8009. 'Every male he has shall be circumcised' means that his truth is to be purged from impure kinds of love. This is clear from the meaning of 'being circumcised' as being made pure or being purged from impure kinds of love, dealt with in 2039, 2056, 2632, 3412, 3413, 4462, 7045; and from the meaning of 'male' as the truth of faith, dealt with in 749, 1046, 4005, 7838.

2727. HOW MARRIAGES ARE REGARDED IN HEAVEN AND ALSO ADULTEROUS SITUATIONS

What genuine conjugial love is and where it originates few know at the present day, the reason being that it exists with few. Almost everyone believes that it is inborn and so flows from, they say, a kind of natural instinct, such belief being strengthened by the fact that the inclination to pair off as in marriage also occurs among animals. But the difference between conjugial love with human beings and that inclination with animals is as the difference between the human condition and that of any animal.