9333. 'I will not drive them out from before you in one year' means no hurried flight or removal of them, that is to say, of the falsities and evils meant by the nations in the land of Canaan. This is clear from the meaning of 'driving out' as flight, for those in the next life who are steeped in evils and falsities are not driven out but flee of their own accord (the fact that removal is also meant will be seen below); and from the meaning of 'in one year' as that which is hurried, for the words follow, 'Little by little I will drive them out from before you', meaning a gradual removal in keeping with order.

[2] The reason why 'driving out', when it has reference to evils and falsities, means removal is that falsities and evils are not driven out of a person but removed. Anyone who does not know the true nature of human deliverance from evils and falsities, which is the forgiveness of sins, thinks that sins are wiped out when they are said to have been forgiven. The literal sense of the Word which speaks several times in that kind of way leads people to think so. As a result of this the minds of very many people have been taken over by the erroneous idea that they are righteous and pure after they have received absolution. But they have no knowledge whatever of the true nature of the forgiveness of sins. They do not know that no one is purified from sins; rather people are withheld from them by the Lord when they are such that they can be maintained in goodness and truth, and they can be maintained in goodness and truth when they have been regenerated, because then they have acquired the life of the good of charity and of the truth of faith. All that a person thinks, intends, says, and does from earliest childhood enters into the composition of his life. Those things cannot be banished, only removed; and when they are removed it seems as though the person is without sins, because they have been removed, see 8393, 8988 (end), 9014. The Word speaks in keeping with the appearance that a person thinks and does what is good and true unaided, by himself (the reality being that he does so not by himself but with the Lord's aid) when it says that he is free from sins, and also is righteous, as for instance in Isaiah,

Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are as red as crimson, ¹ they will be as wool. Isaiah 1:18.

[3] The like is said many times elsewhere. The state of souls in the next life enables anyone to know that all this is true. All people take with them from this world into the next all that composes their life, that is, whatever they have thought, intended, spoken, or done, also indeed whatever they have seen or heard from early childhood right through to the last phase of their life in the world; not even the smallest detail of any of this is lacking, 2474. Those who have led a life of faith and charity while in the world can be withheld from evils and maintained in good, and so can be raised to heaven. Those however who have not led a life of faith and charity while in the world but a life of self-love and love of the world sink down to hell because they cannot be withheld from evils or maintained in good. From all this it is evident why it is that 'driving out', when it refers to what happens to falsities and evils, means removal. In this verse and the next that removal is the subject in the internal sense; there the arcana of it are disclosed.

Фусноти:

10814. At this point I was led to talk to the angels present with me about dominion. There are two kinds, one being that which belongs to love towards the neighbour, the other that which belongs to self-love. Dominion belonging to love towards the neighbour exists among those who dwell separated into households, families, and clans, whereas dominion belonging to self-love exists among those who dwell together in society. Among those who live separated into households, families, and clans, the one who is father of the clan has dominion, as do the heads of families under him, and as do the fathers of each household under these; 'father of the clan' describes one from whom families descend, and from those families households. But in the exercise of dominion all these leaders are moved by a love like that of a father towards his children, who teaches them how they must live, does what is good to them, and as far as he can gives them what is his. It never enters his mind to make them subordinate to himself as subjects or as domestic servants; rather, he loves them to obey him like sons obedient to their father. And since, as is well known, this love increases as it descends, the father of the clan is moved to action by a love more internal than that of the actual father from whom the sons directly spring. This kind of dominion also exists in the heavens because it is the kind of dominion that is the Lord's. His dominion arises out of Divine Love towards the whole human race.

[2] But dominion belonging to self-love, which is the opposite of dominion belonging to love towards the neighbour, came into being when people alienated themselves from the Lord; for to the extent that people do not love and worship the Lord they love and worship themselves, and also love the world rather than heaven. At this point it became necessary, for their own safety, for the clans consisting of families and households to come together in a single body and institute various forms of government. For to the extent that this love increased, so did evils of every sort, such as enmity, envy, hatred, vengeance, deceit, and brutality directed against all who opposed them. Furthermore the nature of that love is such that so far as it is given rein it rushes along, till at length everyone ruled by it wishes to have dominion over all others throughout the world, and everyone wishes to possess all the goods belonging to others. Nor indeed does it stop there; everyone wishes to have dominion as well over the whole of heaven, as may be recognized from the present-day Babylon. Such then is dominion belonging to self-love, dominion belonging to love towards the neighbour being as different from it as heaven is from hell.

[3] But although dominion belonging to self-love is such among people living in society, dominion belonging to love towards the neighbour nevertheless exists, even in kingdoms, among those who are wise on account of their belief in and love to God; for these love their neighbour. These too dwell in heaven divided into clans, families, and households, even though they live together in society; but they do so in accord with spiritual relationships, which are those of the good of love and the truth of faith. These in the Lord's Divine mercy will be spoken of elsewhere.

10814a. 'This sixth planet out in space' is continued at the end of the next chapter.