4517. To the Canaanite and the Perizzite. That this signifies who are in good and truth, is evident from the signification of the “Canaanite,” as here being those who were in the good of the church, and of the “Perizzite,” as being those who were in the truth of the church. The reason why “the Canaanite and the Perizzite” have this signification is that the Ancient Church was still among them there, as stated just above (n. 4516). For in the land of Canaan there existed people of the Most Ancient Church (see n. 4447, 4454), and also people of the Ancient Church, especially from that Ancient Church called “Hebrew,” for which reason the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were in general called “Hebrews” (Genesis 40:15), and also had altars, and sacrificed, and therefore after they had become idolaters the destruction of their altars was so frequently enjoined. So long therefore as the church or anything of the church remained among them, the good of the church was signified by the “Canaanite,” and the truth of the church by the “Perizzite.” But when everything of the church with them, had been consummated, evil was signified by the “Canaanite,” and falsity by the “Perizzite” (n. 1573, 1574).

1574. That “the Canaanite” signifies the hereditary evil from the mother, in the external man, was before shown (n. 1444); but that “the Perizzite” signifies the falsity that is from evil, is evident from other passages in the Word where the Perizzite is named. As in the following concerning Jacob:

Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me, to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and I am mortals of number [i.e., few], and they will gather themselves together against me and smite me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house (Genesis 34:30); where in like manner evil is signified by “the Canaanite,” and falsity by “the Perizzite.”

[2] In Joshua:

Joshua said to the sons of Joseph, If thou be much people, get thee up to the forest, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzite and of the Rephaim, if Mount Ephraim is too narrow for thee (Josh. 17:15); where principles of falsity are signified by “the Perizzite,” and persuasions of falsity by “the Rephaim,” which they were to extirpate; for in the spiritual sense “Mount Ephraim” is intelligence.

[3] In the book of Judges:

After the death of Joshua, the sons of Israel also asked of Jehovah, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanite, to fight against him? And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up; behold I have given the land into his hand. And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, and let us fight against the Canaanite; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. And Simeon went with him. And Judah went up; and Jehovah gave the Canaanite and the Perizzite into their hand (Judg. 1:1-4); where by “Judah” likewise is represented the Lord as to celestial things, and by “Simeon” as to the derivative spiritual things; “the Canaanite” is evil, and “the Perizzite” falsity, which were overcome. This was the response, or Divine oracle, which, with this explanation, is understood.