell from the Arcana Coelestia).