Hands in the Bible represent power, the force with which things are put into action. To be specific, they represent the power of spiritual good -- which is the love of others and serving others -- expressed through spiritual truth -- which is an understanding and knowledge of what it is to love and serve others. This is in contrast to the feet, which represent power on the natural level, and a “rod,” which represents the power of the hand passed down into external or natural ideas. In a few cases in the Bible, hands also represent communication and a drawing together. This is true when people lift their hands to heaven or to Jehovah, and also when the Lord touches children or touches people to heal them.

1162. That 'the sons of Ham' means things that belong to separated faith follows from what appears above. To know what 'Ham' means and from that 'the sons of Ham', one must know what faith separated from charity is. Faith separated from charity is no faith. And where there is no faith there is no worship, neither internal nor external. If any worship does exist it is corrupted worship, and this is why 'Ham' likewise means corrupted internal worship. The individual belief is false in people who apply the term 'faith' to a mere knowledge of celestial and spiritual things separated from charity. For sometimes the most evil people of all - such as those who have led lives continually hating, getting revenge, and committing adultery, and who are therefore like those in hell and after life in the body become devils - are more knowledgeable than others. From this it becomes clear that knowledge is not faith. Rather, faith is the acknowledgement of the things that belong to faith; and that acknowledgement is in no way external but internal, being the operation of the Lord alone through the charity present with a person. Nor is acknowledgement in any way of the lips but of the life. It is from a person's life that the nature of his acknowledgement may be known. All who have a knowledge of the cognitions of faith but have no charity are called 'the sons of Ham'. Whether their knowledge is a knowledge of the interior cognitions of the Word and its deepest mysteries, or a knowledge of all that the literal sense of the Word contains, or a knowledge of other truths, from which these may be regarded, no matter what name they are given, or whether it is a knowledge of all the rituals that constitute external worship, they are 'sons of Ham' if they have no charity. That those called 'the sons of Ham' are such is clear from the nations now under discussion.