9339. Verses 31-33 And I will set your boundary from the Sea Suph even to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness even to the River; ¹ for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out ² from before you. You shall not make a covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me when you serve their gods; for it will be a snare to you.

'And I will set your boundary from the Sea Suph even to the Sea of the Philistines' means the full range of truths from factual ones to interior truths of faith. 'And from the wilderness even to the River' means from delight belonging to the sensory level even to good and truth belonging to the rational level. 'For I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand' means dominion over evils. 'And you will drive them out from before you' means the removal of them. 'You shall not make a covenant with them and their gods' means no contact with evils and falsities. 'They shall not dwell in your land' means that evils must not exist together with the Church's forms of good. 'Lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me' means lest evils turn away forms of good from the Lord. 'When you serve their gods' means if worship is kindled by falsities. 'For it will be a snare to you' means owing to evils that are enticing and deceptive.

Note a piè di pagina:

9384. 'And all the people answered with one voice' means an acceptance with the understanding by those who truly belong to the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'answering with one voice' as an acceptance with the understanding, for 'answering' means receptivity, 2941, 2957, and 'voice' means the affirmation (confessio) which comes forth from the understanding (things which belong to the mouth, and consequently to speech or voice, correspond to the understanding part of the mind; this is also the part from which voice or speech emanates, whereas the actual affection within speech, which has its origin in the end that is intended or in the love that enlivens, emanates from the will part); and from the meaning of the children of Israel, to whom 'the people' refers here, as the Church, dealt with in 9340, thus those who truly belong to the Church. From all this it is evident that 'the people answered with one voice' means an acceptance with the understanding by those who truly belong to the Church.

5701. 'For the Egyptians cannot eat bread with the Hebrews' means that these could not by any means be joined to the truth and good of the Church. This is clear from the representation of 'the Egyptians' as those with whom an inverted state of order, and so evil and falsity, exists, dealt with immediately above in 5700; from the meaning of 'eating bread' as being joined together, also dealt with above, in 5698; and from the representation of 'the Hebrews' as those with whom genuine order, and so the truth and good of the Church, exists - 'the land of the Hebrews' meaning the Church, see 5136, 5236, for the reason that the Hebrew Church was the second Ancient Church, 1238, 1241, 1343. The expression 'eating bread' is used, and the command 'set on bread' mentioned just above, because 'bread' means all food in general, 2165, and so means a meal. The reason 'bread' means all food and an actual meal is that in the spiritual sense 'bread' is heavenly love; and heavenly love includes every aspect of good and truth, and so everything constituting spiritual food. For the meaning of 'bread' as heavenly food, see 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 2187, 3464, 3478, 3735, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976.