623. It is clear from the Word that 'the earth' is said to be 'filled with violence' on account of their filthy desires, most of all on account of the desires constituting self-love, or extreme arrogance. It is called 'violence when people do violence to holy things by desecrating them, as those before the Flood did, who immersed doctrinal matters concerning faith in every possible kind of evil desire. As in Ezekiel,

I will turn My face ¹ away from them, and they will profane My secret place. And let robbers come into it and they will profane it. Make the chain, for the land is full of the judgement of blood, and the city is full of violence. Ezekiel 7:22-24.

This describes who the violent are, and that they are such as mentioned. In the same prophet,

They will eat their bread in anxiety, and drink their waters in desolation, that her land may be devastated of the fullness that is in it, on account of the violence of all who dwell in it. Ezekiel 12:19.

'The bread which they will eat in anxiety' means celestial things, the waters which they will drink in desolation' the spiritual things, which they did violence to, that is, profaned.

[2] In Isaiah,

Their webs will not become clothing, nor will they be covered in their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Isaiah 59:6.

Here 'webs' and 'clothing' have reference to the things of the understanding or thought, while 'iniquity' and 'violence' have reference to those of the will or actions. In Jonah,

Let every one turn from his evil way, and from the violence which is in his hands. Jonah 3:8.

Here 'evil way' has reference to falsities constituting the understanding, and 'violence' to evils constituting the will. In Jeremiah,

There will come in a year, rumour and violence in the land. Jeremiah 51:46.

'Rumour' stands for things of the understanding, 'violence' for those of the will. In Isaiah,

He did no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Isaiah 53:9.

Here 'violence' concerns things of the will, 'deceit in his mouth' those of the understanding.

脚注:

4564. 'And was buried below Bethel under an oak' means cast away for ever. This is clear from the meaning of 'being buried' as being cast away, for that which is buried is cast away; and from the meaning of 'under an oak' as for ever, dealt with above in 4552. 'Below Bethel' means outside the natural, for that which is said to be beneath or below is in the internal sense outside, 2148; 'Bethel' is the Divine Natural 4089, 4539.

[2] The implication of this is that with a person who is being regenerated, neither hereditary evil nor that of his own doing is removed in such a way as to disappear or be eliminated, but is merely separated and through the rearrangement effected by the Lord is cast away to the most outlying parts, 4551, 4552. It accordingly remains with that person, and does so for ever, but he is withheld from evil by the Lord and maintained in good. When this happens it seems as though evils have been cast away and the person has been purified from them or, as it is said, made righteous. All the angels of heaven confess that in their case, insofar as anything originates in themselves it is entirely evil and consequently false, but insofar as it originates in the Lord it is good and consequently true.

[3] People who have adopted any other notion concerning this matter, and who from the teaching they received while living in the world have become convinced that they have been made righteous and are in that case without sins, and so are holy, are taken back to the state where their evils reigned - both those of their own doing and those received through heredity. They are then kept in that state until they know from personal experience that of themselves they are nothing but evil and the good which had seemed to them to be their own came from the Lord, and that therefore it was not theirs but the Lord's. This is the situation with angels, as it is with the regenerate among men.

[4] But in the Lord's case it was different. He entirely removed, cast out, and cast away from Himself all hereditary evil from His mother, for being conceived from Jehovah He had no evil by heredity from His Father, only from His Mother. This is the difference; and this is what is meant by the Lord's being made Righteousness, the Holy itself, and the Divine.