6502. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians. That this signifies preservation from the evils which hindered conjunction, is evident from the signification of “commanding,” as being to flow in (see n. 5732); from the representation of Joseph, as being the internal, of which above (n. 6499); and from the signification of the “physicians,” as being preservation from evils. That it denotes from the evils which hindered conjunction (of which just above, n. 6501), is apparent from the connection. Hence it is evident that by “Joseph commanded his servants the physicians” is signified influx from the internal with respect to preservation from the evils which hindered conjunction. That “physicians” signify preservation from evils is because in the spiritual world diseases are evils and falsities, spiritual diseases being nothing else; for evils and falsities take away health from the internal man, and induce sicknesses on the mind, and at last pains; nor is anything else signified in the Word by “diseases.”

[2] That “physicians,” the “medical art,” and “medicines” in the Word signify preservations from evils and falsities, is evident from the passages where they are named; as in Moses:

If hearing thou hearest the voice of thy God, and doest that which is good in His eyes, and givest ear to His commandments, and keepest all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon thee which I have put upon the Egyptians; for I am Jehovah thy physician (Exodus 15:26);

“Jehovah the Physician” denotes the preserver from evils, for these are signified by the “diseases put upon the Egyptians.” That the “diseases put upon the Egyptians” signify evils and falsities originating in reasonings from memory-knowledges and fallacies concerning the arcana of faith, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be shown when these diseases are treated of; that spiritual things are signified, is evident from the fact that it is said “if they would hear the voice of God, would do good, would give ear to the commandments, and would keep the statutes, then these diseases should not be upon them.”

[3] In the same sense also the Lord calls Himself a “physician” in Luke:

They that are whole have no need of a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31-32); here also a “physician” denotes a preserver from evils, for by the “whole” are meant the righteous, and by the “sick,” sinners.

In Jeremiah:

Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? why then hath not the health of the daughter of My people come up? (Jeremiah 8:22);

a “physician” denotes preservation from falsities in the church, for the “health of the daughter of My people” denotes the truth of doctrine there.

[4] That “healings,” “cures,” “remedies,” and “medicines” are not spoken of in the Word in a natural but in a spiritual sense, is plain in Jeremiah:

Why hast Thou smitten us, that we have no remedy? they await peace, but there is no good; a time of healing, but behold terror (Jeremiah 14:19; 8:15).

Again:

I will cause to come up to him health and cure, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them a crown of peace and truth (Jeremiah 33:6).

Again:

There is none that judgeth thy judgment for health, thou hast no medicines of restoration (Jeremiah 30:13).

Again:

Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt; in vain hast thou multiplied medicines; there is no healing for thee (Jeremiah 46:11).

[5] In Ezekiel:

By the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that, there cometh up every tree of food, whose leaf falleth not, neither is the fruit thereof consumed, it is born again in its months, because the waters thereof go forth from the sanctuary; whence the fruit thereof is for food, and the leaf thereof for medicine (Ezekiel 47:12).

The subject here treated of in the prophet is the new house of God, or the new temple, by which is signified a new church, and in an interior sense the Lord’s spiritual kingdom; and therefore the “river upon whose bank cometh up every tree of food” signifies things that belong to intelligence and wisdom (n. 108, 109, 2702, 3051); “trees” signify the perceptions and knowledges of good and truth (n. 103, 2163, 2682, 2722, 2972, 4552); “food,” the goods and truths themselves (n. 680, 4459, 5147, 5293, 5576, 5915); “waters going forth from the sanctuary,” the truths which make intelligence (n. 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668); the “sanctuary,” celestial love, in the supreme sense the Divine Human of the Lord, from whom is this love; the “fruits which are for food,” the goods of love (n. 913, 983, 2846, 2847, 3146); the “leaf which is for medicine,” the truth of faith (n. 885). From this it is plain what “medicine” signifies, namely, that which preserves from falsities and evils; for when the truth of faith leads to the good of life, it preserves, because it withdraws from evils.

4552. And Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. That this signifies eternal rejection, is evident from the signification of “hiding,” as being to reject and bury as dead; and from the signification of “under the oak,” as being to eternity; for as the oak is a very long-lived tree, when anything was hidden under it, it signified what is perpetual; and it also signified what is entangled, and moreover what is fallacious and false, because the lowest of the natural is relatively entangled and fallacious insofar as it derives its knowledge and its pleasure from the sensuous things of the body, and thus from fallacies. For by the “oak” is specifically signified the lowest of the natural, consequently in a good sense the truths and goods which are therein, and in the opposite sense the evils and falsities which are therein.

[2] Moreover, when falsities are removed in a regenerate man, they are rejected to the lowest of the natural; and therefore when a man becomes mature in judgment and clearsighted, and especially when he becomes intelligent and wise, they appear still further removed from his interior sight. For with the regenerate man truths are in the inmost of his natural near good, which is like a little sun there; and the truths which depend on these are distant therefrom according to the degrees of-so to speak-their consanguinity and affinity with good. Fallacious truths are in the more outward circumferences, and falsities are rejected to the outermost ones. The latter remain with man forever, but are in this order when the man suffers himself to be led by the Lord, for this order is heavenly order, inasmuch as heaven itself is in such an order. But when a man does not suffer himself to be led by the Lord, but by evil, these things are then in the opposite order, evil with falsities then being in the middle, truths being rejected to the circumferences, and the veriest Divine truths to the outermost circumferences, which order is infernal, for in such an order is hell, the outermost circumferences being the lowest things of the natural.

[3] That “oaks” denote the falsities which are the lowest things of the natural, is because in the Ancient Church, when there was external worship representative of the Lord’s kingdom, all trees of whatever kind signified something spiritual or celestial; for instance the olive and the oil from it signified the things which are of celestial love; the vine and the wine from it, the things which are of charity and its derivative faith; and so with the other trees, as the cedar, the fig, the poplar, the beech, and the oak, the signification of which has been occasionally shown in the explications. It is for this reason that they are so often mentioned in the Word, and also in general gardens, groves, and forests, and that men had their worship in these under certain trees. But as this worship became idolatrous, and the posterity of Jacob, with whom the representative of a church was instituted, was prone to idolatry, and consequently set up so many idols therein, they were forbidden to hold worship in gardens and groves, and under the trees therein; nevertheless the trees retained their signification, and therefore not only the more noble, as the olive, the vine, and the cedar, but also the poplar, the beech, and the oak, where mentioned in the Word, are each significative as in the Ancient Church.

[4] That “oaks” in a good sense signify the truths and goods which are lowest of the natural, and in the opposite sense falsities and evils, is evident from the passages in the Word where they are mentioned, when understood in the internal sense, as in Isaiah:

They who forsake Jehovah shall be consumed, for they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired; and ye shall be as an oak that casteth its leaves, and as a garden that hath no water (Isaiah 1:28-30).

The day of Jehovah Zebaoth shall be upon everyone lifted up and low, and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, and upon all the oaks of Bashan (Isaiah 2:12-13).

That the day of Jehovah will not be upon the cedars and the oaks, everyone may know, but upon those who are signified by them. Again:

He who formeth a god heweth him down cedars, and taketh the beech and the oak, and strengtheneth for himself in the trees of the forest (Isaiah 44:14).

[5] In Ezekiel:

Ye shall acknowledge that I am Jehovah when their pierced ones shall be in the midst of the idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the heads of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every tangled oak, the place where they have given an odor of rest to all their idols (Ezekiel 6:13).

Moreover the ancients had worship upon hills and mountains because hills and mountains signified celestial love; but when the worship was performed by idolaters, as here, they signify the love of self and of the world (n. 795, 796, 1430, 2722, 4210); and they held it under trees, because as before said these were significative according to their species. “Under the tangled oak” here denotes that the worship was from falsities, which are the lowest things of the natural, for these are in an entangled state (n. 2831).

In Hosea:

They sacrifice upon the heads of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under the oak, the poplar, and the hard oak, because the shade thereof is good; therefore your daughters commit whoredom, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery (Hos. 4:13).

That “to commit whoredom” is to falsify truths, and “to commit adultery” is to pervert goods, may be seen in n. 2466, 2729, 3399.

In Zechariah:

Open thy doors, O Lebanon, and let the fire devour the cedars, because the magnificent ones are laid waste; howl, ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of Bazar is come down (Zech. 11:1-2).