9346. 'Lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me' means lest evils turn away forms of good from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the inhabitants of the land, to whom the words 'lest perhaps they cause to sin' refer, as evils, as above; from the meaning of 'sinning' as turning away, dealt with in 5474, 5841, 7589; and from the meaning of 'you against Me' as [turning away from] forms of good from the Lord. For the children of Israel, to whom 'you' refers here, mean those governed by good, and so mean forms of good, 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833, 9340, and Jehovah, to whom 'Me' refers here, means the Lord, dealt with in 9194, 9199, 9315, and in the places referred to in these paragraphs. The reason why evils turn away forms of good from the Lord is that evils and forms of good are opposites or contraries, and two opposites or contraries cannot exist together, since they loathe and clash with each other. This becomes perfectly clear from the consideration that evils spring from hell but forms of good from heaven, and hell is totally remote from heaven, not as to distance since there is no distance in the next life, but as to state. Those therefore who live in the state that is hell's cannot be transferred to the state that is heaven's, for the evils residing with them repel the forms of good residing with those in heaven. This is the meaning of Abraham's words to the rich man,

Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass across from here to you cannot, nor can those who are there pass across to us. Luke 16:26.

'A great gulf' is the opposite and contrary natures of their states of life. From all this it is evident how to understand the explanation that evils turn forms of good away from the Lord; that is to say, those immersed in evils not only fail to receive forms of good, which with everyone flow in unceasingly from the Lord, but also completely turn them away. For this reason a person cannot by any means receive the good of heaven until he refrains from evils.

5801. 'Have you a father, or a brother?' means the good that is the source, and the truth that is the means. This is clear from the representation of Israel, to whom 'a father' refers here, as spiritual good or the good of truth, dealt with in 3654, 4598, good that is the source being meant because spiritual good is the source from which truths in the natural derive; and from the representation of Benjamin, to whom 'a brother' refers here, as truth, truth that is the means being meant because truth is the means by which the truths of the Church present in the natural, represented by 'Jacob's sons', are joined to spiritual good, represented by 'Israel'. And since the joining together is effected by means of that truth, much is said about how their father loved Benjamin, who represents that truth, and about how Judah together with the rest could not return to their father unless Benjamin was with them. For more about that truth, see below in 5835. ¹

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