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.

V:

4364. 'He said, What do you mean by all this camp which I met?' means the specific things which came from the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'camp' here as things that are specific, for these are meant by the animals mentioned in verses 14, 15 of the previous chapter - two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred sheep and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their colts, forty young cows and ten young bulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals. By these are meant the goods and truths together with the things that are subservient, by means of which the instillation was to be effected, see 4263, 4264, and so mean those that are specific. The specific ones meant here are nothing other than those which serve to prove that truths really are truths and forms of good really are forms of good. They support a person's thoughts and affections - that is, the things he knows and the things he loves - which lead him to favour an idea and maintain that it is true. The gifts which in the Church of old were made to kings and to priests also held the same meaning It is well known that another is led to one's own way of thinking - that is, to the things which one says are good and true - both by the use of rational arguments and by the appeal to affections. It is the actual supporting proofs to which the term 'specific' applies and that are meant at this point by 'this camp'. This is the reason why the words 'to find favour in the eyes of my lord' appear, explaining why 'the camp' was sent, and after that, 'If now I have found favour in your eyes, then take my gift from my hand'.

[2] It is similar with spiritual things or matters of faith, when these are being joined to the good of charity. People believe that goods and truths flow in immediately from heaven, and so without any intermediate agents in man; but in this they are much mistaken. The Lord leads everyone through the agency of his affections and in so doing bends him by means of a Providence working silently; for He leads people by means of their freedom, 1937, 1947. All freedom entails a person's affection or love, see 2870, 2873. Consequently every joining together of good and truth takes place in freedom and not under compulsion, 2875-2878, 2881, 3145, 3146, 3158, 4031. When therefore a person has been brought in freedom to good, truths find acceptance and are implanted. That person also starts to be stirred by an affection for them and is in this manner introduced little by little into heavenly freedom. One who is regenerate, that is, who loves the neighbour - more so one who loves the Lord - will discover, if he reflects on his life before then, that he has been led to that point by many ideas present in his thought and many impulses of his affection.

[3] What exactly is meant here by the things which came from the good of truth may be seen more easily from examples. Let truth which has to be introduced into good be exemplified by the truth that man has life after death. Unless this is supported by specific truths, it does not find acceptance, that is, not unless it is supported by the following: Man is able to think not only about the things he sees and perceives with the senses but also about those which he does not see or perceive with the senses. Also his affection can be stirred by them; and through his affection he can become linked to them and therefore to heaven, indeed to the Lord Himself. And those who are able to be linked to the Divine can never die. These and many more like them are the specific truths which present themselves before that truth is instilled into good, that is, before it is believed fully. That truth does indeed submit itself first, yet these specific truths nevertheless cause it to find acceptance.

[4] Take as another example the truth that man is a spirit and that he is clothed with a body while he lives in the world. This also is a truth that has to be instilled into good, for if it is not instilled he has no concern for heaven, in which case he looks on himself in the same way as he does on animals. But this truth cannot be instilled except by means of specific ones such as the following: The body which a person carries around ministers to uses in the world; that is to say, it enables him by means of material eyes to see things that are in the world, and to perform actions by means of material muscles, which give him power that is sufficient to lift heavy objects. Nevertheless some more interior part of him exists which thinks and wills, and for which the body is the instrumental or material organ. Also his spirit is his true self, or the person himself, who performs actions and has sensory perception through these organic forms. And there are many other personal experiences by which he can prove that truth to be so once he believes it. All of these are specific truths which are put forward first and which cause that truth itself to be instilled into good and also to come from it. It is these and other things like them that are meant here by 'a camp'.