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:

Reuben, 3861, 3866, 3870;

Judah, 3881;

Dan, 3921-3923;

Naphtali, 3927, 3928;

Gad, 3934, 3935;

Asher, 3938, 3939;

Issachar, 3956, 3957;

Zebulun, 3960, 3961.

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.

2343. 'And they ate' means making one's own. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being communicated and joined together, thus being made one's own, dealt with already in 2187. What has been stated and explained so far makes clear how the contents of the previous and the present verses are arranged and link together in the internal sense - from the fact that 'the angels' means the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding, 'turning aside to him' means staying with, 'coming to his house' being confirmed in good, 'making a feast' dwelling together, 'baking unleavened bread' being purified, and 'eating' taking into oneself and making one's own. It shows the nature of the train of thought in the internal sense, though nothing at all of that sense is apparent in the historical sense.

[2] Such is the order and the train of thought that exists with all the individual parts of the Word. But the nature of that actual train of thought cannot begin to reveal itself when each word is explained separately; for in that case each is seen in isolation from the rest and the continuity of meaning is lost. It reveals itself when all the separate details are seen together within one complete idea, or are perceived as one complete mental picture, as is done by those who have the internal sense and who at the same time dwell in heavenly light from the Lord. Within these words [used here in Genesis] such people are given to see the entire process of the reformation and regeneration of those who become members of the Church, represented here by Lot. That is to say, they first of all perceive some degree of temptation, but when they persevere and overcome the Lord stays with them, and confirms them in good, brings them to Himself into His kingdom, and dwells together with them, and there purifies and perfects them, at the same time granting them as their own things that are good and happy. All this He accomplishes by means of His Divine Human and His Holy proceeding.

[3] Within the Church it is indeed well known that all regeneration or new life, and therefore salvation, comes from the Lord alone, but few believe it. The reason they do not believe it is that the good of charity does not exist in them. It is as impossible for those in whom that good does not exist to believe it as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle; for the good of charity is the very seed-bed of faith. Truth and good agree together, but truth and evil never do. They have contrary natures and turn away from each other. Insofar therefore as someone is moved by good, he can be governed by truth, that is, insofar as charity exists with him faith is able to, especially the most fundamental matter of faith that all salvation comes from the Lord.

[4] That this is the most fundamental matter of faith is clear from many places in the Word, as in John,

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.

In the same gospel,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. John 3:36.

In the same gospel,

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom the Father has sent. John 6:29.

In the same gospel,

This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:40.

In the same gospel,

Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. John 8:24.

In the same gospel,

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, yet will he live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. John 11:25-26.

[5] Nobody is able to believe in the Lord unless he is governed by good, that is, no one can possess faith unless he has charity. This too is clear in John,

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

And in the same gospel,

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in Me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. As the Father has loved Me so I have loved you; abide in My love. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:5-6, 9, 12.

[6] From all these quotations it becomes clear that love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour constitute the life of faith. But that people who are immersed in evil, that is, who lead a life of evil, cannot possibly believe that all salvation comes from the Lord has become clear to me from those who have entered the next life from the Christian world; and also from people who during their lifetime have confessed with their lips the established teaching of faith, and indeed have taught it themselves, that without the Lord there is no salvation, but who, for all that, have led a life of evil. At the very mention of the Lord's name these people have filled the atmosphere around them entirely with objections. For in the next life solely that which people are thinking is perceived and sends out from itself a sphere, in which the nature of the faith possessed by those people reveals itself, see 1394.

[7] At the mere mention of love or charity among these people I perceived emanating from them something that was so to speak full of darkness and at the same time dust-filled. The product of some filthy love, it was by nature such that it obliterated, stifled, and corrupted all feeling of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour. Such is the faith at the present day, which, they say, saves without the goods that flow from charity.

[8] The same people were also asked what faith they had since it was not the faith they had professed during their lifetime. Since in the next life nobody can conceal what he actually thinks, they said that they believed in God the Creator of all things. They were examined however as to whether this was really so, and it was discovered that they did not believe in any God at all but thought that all things were the product of natural forces, and all that has been said about eternal life is nonsense. Such is the faith of everyone inside the Church who does not believe in the Lord but says that he believes in God the Creator of all things. For truth cannot flow in from any other source than the Lord, and truth cannot be sown in anything other than good which is derived from the Lord.

[9] That the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding are together the channel and the source of life and salvation is well recognized from the words of the Holy Supper, 'This is My body, This is My blood', which is the Lord's Divine Human. And it is clear that this is the source of everything holy. Whether we speak of the Divine Human, or His Body, or Flesh, or Bread, or Divine Love, it amounts to the same thing; for the Lord's Divine Human is pure Love, and the Holy [proceeding] consists in love alone, while the Holy that constitutes faith is derived from this.