2027. 'And to your seed after you' means that He would give them to those who would have faith in Him. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as faith, dealt with in 1025, 1447, 1610, that is to say, the faith that is grounded in charity, dealt with in 379, 389, 654, 724, 809, 916, 1017, 1162, 1176, 1258. People who attach merit to the deeds they perform in life do not have the faith that is grounded in charity, and so are not those meant by 'the seed' here, for in so doing they do not wish to be saved by the Lord's righteousness but by their own. That no faith grounded in charity exists with them, that is, no charity, is clear from their habit of putting themselves before other people and so of having themselves in view and not other people, except insofar as the latter serve them. And those who are unwilling to serve them they either despise or hate. Thus through self-love they part company and never come together, and in this way they destroy that which is heavenly, namely mutual love, which is the mainstay of heaven. For it is in that love that heaven itself, and its whole companionship and harmony, continues to exist and consists. For whatever is destructive of the harmony existing in the next life is opposed to the order of heaven itself, and so contributes to the destruction of the whole. Such is the nature of people who attach merit to the deeds which they perform in life and lay claim to righteousness for themselves.

[2] There are many persons of this type in the next life. Sometimes their faces shine like torches, but this is because of the ignis fatuus that is the product of self-righteousness. They are in fact ice-cold. Sometimes they are seen running about and confirming self-merit from the literal sense of the Word, at the same time hating the truths that belong to the internal sense, 1877. The sphere emanating from them is one of self-regard, and so a sphere destructive of all ideas which do not regard self as some kind of deity. The sphere emanating from many such persons is at the same time so disruptive that nothing else than that which is hostile and antagonistic exists there, for when each has the same wish, namely to be served, he at heart slays every other.

[3] Some of them are numbered among those who say that they have worked in the Lord's vineyard. During all that time however they had been turning over in their minds how to further their own reputation, glory, and honour, and also their own enrichment, even to the point of their becoming the greatest in heaven and being served even by angels. Since at heart they despise others in comparison with themselves, they have accordingly not been endowed with any mutual love in which heaven consists but with self-love which they identify with heaven, for they do not know what heaven is. Regarding these people, see 450-452, 1594, 1679. They belong among those who wish to be first but become last, of whom the Lord speaks in Matthew 19:30; 20:16; Mark 10:31. They are also those who say that they have prophesied in the Lord's name and have done many mighty works, but of whom it is said, 'I do not know you', Matthew 7:22-23.

[4] The situation is different with people who from simplicity of heart have assumed that they have merited heaven but who have led charitable lives and who have not been captivated by self-love and so despised others in comparison with themselves. They have looked upon meriting heaven as a promise, and they readily acknowledge that it is a matter of the Lord's mercy, for a charitable life implies such acknowledgement. Charity itself loves all truth.

1679. 'And they smote all the territory of the Amalekites' means kinds of falsities. This is clear from the representation and meaning of the 'Amalekite' nation, for all the nations that were in the land of Canaan represented kinds of falsities and evils, as will be clear, in the Lord's Divine mercy, from what follows. 'The Amalekites' means falsities, 'the Amorites in Hazezon-tamar' evils deriving from falsities. That 'the Amalekites' means falsities which assail truths becomes clear from what is mentioned regarding the Amalekites in Exodus 17:13-end; Numbers 13:29; 24:20; Deuteronomy 25:17-19; Judges 5:14; 1 Samuel 15:1-end; 1 Samuel 27:8; Psalms 83:7-8.

[2] The Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, and Horites, referred to in verses 5-6, mean false persuasions that have their origins in desires for evil, that is, in evils, whereas here 'the Amalekites and the Amorites in Hazezon-tamar' means falsities from which evils derive. Falsity deriving from evil is one thing, falsity and evil deriving from that falsity another. Falsities spring either from evil desires which belong to the will or from accepted ideas which belong to the understanding. Falsities that spring from evil desires belonging to the will are foul and do not easily allow themselves to be rooted out, for they cling to a person's life itself. A person's life itself is that which desires, that is, which loves. As long as he is making that life firm within himself, that is, confirming that desire or love, all things of a confirmatory nature are false and are implanted in his life. Such were the people before the Flood.

[3] Falsities however which spring from accepted ideas belonging to the understanding cannot be rooted in the same way in the will part of man's mind. Like false or heretical doctrines, these have their origin outside of the will, coming instead from the absorption of such matters in early childhood, and after that from the confirmation of them in adult years. Yet because they are false they inevitably produce evils of life. For example, when anyone believes that he merits salvation through works and confirms himself in that belief, a sense of merit, of his own righteousness, and of assurance [of salvation] are the evils that result from it. On the other hand, when anyone believes that a truly devout life is not possible unless merit is attached to works, the evil which results from that belief is that he destroys all such devoutness in himself and gives himself up to evil desires and pleasures. It is the same with many other examples that could be taken. Such are the falsities and derivative evils dealt with in this verse.