9320. For destroying thou shalt destroy them. That this signifies that evils must be wholly removed, is evident from the signification of “destroying,” when said of the evils and falsities which are signified by the nations of the land of Canaan and by their gods, as being to remove. That “to destroy” denotes to remove, is because those who are in good and truth never destroy those who are in evil and falsity, but only remove them; for the reason that they act from good, and not from evil; and good is from the Lord, who never destroys anyone. But those who are in evil and from it in falsity endeavor to destroy, and as far as they are able do destroy, those who are in good, for the reason that they act from evil. But because they then run counter to the good which is from the Lord, thus counter to the Divine, they destroy themselves, that is, they cast themselves headlong into damnation and into hell. Such is the law of order, as may be seen above (n. 4299, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7926, 7989, 8137, 8146, 8265, 8945, 8946).

[2] That the Israelites and the Jews destroyed the nations of the land of Canaan, was because the former represented spiritual and heavenly things, and the nations infernal and diabolical things, which cannot possibly be together; for they are opposites. The reason why the Israelites were permitted to destroy the nations, was that there was no church among the Israelites, but only the representative of a church, and consequently the Lord was not present with them except representatively (n. 4307); for they were in external things without anything internal; that is, they were in a worship representative of good and truth, but not in good and truth. Such people are permitted to destroy, to kill, to exterminate, and to devote to destruction; but this is not permitted to those who are in external things and at the same time in internal things, because these people must act from good, and good is from the Lord.

[3] That the Jews and Israelites were of such a character is openly declared by Moses:

Speak not thou in thine heart, after that Jehovah thy God hath thrust the nations out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness Jehovah hath brought me in to possess this land. Not for thy righteousness, and for the uprightness of thine heart; for thou art a stiffnecked people (Deuteronomy 9:4-6).

They are a nation ruined in counsels, neither is there any understanding in them. Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall; their clusters of bitterness; their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel gall of asps. Is not this hidden away with Me, sealed up in My treasuries (Deuteronomy 32:28, 32-34);

in the internal sense “a vine” signifies the church (n. 1069, 5113, 6375, 6376, 9277); “grapes,” and “clusters,” signify the internal and external goods of that church (n. 1071, 5117, 6378); and “wine” signifies the internal truth of that church (n. 1071, 1798, 6377). From this it is plain what is signified by “their vine being of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah,” “their grapes, grapes of gall, and their clusters of bitterness,” and “their wine the poison of dragons and the cruel gall of asps.” That these things are known to Jehovah, that is, to the Lord, is signified by its being “hidden away with Him, and sealed up in His treasuries.”

[4] In John:

Jesus said to the Jews, Ye are of your father the devil, and the desire of your father ye will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44).

Consequently they are called “a depraved and adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39); and also “an offspring of vipers” (Matthew 3:7; 12:34; 23:33; Luke 3:7). That such was their nature was also described by the Lord in parables (Matthew 21:33-45; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 14:16-24; 20:9-19). (That that nation was the worst of all; that when in worship they were in external things without any internal; that there was no church among them, but only the representative of a church; and that nevertheless they could represent the internal things of the church, see n. 3398, 3479, 3480, 3732, 3881, 4208, 4281, 4288-4290, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4317, 4429, 4433, 4444, 4500, 4503, 4680, 4815, 4818, 4820, 4825, 4832, 4837, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4868, 4874, 4899, 4903, 4911-4913, 5057, 5998, 6304, 6832, 6877, 7048, 7051, 7248, 7401, 7439, 8301, 8588, 8788, 8806, 8814, 8819, 8871, 8882, 9284)

7051. They who know nothing of the internal sense of the Word cannot believe otherwise than that the Israelitish and Jewish nation was chosen above every other nation, and hence was more excellent than all the rest, as also they themselves believed. And wonderful to say, this is believed not only by that nation itself, but also by Christians, in spite of the fact that the latter know that that nation is in filthy loves, in sordid avarice, in hatred, and in conceit; and that they also make light of, and even hold in aversion, the internal things which are of charity and faith, and which are of the Lord. The reason why Christians also believe that that nation was chosen above others, is that they believe that the election and salvation of man is from mercy, no matter how he lives, and thus that the wicked can be received into heaven equally with the pious and the upright; not considering that election is universal, namely, of all who live in good, and that the mercy of the Lord is toward every man who abstains from evil and is willing to live in good, and thus who suffers himself to be led of the Lord and to be regenerated, which is effected by the unbroken course of his life.

[2] Hence also it is that most persons in the Christian world also believe that that nation will again be chosen, and will then be brought back into the land of Canaan, and this also according to the sense of the letter, as in many passages (Isaiah 10:20-22; 11:11-12; 29:22-24; 43:5-6; 49:6-26; 56:8; 60:4; 61:3-10; 62; Jeremiah 3:14-19; 15:4, 14; 16:13, 15; 23:7-8; 24:9-10; 25:29; 29:14, 18; 30:3, 8-11; 31:8-10, 17; 33:16, 20, 26; Ezekiel 5:10, 12, 15; 16:60; 20:41; 22:15-16; 34:12-13; 37:21-22; 38:12; 39:23, 27-28; Daniel 7:27; 12:7; Hosea 3:4-5; Joel 2:32; 3:1-21 Amos 9:8-9; and in Micah 5:7-8). From these and also from other passages, even Christians believe that that nation will again be chosen and will be brought into the land of Canaan, although they know that that nation is waiting for a Messiah who will bring them in, and although they know that this expectation is vain, and that the kingdom of the Messiah or Christ is not of this world, and thus that the land of Canaan, into which the Messiah will bring men, is heaven.

[3] Neither do they consider that in the Word there is a spiritual sense, and that in this sense by “Israel” is not meant Israel, nor by “Jacob” Jacob, nor by “Judah” Judah; but that by these men are meant what they represent. Neither do they consider the history of that nation, showing what its quality was in the wilderness, and afterward in the land of Canaan, that at heart it was idolatrous; and what the prophets say of it, and of its spiritual whoredom and abominations. This quality is described in the song in Moses, in these words:

I will hide My faces from them, I will see what their posterity will be; for they are a generation of perversions, sons in whom is no faithfulness. I said, I will cast them out into the furthest corners; I will make the memory of men to cease from man; unless their foes should say, Our hand is high, and Jehovah hath not done all this. For they are a nation lost in counsels, and there is no intelligence in them. Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, clusters of bitterness are theirs. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel gall of asps. Is not this hidden with Me, sealed up in My treasuries? Vengeance is Mine, and recompense, in time their foot shall slide; for the day of their destruction is near, and the things that are to come upon them make haste (Deuteronomy 32:20, 26-28, 32-35).

That Jehovah dictated this song to Moses may be seen (Deuteronomy 31:19) in (Deuteronomy 31:21) the previous chapter (Deuteronomy 31:19, 21). Of that nation the Lord also says in John:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth (John 8:44);

besides in many other passages.

[4] That although they know these things, Christians nevertheless believe that that nation will at last be converted to the Lord, and will then be brought into the land where they were before, is because, as already said, they do not know the internal sense of the Word; and because they suppose that the life of man effects nothing, and that evil, even when rooted in by repeated acts, is no hindrance to a man’s becoming spiritual, and being regenerated, and thus accepted by the Lord, through faith, even that of one short hour; also that admission into heaven is of mercy alone, and that this mercy is toward a single nation, and not so toward all in the universe who receive the mercy of the Lord. They who think thus do not know that it is quite contrary to the Divine that some should be born as the elect to salvation and heaven, and some as the nonelect to damnation and hell. To think so about the Divine would be horrible, because such conduct would be the height of unmercifulness, when yet the Divine is mercy itself. From all this it can now be seen that the Israelitish and Jewish nation was not chosen, and still less that it will be chosen; and also that there was not anything of the church with it, nor could be, but only the representative of a church; and that the reason why it has been preserved even to this day, has been for the sake of the Word of the Old Testament (n. 3479).