9335. 'And the wild animal of the field multiplies against you' means an inrush of falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. This is clear from the meaning of 'multiplying', when it has reference to a hurried removal of evils and falsities, as an inrush; and from the meaning of 'the wild animal of the field' as falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. For affections, good and bad, are meant in the Word by different kinds of beasts, 9280, and therefore affections for falsity that arise from the delights of self-love and love of the world are meant by 'wild animals'. These affections are also represented in the next life by wild animals, such as panthers, tigers, boars, wolves, or bears. Such affections furthermore resemble wild animals, for people ruled by those loves are steeped in evils of every kind and in the falsities arising from them. They are like wild animals in the way they see and treat companions. The fact that those loves are the source of all evils and falsities, see 2041, 2045, 2057, 2363, 2364, 2444, 4750, 4776, 6667, 7178, 7255, 7364, 7366-7377, 7488, 7490-7494, 7643, 8318, 8487, 8678.

[2] The reason why a hurried removal of evils and falsities leads to an inrush of falsities arising from those loves is that forms of good and truths, implanted in successive stages, must remove them; for falsities are not removed except by truths, nor evils except by forms of good. If this removal is not done in successive stages and in keeping with proper order, falsities that lend support to those selfish loves enter in, since those loves reign with every person before he has been regenerated; and when the falsities enter in truths cease to be acknowledged any longer. Also a person who is being regenerated is maintained in an affection for truth; and when maintained in this he searches for truths in all directions among factual knowledge in the natural. But at this time illusions of the outward senses, which exist in great abundance in the natural, present themselves there. From those illusions, when the delights of self-love and love of the world hold sway, the person deduces nothing except falsities, which come in and fill his mind if falsities arising from evil are removed suddenly. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal sense by I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest perhaps the land becomes desolate and the wild animal of the field multiplies against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

[3] The fact that 'wild animal' means falsity and evil arising from self-love and love of the world is evident from places in the Word which mention it, as in Isaiah,

There will be a path there and a way, which will be called the way of holiness. The unclean will not pass through it; the savage of the wild animals will not go up it. Isaiah 35:8-9.

In Ezekiel,

I will send famine and evil wild animals upon you, that they may make you bereft. Ezekiel 5:17.

In the same prophet,

When I cause evil wild animals to pass through the land and they leave it bereft so that ¹ it becomes a desolation, with the result that no one passes through on account of the wild animals ... Ezekiel 14:15.

In the same prophet,

You will fall on the open field; ² to the wild animals of the earth, and to the birds of the air I will give you for food. Ezekiel 29:5.

In the same prophet,

At that time I will make with them a covenant of peace, and I will banish ³ the evil wild animal from the land, in order that they may dwell securely in the wilderness. They will no longer be a prey for the nations, and the wild animals of the field will no longer devour them. Ezekiel 34:25, 28.

[4] In Hosea,

I will lay waste her vine and her fig tree; and I will make them into a forest, and the wild animals of the field will eat them. Hosea 2:12.

In the same prophet,

The land will mourn and every inhabitant will waste away because of the wild animals of the field and the birds of the air. Hosea 4:3.

In David,

The boar of the forest tramples on it, and the wild animal of the fields feeds on it. Return, O God Zebaoth, and visit Your vine. Psalms 80:13-14.

In the same author,

You dispose the darkness to become night, in which every wild animal of the forest comes forth. Psalms 104:20.

In Moses,

If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them, I will banish ³ the evil wild animals from the land. But if you despise My statutes, I will send into you the wild animals of the field, which will lay you waste. Leviticus 26:3, 6, 15, 22.

In the same author,

Jehovah your God will cast out the nations before you little by little, lest perhaps the wild animals of the field multiply against you. Deuteronomy 7:22.

In these places 'the wild animals of the field', 'the wild animals of the earth', and 'the wild animals of the forest' stand for the falsities and evils that belong to self-love and love of the world.

[5] Since 'wild animal' means falsity, and falsity can spring from two different origins, that is to say, it may stem from evil or it may stem from good, 9258, 'wild animal' in the Word also means upright nations or gentiles who, though they are subject to falsity, nevertheless lead upright lives. The term 'wild animal' is used in this sense in David,

Every wild animal of the forest is Mine, and beasts on mountains of thousands; I know every bird of the mountains, and the wild animal of My fields is with Me. Psalms 50:10-11.

In the same author,

Praise Jehovah, wild animals and all beasts! Psalms 148:7, 10.

In Isaiah,

All wild animals of My fields - come to eat, all wild animals in the forest. Isaiah 56:9.

In Ezekiel,

In the branches of the cedar, which was Asshur, all the birds of the air made their nests, and under its branches every wild animal of the field brought forth, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations. Ezekiel 31:6.

각주:

1158. Verse 14. And the fruits of the desire of thy soul have departed from thee, signifies that the gladnesses and joys they expected from worship and life according to the traditions of the Babylonish nation are turned into weeping and mourning. This is evident from the signification of "the fruits of the desire of the soul," as being the gladnesses and joys they hoped for from worship and life according to the traditions of the Babylonish religion. This is the signification of these words, because the things enumerated in verses 12 and 13 signify all things of the doctrine and worship of that religious persuasion from which those who believe in a life after death expect gladnesses and joys; therefore these are "the fruits of the desire of their souls." Also from the signification of "have departed from thee," as being that these have been dissipated, and have been turned into weeping and mourning, because into the torments of hell. Those gladnesses and joys which they expect are merely external, thus corporeal and worldly, for such do not know what internal gladnesses and joys are, because they have no truths from the Word, thus no truths from the Lord, but only from him whom they call His vicar, from whom falsities can come forth but no truths, because they have dominion for their end. Therefore that the people may be kept under the yoke of that dominion, such things from self and the world as delight the body are offered them.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] 7. The seventh law of the Divine providence is, That man is let into the truths of faith and into the goods of love by the Lord only so far as he can be kept in them until the end of life; for it is better that he should continue to be evil than that he should be good and afterwards evil, for he thus becomes profane. The permission of evil is from this cause. To every man of sound reason the Lord can give the affection of truth and faith therefrom and the affection of good and love therefrom by withholding him from evil loves, which belong to his own [proprium] ; for so far as man is withheld from these he is in the understanding of truth and in the will of good. I have seen the very devils brought back to such a state; and while they were in it they talked about truths from understanding and faith, and did good from will and love. They were brought into this state because they had denied that they were unable to understand truths and do good. But as soon as withholding from their own loves had relaxed, and they had returned into the lusts of their loves, in place of faith in truth they had faith in falsity, and in place of love of good they had love of evil. This has often been witnessed, and in the presence of many. From this it is clear that everyone is capable of being reformed, and that being reformed is nothing else than being removed from evil loves. How man is removed from those loves has been told above. The Lord does not thus withhold man from evils for the reason that those who come into the affection of truth and thence into faith, and into the affection of good and thence into love, and do not continue in these affections to the end of life, but fall back into the loves from which they had abstained, profane holy things.

[3] There are many kinds of profanation, but this kind is the most grievous of all. The lot of such after death is terrible. They are not in hell but beneath hell; and there they neither think nor will, but merely see and act. They see things that are not, and do not see the things that are. They act as if they were doing everything, and yet they do nothing. They are nothing but deliriums of fantasy. And as they neither think nor will, they are no longer men, for the human is thinking and willing.

Consequently they are not called "he" nor "she," but in the neuter gender "it" or "that." When seen in any heavenly light they appear like skeletons covered over with a black skin. Such is the condition of those that have been reformed and do not remain so. Why their lot is so horrible shall be told. By their reformation a communication is established between them and heaven, whereby goods and truths flow in; and by these the interiors of their minds are opened, and evils are removed to the sides. If they remain in this state till death they are happy, but if they do not they become unhappy, for the evils that have been removed then flow back and mingle themselves with the truths and goods; thus hell is so mixed with heaven in them that the two cannot be separated; for if anything has once been impressed on the mind of man by love it can never be rooted out; since, therefore, after death the goods cannot be separated from the evils nor the truths from the falsities, the mind is wholly overthrown, and such spirits no longer have any thought or will, but what remains is like a shell when the kernel is removed, or like the skin with the skeleton when the flesh is gone, for this is all that is left of the man. Let it be known, therefore, that the danger is not in passing from evil to good, but the danger is in passing from good to evil.