9011. Then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. That this signifies a state of blamelessness, and that is exempt from punishment, is evident from the signification of “place,” as being state (see n. 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 3404, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381); and from the signification of “an asylum,” or place whither he should flee who unexpectedly, or by chance, had killed anyone, as being a state of blamelessness, and thus exempt from punishment; for they who had smitten anyone by chance, that is, without intent, thus not with premeditation, nor from an evil affection which is of the will, were not in any fault of their own; and therefore when such came to a place of asylum they were exempt from punishment. By these persons were represented those who not of set purpose injure anyone in respect to the truths and goods of faith, and consequently extinguish his spiritual life; for such are in a blameless state and one exempt from punishment; as for instance are those who have complete faith in their religiosity, which is also in what is false, and who from this reason against the truth and good of faith, and thus persuade, as heretics will sometimes do who are conscientious, and consequently are zealots.

[2] That such persons were represented by those who were to flee to asylums is evident in Moses:

Ye shall select suitable cities, which shall be cities of refuge for you; that the manslayer may flee thither that smiteth a soul through error; as if he hath struck him unexpectedly, without enmity, or hath cast upon him any instrument without set purpose, or with any stone wherewith he may die, seeing him not, so that he make it fall upon him, and he die, when yet he was not his enemy, neither sought his evil (Numbers 35:11, 35:22-23).

This is the word of the manslayer, who shall flee thither that he may live; when he hath smitten his companion unawares, when he was not his hater yesterday and the day before, when he come into the forest with his companion to hew wood, but when his hand hath struck with the axe, to cut the wood, and the iron hath been shaken off from the wood, and hath found his companion that he die; he shall flee unto one of these cities, that he may live (Deuteronomy 19:4, (Deuteronomy 19:6)).

[3] Here is described the state of one who is blameless and exempt from punishment, and who has injured someone by the falsities of faith which he had believed to be truths, or by means of memory-knowledges derived from the fallacies of the senses, and thus has done injury to the internal or spiritual life of the other. In order that this might be signified, such error or chance is described by an instrument of some kind, and by a stone which he cast upon his companion, so that he died, and likewise by an axe, or the iron thereof, falling from its wood while they were both hewing wood in the forest. The reason why this is described by such things, is that “an instrument” signifies memory-knowledge; “a stone” the truth of faith, and in the opposite sense falsity; in like manner “the iron of an axe;” and “to hew wood” signifies disputation concerning good from one’s religiosity.

[4] Everyone can see that homicide committed through error would not have been described without a secret reason by the iron of an axe falling from its wood in a forest, because such a mischance can rarely happen, in fact scarcely once in the course of many years. But such a mischance is so described on account of the internal sense, in which is described the injury to a soul by another through the falsities of faith which from his religiosity he had believed to be truths; for he who does an injury by means of falsities which he believes to be truths, does it not of set purpose, or from a better conscience, because he does it from the faith and consequent zeal of his religiosity. That these things might be signified in the internal sense, they are described, as before said, by those who kill their companions by mistake, with a stone, by hewing wood in a forest and the iron of the axe then falling from the wood upon a companion; for “a stone” denotes the truth of faith in the natural man, and in the opposite sense falsity (see n. 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8609, 8941), in like manner “iron” (n. 425, 426); “the iron of an axe falling from its wood” denotes truth separated from good, for “wood” denotes good (n. 643, 2812, 3720, 8354), “hewing wood,” the placing of merit in works (n. 1110, 4943, 8740); but “hewing wood in a forest” denotes discussing these and the like things, and also bringing them into question; for “a forest” denotes a religiosity.

[5] Such things are signified by “hewing wood in a forest with axes” in Jeremiah:

The hirelings of Egypt will go in strength, and will come against her with axes, as hewers of wood, they shall cut down her forest, said Jehovah (Jeremiah 46:22-23).

Here “to cut down wood in a forest” denotes to act from a false religiosity, and to destroy such things as are of the church; for the church is called a “forest,” a “garden,” and a “paradise;” a “forest” from knowledge, a “garden” from intelligence, and a “paradise” from wisdom (n. 3220), because “trees” denote the perceptions of good and of truth, and also the knowledges thereof (n. 103, 2163, 2722, 2972, 4552, 7690, 7692); and as a “forest” denotes the church as to knowledge, thus as to external things, it also denotes a religiosity.

[6] The church as to knowledge, or as to external things, is signified by a “forest” in David:

The field shall exalt, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the forest sing (Psalms 96:12).

Lo we heard of Him in Ephratah, we found Him in the fields of the forest (Psalms 132:6);

speaking of the Lord.

In Isaiah:

The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for flame. And it shall burn the glory of his forest, and his Carmel; it shall consume from the soul even to the flesh; whence the rest of the trees of his forest shall be a number that a child may describe them. He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a magnificent one (Isaiah 10:17-19, 34).

“The forest” denotes the church as to the knowledges of truth; “Carmel,” the church as to the knowledges of good; in like manner “Lebanon” and “Hermon;” the “trees of the forest” denote knowledges, as above; to be “a number that a child may describe” means few; “the thickets of the forest” denote memory-knowledges (n. 2831).

[7] In the same:

Thou hast said, By the multitude of my chariots I will go up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, the choice of the fir-trees thereof; then will I come unto the height of his border, the forest of his Carmel (Isaiah 37:24).

I will visit upon you according to the fruit of your works, and I will kindle a fire in her forest (Jeremiah 21:14).

Prophesy against the forest of the field unto the south; and say to the forest of the south, Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every tree (Ezekiel 20:46-47).

Feed Thy people with Thy rod, the flock of Thine heritage who dwell alone in the forest in the midst of Carmel (Mic. 7:14).

Who does not see that in these passages by “a forest” is not meant a forest, and that by “Lebanon” and “Carmel” which are “forests” are not meant Lebanon and Carmel, but something of the church? yet what of the church is meant has been hitherto hidden, because the internal sense lies hidden. And it is wonderful that in so learned a world as is Europe above all the rest, where they have the Word, in every particular of which there is an internal sense, the very knowledge of this sense is wanting; when yet this knowledge existed among the ancients in Chaldea, in Assyria, in Egypt, in Arabia, and thence in Greece, in whose books, emblems, and hieroglyphics such things are still to be met with. But the reason why such knowledge has perished, is that there is no faith that the spiritual is anything.

8941. Thou shalt not build it of hewn stones. That this signifies that it must not be from self-intelligence, is evident from the signification of “hewn stones,” as being such things as are from self-intelligence; for “stones” denote truths (see n. 8940); and to “hew,” or fit, them denotes to hatch or devise truths, or such things as resemble truths, from one’s own, or from self-intelligence. For things which are hatched or devised from one’s own, or from self-intelligence, have their life from man, which life is no life, because man’s own is nothing but evil (n. 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 874-876, 987, 1047, 5660, 5786, 8480); whereas that which is not from man’s own, but from the Divine, has life in itself, because all life is from the Divine. The worship of the Lord from truth is here treated of, for this worship is signified by “an altar of stones” (n. 8940).

[2] The truths from which the Lord is to be worshiped are to be taken solely from the Word, for in every detail of the Word there is life from the Divine. When truths are taken from one’s own, they regard and have as their end dignity and eminence over all in the world, and likewise earthly possessions and wealth above all men, and therefore they have in them the love of self and of the world, thus all evils in the complex (n. 7488, 8318). But truths which are from the Word regard and have as their end eternal life, and have in them love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor, thus all goods in the complex. When truths are hatched from one’s own, or from self-intelligence, they rule over the truths which are from the Divine, because these are applied to confirm them; when yet the contrary should be the case, namely, that truths from the Divine should rule, and those which are from self-intelligence should serve. Those which are from one’s own, or from self-intelligence, are called truths, but they are not truths; they only appear as truths in the external form, for they are rendered like truths by means of applications from the literal sense of the Word, and by reasonings, while in the internal form they are falsities (what and of what quality they are, see above, n. 8932).

[3] There are in the world two religiosities which are from self-intelligence-one in which the love of self and of the world is everything, which religion is that which is called in the Word “Babel;” it is inwardly profane from the love of self and of the world, and outwardly holy from the Word which has been applied to confirm. The other religiosity is that in which the light of nature is everything; they who are in this acknowledge nothing as truth which they do not apprehend. Some from this religiosity acknowledge the Word, but they apply it for confirmation, thus to serve. Some however do not acknowledge the Word; but these make the Divine to consist in nature, for their light, being of nature, falls into nature, and cannot be enlightened by the light of heaven, because they reject the Word from which is all enlightenment. Those who are from these two religiosities are in hell, because they are void of heavenly life, which they cannot receive because they have rejected the Word. And those of them who have applied the Word for confirmation, have made the Word of none effect in their hearts; but because of its great authority with the common people, they have used it for this service, in order to give weight to the devices of their own intelligence. From all this it can be seen what is signified in the spiritual sense by the altar not being to be built of hewn stones.

[4] By “hewn stone” is signified that which is from self-intelligence in the following passages also:

That the people may know, Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in haughtiness and pride of heart, The bricks are fallen, and we will build with hewn stone (Isaiah 9:9-10).

Although I cry and shout, He hath shut out my prayers, He hath fenced about my ways with hewn stone, He hath overturned my paths (Lam. 3:8-9).

Forasmuch as ye trample upon the worn one, and seize from him the burden of wheat; ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them (Amos 5:11).

In these passages “hewn stone” denotes such things in matters of faith as are from self-intelligence.

[5] Such being the signification of “hewn stone,” therefore the altar first built in the land of Canaan by the sons of Israel after they had passed over the Jordan, was built of unhewn stones; for by the passage over the Jordan was represented introduction into the kingdom of the Lord, which is effected by means of the truths of faith. Of this altar it is thus written in Joshua:

Joshua built an altar unto Jehovah the God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, an altar of whole stones, upon which no man had moved iron (Josh. 8:30-31; also Deuteronomy 27:1-8).

[6] In like manner the temple of Jerusalem was built of whole stones unhewn, of which it is thus written in the first book of the Kings:

As to the house itself, when it was in building, it was built of whole stone, as it was brought; for there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tools of iron heard in the house, while it was in building (1 Kings 6:7).

For by the temple of the Lord was represented the Lord as to Divine truth. That the Lord was represented by the temple, He Himself teaches in John 2:19, 21-22; and that He was represented as to the Divine truth, was because this truth was there taught; for which reason also it was built of stones, because by “stones” was signified Divine truth (n. 8940); and hence also the Lord Himself was called the “Stone of Israel” (n. 6426).

[7] From all this it is now evident what was signified by the stone of the altar, and what also by the stone of the temple, likewise what by the stones being whole and unhewn, namely, that religion was to be formed by truths from the Lord, thus from the Word, and not from self-intelligence. Truths which are from self-intelligence are thus described also in Isaiah:

The workman casteth a graven image, and the founder overlayeth it with gold, and casteth silver chains. He seeketh an intelligent workman to prepare a graven image (Isaiah 40:19-20).

“A graven image” denotes a religiosity that is from one’s own, which is set up to be worshiped as Divine (see n. 8869); “the workman” denotes those who hatch and devise from one’s own; that they may appear like truths is described by his “overlaying it with gold,” “casting silver chains,” and “seeking an intelligent workman.”

[8] Again:

They that form a graven image are all of them vanity. All his fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen themselves. He fashioneth the iron with the tongs, and worketh with coal, and formeth it with sharp hammers; thus he worketh it with the arm of his strength; he fashioneth pieces of wood, he stretcheth out a thread, and marketh it off with a rule; he maketh it into its angles, and defineth it with a compass, that he may make it in the form of a man, according to the beauty of a man, to dwell in the house (Isaiah 44:9, 11-13).

in this passage also is described a religiosity which is from self-intelligence. In like manner in Jeremiah:

The statutes of the nations are vanity; surely he cutteth out wood from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with an axe. He decketh it with silver and with gold; he fasteneth it with nails and with hammers (Jeremiah 10:3-4).

And also in Hosea:

Nevertheless now they sin more and more, and make them a molten image of silver, idols in their intelligence, all the work of the craftsmen (Hos. 13:2).

A religiosity that is hatched from self-intelligence, and not derived from the Word, is meant in the internal sense by “idols” and “strange gods,” by “molten images” and “graven images,” for the things which are from one’s own are nothing else, because in themselves they are dead, and yet are adored as living.