Arcana Coelestia #4503
4503. 'The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city' means that all his descendants destroyed that doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sons of Jacob' as descendants from Jacob, dealt with above; from the meaning of 'plundering' as destroying; and from the meaning of 'the city' as the doctrine of the Church, dealt with above in 4500. Simeon and Levi's going away after they had killed every male in the city as well as Hamor and Shechem, and then Jacob's sons' coming upon the slain and plundering the city, involves an arcanum, the meaning of which is not evident except from the internal sense.
[2] That arcanum is this: After the truth and good of the Church which are represented by 'Simeon and Levi' were wiped out and falsity and evil took their place, further falsities and evils were added, which are meant in the contrary sense by the rest of Jacob's sons. Each son of Jacob represented some general aspect of faith and charity, as has been shown in 2129, 3858, 3913, 3926, 3939, 4060.
Which aspect is represented by each, see the following:
Judah, 3881;
Dan, 3921-3923;
These general aspects of faith and charity which those sons represented become falsities and evils of that kind once the truth and good of the Church have been wiped out and those further falsities and evils have been added to them; for falsities and evils are constantly on the increase within the Church once it has been perverted and wiped out. It is these added falsities and evils that are meant by the reference to Jacob's sons coming upon the slain and plundering the city after Simeon and Levi had killed every male in the city as well as Hamor and Shechem, and had taken Dinah and gone away.
[3] That 'the slain' in the Word means truths and goods which have been wiped out may be seen from the following places: In Isaiah,
You are cast out from your sepulchre like an abominable branch, a garment of the killed - slain with the sword - who go down to the stones of the pit like a dead body trodden underfoot. Isaiah 14:19.
This refers to Babel. 'Those slain with the sword' stands for those who have profaned the truths of the Church. In the same prophet,
So that their slain are cast out and the stench of their dead bodies rises up. Isaiah 34:3.
This refers to the falsities and evils which infest the Church, 'the slain' standing for these.
[4] In Ezekiel,
The violent of the nations will draw the sword against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will profane your loveliness. They will bring you down into the pit and you will die the deaths of those slain in the midst of the seas. Ezekiel 28:7-8.
This refers to the prince of Tyre who means the leading cognitions of truth and good. 'Dying the deaths of those slain in the midst of the seas' stands for those who use facts to hatch falsities and in consequence defile the truths of the Church.
[5] In the same prophet,
They also will go down with them into hell, to those slain with the sword. You will be made to go down with the trees of Eden into the nether world, in the midst of the uncircumcised you will lie with those slain with the sword. Ezekiel 31:17-18.
In the same prophet,
Go down and lie with the uncircumcised; they will fall in the midst of those slain with the sword; the chief of the powerful ones will speak to him in the midst of hell. Ezekiel 32:19-21.
This refers to Pharaoh and Egypt. 'Those slain with the sword' stands for those who by their use of knowledge become insane; by their use of it they destroy all belief in the truth known to the Church.
[6] In David,
I have been reckoned with them going down to the pit; I have become as a man with no strength, neglected among the dead, like the slain lying in the sepulchre whom you remember no more and who have been cut off by your hand.
'The slain' in hell - those in the pit and 'in the sepulchre' - stands for those who have destroyed the truths and goods residing with them by means of falsities and evils. Anyone can recognize that these are not in hell merely because they have been slain with the sword.
[7] In Isaiah,
A city of tumults, an exultant city, [your slain] have not been slain with the sword, and they have not been killed in war. All who have been found in you have been bound together in chains. They have fled from far away. Isaiah 22:2-3.
This refers to the illusions resulting from the evidence of the senses which do not enable the truths of the Church to be seen. It refers therefore to people subject to negative doubt, and these are called 'slain but not with the sword'.
[8] In Ezekiel,
I am bringing a sword upon you and destroying your high places; and your altars will be destroyed, and your statues will be broken; and I will cause your slain to lie before your idols. When the slain have fallen in the midst of you, you will know that I am Jehovah. Then you will acknowledge, when the slain are in the midst of their idols, around their altar. Ezekiel 6:3-4, 7, 13.
'The slain' stands for those who are governed by falsities of doctrine.
[9] In the same prophet,
Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. They went forth and smote in the city. Ezekiel 9:7.
This is a prophetic vision. 'Defiling the house and filling the courts with the slain' stands for profaning goods and truths. In the same prophet,
You have multiplied your slain in this city, and have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore said the Lord Jehovih, Your slain whom you have placed in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and that is the pot; and he will lead you out from the midst of it. Ezekiel 11:6-7.
[10] Because 'the slain' meant those who have annihilated the truths of the Church by means of falsities and evils, therefore also in the representative Church those who touched one who had been slain were unclean. Such persons are referred to in Moses as follows,
Everyone who has touched on the surface of the field one slain with the sword, or one dead, or a human bone, or a sepulchre will be unclean for seven days. Numbers 19:16, 18.
Inquiry was therefore made and atonement effected by means of a heifer. In the same author,
If one is found slain, lying in the field, and it is not known who smote him, then the elders of the city and the judges shall come out and they shall measure [the distance] to the cities which are around the one slain. It shall be, that in the city nearest to the one slain the elders of that city shall take a heifer by means of which no work has been done, which has not pulled in the yoke, and they shall bring it down to the river or valley, and there they shall break the heifer's neck. And they shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck has been broken and shall say, Our hands have not shed blood, and our eyes have not seen it. Expiate Your people Israel, O Jehovah, and do not set innocent blood in the midst of Your people; and the blood shall be expiated for them. Deuteronomy 21:1-8.
[11] These laws were laid down because one who has been slain means the perversion, destruction, and profanation of the truth of the Church by means of falsity and evil, as is evident from each detail in the internal sense. The expression 'one slain, lying in the field' is used because 'the field' means the Church, see 2971, 3310, 3766. 'A heifer by means of which no work has been done' means the innocence of the external man which is present within ignorance. Without a clear knowledge of these things meant in the internal sense everyone will be surprised that a procedure such as this for making expiation should ever have been ordained.
Arcana Coelestia #6674
6674. 'Of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah' means the nature and state of the natural where that factual knowledge resided. This is clear from the meaning of 'the name' as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1896, 2009, and also the state, 1946, 2643, 3422, 4298. For the names contained in the Word all serve to mean different realities, each name embodying in a nutshell all the characteristics, thus the nature and state of that reality to which it refers. Here therefore the names Shiphrah and Puah mean the nature and state of the natural where true factual knowledge resides since this is the reality to which those names refer, as is evident from what appears immediately before this in 6673. A person who is unaware of the fact that a name serves to mean the nature and state of the reality to which it refers can only think that no more than the name is meant when that name is mentioned.
[2] Thus he can only think that when the Lord speaks of His name no more than this is meant, when in fact what is meant is the essential nature of the worship of Him, that is to say, every aspect of faith and charity through which He is to be worshipped, as in Matthew,
Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20.
Not the name is meant here, but worship flowing from faith and charity. In John,
As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name. John 1:12.
Here also 'name' is used to mean faith and charity from which the Lord is worshipped. In the same gospel,
These things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:31.
Here the meaning is similar.
[3] In the same gospel,
If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. John 14:13-14.
And elsewhere,
Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give it to you. John 15:16-17; 16:23-24.
The real meaning here is not that they were to ask the Father in the Lord's name, but that they were to ask the Lord Himself. For no access lies open to Divine Good, which is the Father, 3704, except through the Lord's Divine Human, as the various Churches also well know. This being so, asking the Lord Himself is a request made in accordance with the truths of faith; and if the request is indeed made in accord with them it is granted, as He Himself also says in the place in John quoted immediately before - If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. This matter is made even clearer by the fact that the Lord is meant by Jehovah's 'name', when mentioned as follows in Moses,
I send an angel before you to guard you on the way. Take notice of His face, and hearken to His voice, and do not provoke Him, since My name is in the midst of Him. Exodus 23:20-21.
[4] In John,
Father, glorify Your name. A voice came from heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. John 12:28.
In the same gospel,
I have manifested Your name to the men (homo) whom You gave to Me out of the world. I made known to them Your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:6, 26.
From these quotations it is evident that the Lord's Divine Human is Jehovah's name or whole essential nature. Consequently all Divine worship begins in the Divine Human; and the Divine Human is what one is to worship, for by worshipping this one worships the Divine Himself, no thought of whom can otherwise be formed. And if no such thought can be formed, there can be no communion with Him either.
[5] The truth that the Lord's 'name' is everything constituting the faith and love through which He is to be worshipped is still further evident from the following places: In Matthew,
You will be hated by everyone for My name's sake. Matthew 10:22.
In the same gospel,
He who receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. Matthew 18:5.
In the same gospel,
Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields, for My name's sake, will receive a hundredfold. Matthew 19:29.
In the same gospel,
They shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Matthew 21:9.
In Luke,
Truly I tell you; for you will not see Me until [the time] comes so that you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Luke 13:35.
In Mark,
Whoever gives you drink from a cup of water in My name because you are Christ's, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. Mark 9:41.
In Luke,
The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are obedient to us in Your name. Jesus said to them, Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are obedient to you, but rejoice rather that your names have been written in heaven. Luke 10:17, 20.
'Names written in heaven' are not those people's their faith and charity.
[6] Much the same is meant by 'names written in the Apocalypse,
You have a few names also in Sardis, who have not soiled their garments. He who conquers will be clad in white garments and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; and I will confess his name before the Father and before His angels. Revelation 3:4-5.
Like wise in John,
The one entering by the door is the shepherd of the sheep; he calls his own sheep by name. John 10:2-3.
In Exodus,
Jehovah said to Moses, I know you by name. Exodus 33:12, 17.
In John,
Many believed in His name, seeing His signs which He did. John 2:13.
[7] In the same gospel,
He who believes in Him is not judged: but he who does not believe is judged already because he has not be lifted in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:18.
In Isaiah,
They will fear the name of Jehovah from the west. Isaiah 59:19.
In Micah,
All the peoples walk in the name of their God and we will walk in the name of our God. Micah 4:5.
In Moses it says they were to worship Jehovah God in the place which He would choose and in which He would put His name. Deuteronomy 12:5, 11, 14. Similar phrases occur in Isaiah 18:7 and Jeremiah 7:12, and in many other places besides these, such as Isaiah 26:8, 13; 41:25; 43:7; 49:1; 50:10; 52:5; 26:16; Ezekiel 20:14, 44; 36:21-23; Micah 5:4; Malachi 1:11; Deuteronomy 10:8; Revelation 2:17; 3:12; 13:8; 14:11; 15:2; 17:8; 19:12-13, 16; 22:3-4.
[8] The fact that Jehovah's name means everything involved in the worship of Him, thus in the highest sense everything that goes out from the Lord, is clear in the Blessing,
Jehovah bless you and keep you;
Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be merciful to you;
Jehovah lift up His face upon you and give you peace.
So shall they put My name upon the sons of Israel. Numbers 6:23-27.
From all this one may now see what is meant by the following commandment in the Decalogue,
You shall not take the name of your God in vain, for Jehovah will not hold him innocent who has taken His name in vain. Exodus 20:7.
One may likewise see what is meant in the Lord's Prayer by hallowed be Your name, Matthew 6:9.
