9166. 'An oath of Jehovah shall be between them both' means enquiry made through truths from the Word regarding every single aspect of these things. This is clear from the meaning of 'an oath' as confirming through truths, dealt with in 2842, 3037, 3375, so that 'an oath of Jehovah' means doing so through truths from the Word, for the Word contains Jehovah's truths, that is, God's truths; and from the meaning of 'them both' as in every single aspect, for in the internal sense 'between both' does not mean between two but in every single aspect. 'Two' means things joined together to make a single whole, 1686, 3519, 5194, 8423, thus all that composes the whole, or every single aspect of it. This is what those in heaven perceive 'two' to be; and the reason why they do so is that when a discussion takes place among angels regarding two truths at variance with each other, a scene in which two spirits are arguing with each other presents itself on the level below. And since these spirits are the subordinates of a number of communities, every single aspect of one truth appears with one spirit, and every single aspect of the other truth with the other spirit. From this the angels perceive how the two are able to be linked together. I have been allowed to know from experience that this is what happens. So it is that when the words 'them both' are used in reference to truths they mean in every single aspect. This also is the reason why 'two' means something complete, 9103.

[2] The reason why it was permissible among the Israelite and Jewish nation to swear by Jehovah was that they were not internal, only external people, and when they engaged in the worship of God they did so on an external and not an internal level. The fact that they were like this, see 4281, 4293, 4429, 4433, 4680, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4903, 6304, 8588, 8788, 8806. When the confirmation of a truth comes down into the external man separated from the internal, it is effected by means of an oath; but not so when it comes down into the external by way of the internal. For in the internal man truth appears in its own light, but in the external without the internal truth appears in darkness. This explains why the celestial angels, who inhabit the inmost or third heaven, being in the highest degree of light do not even confirm truths by the use of reasons. Still less do they engage in argument and reasoning about truths; they simply say Yes or No, which they do by virtue of an ability received from the Lord to perceive and see them.

[3] This explains why the Lord has said the following regarding oaths,

You have heard that it was said, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord your oaths. But I say to you, You shall not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your words be, Yes, yes; No, no; anything beyond this is from evil. ¹ Matthew 5:33-37.

These words imply that confirmation of God's truths should come from the Lord and not from man, which it does when people are internal and not external. For people who are external confirm truths by means of oaths, but those who are internal do so by means of reasons, while those who are even more internal do not confirm them at all but simply say It is so, or It isn't so. Those who are external are called natural people, those who are internal are called spiritual people, and those even more internal are called celestial people. The last of these - celestial people - have the ability, received from the Lord, to perceive intuitively whether something is true or not, see 2708, 2715, 2718, 3246, 4448, 7877. All this shows what was implied when the Lord said, You shall not swear at all, and also Let your words be Yes, yes; No, no. But why He also said that they were not to swear by heaven, by the earth, by Jerusalem, or by their head, and that any words beyond 'Yes, yes; No, no' are from evil, must be explained.

[4] Swearing by heaven means doing so by Divine Truth, thus by the Lord there. Heaven is heaven not by virtue of the angels regarded in themselves but by virtue of the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, thus by virtue of the Lord Himself, within them; for the Divine within them is what enables them to be angels of heaven and be called angels of heaven. This explains why those in heaven are said to be 'in the Lord', why the Lord is the All in every single thing of heaven, and also why angels are God's truths, being recipients of God's truth emanating from the Lord.

Heaven is heaven and is called heaven by virtue of what is Divine and the Lord's there, see 552, 3038, 3700. Angels are God's truths, 4295, 4402, 7268, 7873, 8301. Something of the Lord is meant by an angel in the Word, 1925, 2821, 3039, 4085, 4295, 6280.

Since heaven is the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, it says 'you shall not swear by heaven, for it is God's throne'. 'God's throne' is Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord, 5313, 6397, 9039.

[5] Swearing by the earth however is doing so by the Church, thus by Divine Truth there. For just as heaven is the Lord by virtue of Divine Truth that emanates from Him, so too is the Church, the Church being the Lord's heaven or His kingdom on earth. For the meaning of 'earth' in the Word as the Church, see 662, 1066, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577, 8011, 8732. And since 'the earth' is the Church, the place where what is Divine and the Lord's below heaven exists, it says 'you shall not swear by the earth, for it is God's footstool'. 'Footstool' means God's truth below heaven, which is truth as it exists in the literal sense of the Word; for on this sense God's truth in heaven, which is the Word in the internal sense, rests and so to speak stands. Truth as it exists in the literal sense is meant by 'footstool' in David, in Psalms 99:5; 132:7; in Isaiah 60:13; and in Jeremiah, in Lamentations 2:1.

[6] Swearing by Jerusalem however is doing so by teachings that present truth drawn from the Word. For in a broad sense 'Jerusalem' is the Church, 2117, 3654; but when the words 'the earth', meaning the Church, are used, followed by 'Jerusalem', 'Jerusalem' then means the Church's teachings, consequently teachings that present God's truth drawn from the Word. This is why it is called 'the city of the great [King, who is] God', for 'city' in the internal sense of the Word means teachings that present the truth, see 402, 2449, 2943, 3216, 4478, 4492, 4493.

[7] Swearing by his head however means a person's doing so by the truth which he himself believes to be the truth and makes part of his faith; for this as it resides with him constitutes 'his head', and it is also what is meant by 'the head' in Isaiah 15:2; 29:10; in Ezekiel 7:18; 13:18; 16:12; 29:18; in Matthew 6:17; and elsewhere. Therefore it also says, 'for you cannot make one hair white or black'. 'Hair' means truth belonging to the external or natural man, 3301, the kind that exists with those who believe the truth not because they perceive it to be the truth but because the teachings of the Church declare it to be so. And since they know the truth on no other grounds than this it says that they are not to swear by it because they cannot make a hair white or black. 'Making a hair white' means declaring on one's own authority that truth is truth, and 'making a hair black' declaring on one's own authority that falsity is falsity. For 'white' is said in reference to truth, 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319, and therefore 'black' in reference to falsity.

[8] From all this one may now see what is meant by the command not to swear at all, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by Jerusalem, nor by one's head, namely that a person should not use what is his own to confirm God's truth but what is the Lord's with him. Therefore it also says finally, Your words shall be Yes, yes; No, no; anything beyond this is from evil. Those who have the ability, which comes from the Lord, to perceive and see truth confirm it in this way alone, even as angels of the inmost or third heaven do, the ones who are called celestial angels, spoken about above. The reason why any words beyond 'Yes, yes; No, no' are from evil is that anything beyond them does not come from the Lord but from a person's proprium or self, thus from evil, since a person's proprium is nothing but evil, see 210, 215, 874-876, 987, 1023, 1044, 1047, 3812 (end), 4328, 5660, 8941, 8944. All this again shows in what way the Lord spoke, that is to say, in such a way that every single word contained an inner meaning, since He spoke from the Divine. Thus He spoke for the benefit of angels at the same time as for men; for angels perceive the Word according to its inner meaning.

Footnotes:

2520. 'And he said, Lord, will You kill even a righteous nation?' means, Would the good and truth of doctrine be done away with? This is clear from the meaning of 'nation' as good, dealt with in 1259, 1260, 1416. And because the words 'a righteous nation' refer to 'the nation of Abimelech', who means the doctrine of faith, they are used here to mean both good and truth, since both are the subject matter of doctrine.

[2] The fact that these words were uttered from a zeal that went with an affection or love towards the whole human race may be evident to anyone. Such love was directing the Lord's thoughts even when He had not yet put off the human from the mother. And although He perceived from the Divine that the doctrine of faith had a wholly celestial origin, nevertheless in order that the needs of the human race, which does not receive anything of which it cannot form some idea from its own rational thought, might be met, it is therefore said, 'Will You kill even a righteous nation?' meaning, Would the good and truth of doctrine be done away with? The fact that a person does not receive anything of which he cannot form some idea from his rational thought may be seen from the ideas which a person entertains regarding Divine arcana. The latter always have some idea attached to them that is derived from worldly objects or things analogous to worldly objects by which they are retained in the memory and reproduced in thought. For without ideas derived from worldly objects a person is unable to engage in thought. If therefore truths from a Divine origin were presented naked they would never be accepted because they would go far beyond his range of understanding, and so beyond his faith as well, most of all in the case of those whose worship is external.

[3] Let the following examples illustrate this: The Divine itself cannot reside in anything except that which is Divine, and so only in the Lord's Divine Human, and with man through His Human. If the rational were consulted it would say that the Divine itself can reside in the human of anyone. Again nothing holy exists which does not proceed from the Lord, and so from the Divine, which is one. If the rational were consulted it would say that what is holy may also spring from other sources.

[4] Again, man does not live from himself, do good from himself, believe the truth from himself, or indeed think from himself. The good and truth that he does or believes come from the Lord, but the evil and falsity come from hell. And what is more, hell - that is, those who are in hell - do not think from themselves but, in the same way as man, are recipients of the Lord's good and truth. If the rational were consulted it would reject all those ideas because it would not comprehend them. It would also reject the idea that nobody is rewarded on account of the good he does and of the truth he teaches. And it would reject the idea that what is external does not accomplish anything, only what is internal, insofar as the affection for good is present in the doing of good, and insofar as from this the affection for truth is present in the teaching of truth, and insofar as the things are not done from oneself. So also with a thousand other examples that could be given.

[5] Such being the nature of the human rational, the Word therefore uses expressions that accord with man's capacity to understand, and also with his inherent disposition. And this explains why the internal sense of the Word is different from its literal sense. This becomes quite clear from the Old Testament Word where most things are stated in ways that accord with the capacity to understand and the inherent disposition of the people who lived in those times. As a consequence little, indeed scarcely anything, is mentioned there about the life after death, about eternal salvation, and about the internal man. Indeed the character of the Jewish and Israelitish people with whom the Church existed at that time was such that if these matters had been disclosed to them they would not only have failed to understand them but would also have ridiculed them. If similarly it had been disclosed to them that the Messiah or Christ was going to come and save their souls for ever, this too they would have rejected as something of no importance, as also becomes clear from the same nation today. And it is so still that if what is internal or spiritual is mentioned in their presence, and the fact that the Messiah is not going to be a very great earthly king, they laugh at it.

[6] This was the reason why the Lord sometimes spoke in the way the Prophets had spoken and expressed all else by means of parables, as He Himself states in Matthew,

Jesus said, I speak to them in parables, because those who see do not see, and those who hear do not hear, nor do they understand. Matthew 13:13.

'Those who see' and 'those who hear' are those inside the Church who, though they see and hear, nevertheless do not understand. And in John,

He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and are converted and I heal them. John 12:40.

Their being 'converted' and being 'healed' implies that even so they would subsequently reject and in so doing profane, which entails eternal condemnation, see 301-303, 582, 1008, 1010, 1059, 1327, 1328, 2051, 2426. Nevertheless the Lord in many places disclosed the interior things of the Word, but solely for the benefit of the wise.