“For only Og, King of Bashan, remained of the remnant of the giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the Cubit of a man.” -Deuteronomy 3:11.

Additional readings: Deuteronomy 3:1-13, John 3, Psalms 8; 9.

The forty years of wandering in the wilderness were about over, and the children of Israel had come into the east-Jordan country. They had to conquer this country before they could enter the land of Canaan. Sihon, King of the Amorites, was slain and his country taken. Then they went up to Bashan, where its giant king Og with his forces came out to meet them. Og and his army were slain and his land was given to the half tribe of Manasseh. This story is told us in the Bible to teach a deep lesson.

The land of background extended from the border of Gilead on the south to Mount Hermon on the North. It was noted for its fine pasture lands and for its cattle, and the half tribe of Manasseh which settled there grew rich in flocks and in cattle.

It is well known that the Journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan describes the spiritual journey of the regenerating man from a natural to a spiritual state of life. The land of Canaan, the Promised Land, represents in the happy spiritual life in which the spiritual plane of the mind is opened and one lives in knowledge of the Lord and of the truths concerning His kingdom. But man has a natural mind as well as a spiritual, and the east-Jordan country stands for the life which belongs to this natural plane of the mind.

By means of the natural mind we learn about the world, develop the sciences and arts, and make the forces of nature serve us. The natural plane of the mind and the natural plane of life must of necessity be developed first in us. Without this we could not live in the world. One may, if he chooses, live wholly on the plane of the natural without any thought of the Lord or of His kingdom, but this should not be. The natural mind and the natural plane of Life are an important part of everyone, but in order for them to be fruitful and happy the spiritual must enter into them and gift them with a new quality.

Before regeneration the natural mind looks to itself and not to the Lord and refers everything to the natural reason. Its altars of hewn stone blaze with sacrifices offered to human reason, and its temples are filled with incense burned in the worship of self derived intelligence. The natural mind says, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent; and I have removed the bounds of my people.” Proud and defiant, it acknowledges no strength, no wisdom but that which belongs to the natural reason. Such is the purely natural man. By his own power he will solve the problems of the world.

Today there is much emphasis placed on natural goodness and we need to know what this natural really is. For the writings of the church state: “It is to be known that they who do good from natural goodness only, and not from religion at the same time, are not accepted after death.” And this is so because, in merely natural goodness, which is not formed through the truths of faith, there is no plane into which Heaven can inflow. We are born into this natural state. At first the whole plane of the natural is ruled by the love of self - Og, the giant king of Bashan. All natural good is thus defiled by thoughts of self and whatever is done, whether it be the acquisition of knowledge, the establishment of just rules for political and social conduct, the endowment of charities or even of churches, these are all done for the sake of self-esteem and self-advantage. And thought the good that the merely natural man does may, to outward appearance, look exactly like the good which spiritual man does, inwardly it is of an entirely different character, for it is divorced from God, the source of all genuine good. So the children of Israel could not immediately cross the Jordan and enter the Holy Land. First Og, the love of self, had to be overcome. The destruction of Og denotes the overthrow of self and the enthronement of the Lord.

For the Lord says to us, as he said to Nicodemus: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.” There is a regenerated rationalism, a rationalism which comes from having one's rational mind formed according to the truth of revelation, and this higher rationalism, like regenerated science, is in possession of every rational deduction from scientific premises but it connects those deductions with God and uses them to confirm faith in the Lord and in the things of His kingdom.

The land of Bashan bordered on the land of Canaan. The natural mind and the whole plane of the natural is a rich land abounding in the things of natural good and charity, and when it is infilled by the spiritual, it has a new quality given to it by the spiritual.

In this story in the word, Og’s iron bedstead Is mentioned. Why? It is because a bed stands for Doctrine. as one supports his body on a bed, finding rest and Repose in it, so the mind find support in the doctrine it adopts, and in it finds mental rest and repose. Og’s bedstead stands for the false doctrines and maxims which the selfish man uses to support his selfish views of life, the false and evil theories which his natural reason invents and on which he reposes with confidence.

Og’s Bedstead was of iron, not of gold, silver, or brass. A golden bedstead would be the symbol of doctrines founded on love to the Lord; one of silver, doctrines founded on the love of Truths to his word; and one of brass, doctrines from the word accepted in simple trusting obedience. But the iron bedstead represents the hard, inflexible natural laws. If one is intemperate, he will inevitably suffer. If one is manifestly selfish, he will make enemies rather than friends. So far you may go, and no farther. You must not be openly evil or your business will suffer. These are not the laws of love but the iron laws which by force hold the evil in check.

What are some of the evil and false maxims which form Og’s bedstead? Have you never heard that “enlightened self-interest will lead to a just economic life,” or that “honesty is the best policy,” or that “men are naturally good and it is only adverse external conditions which cause crime,” or that “the commandments and the Golden Rule are beautiful but they cannot be kept in the business world,” or that “self-preservation is the first law of nature?” These maxims built into a Doctrine or whatever a selfish man believes. They are the bedstead of iron which the evil man uses to support his selfishness.

In the Word measurements and numbers signify quality. Og’s bedstead was nine cubits long and four cubits wide. In a good sense the number nine stands for what is full and complete and respect to truth and the number four, full conjunction with what is good. But in the case of this wicked giant they are used in the opposite sense, to denote complete and absolute falsity and evil in the maxims of the selfish man.

It is said of the final disposal of Og’s iron bedstead, “Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon?” There is no other place to which this bedstead could have been carried. Ammon stands for the falsification of truths. The false doctrine represented by Og’s bedstead belongs in the hells where truth is falsified. The Spiritual man has no use for this bedstead, for when he shuns evil and has become regenerate, he has no use for the falsities which support the body of his selfish spirit. For then these doctrines and maxims are removed even from his natural mind and cast back into the hells where they originated and from which they were injected into his mind.

After Og was slain, half the tribe of Manasseh took over the land. After regeneration, the Lord turns over this whole pasture land of our spiritual Bashan to those heavenly principles which find food and culture there, and by which the world is blessed and the prophecy of the Psalmist is fulfilled: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”

We live in a humanistic and materialistic time and it is hard for us to escape the influence of the false maxims which so many about us have accepted as the only practical laws for life in this world. The prophet Micah prays: “Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.”

449. Of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand sealed, signifies the conjunction with the Lord of those who are in the lowest heaven. This is evident from the representation of "Benjamin" and the tribe named from him, as being the spiritual-celestial in the natural man, as "Joseph" represents it in the spiritual. The spiritual-celestial is truth conjoined to good; for truth regarded in itself is spiritual, and good is celestial; therefore by "Benjamin" and his tribe the conjunction of truth and good in the natural is signified, and thus here the conjunction with the Lord of those who are in the lowest heaven; for in the lowest heaven are those who are in natural good and truth from the spiritual and the celestial. Those who are in the lowest heaven are either spiritual-natural or celestial-natural; the spiritual-natural there belong to the Lord's spiritual kingdom, and the celestial-natural to His celestial kingdom, therefore the spiritual-natural communicate with the second heaven where all are spiritual, while the celestial-natural communicate with the third heaven where all are celestial (as was said in the article above).

[2] From all this the signification in the Word of "Joseph" and of "Benjamin," who were brothers, can be seen. As "Benjamin" signifies truth conjoined to good in the natural man, and thus truth conjoined to good in those who are in the lowest heaven, so he was born to Jacob last, and was called by him "son of the right hand," (Benjamin, in the original, means son of the right hand); also he was born in Bethlehem, and that city signifies truth conjoined to good in the natural. (That he was born in Bethlehem, see Genesis 35:16-19.) He was born the last because the natural, consisting of truth conjoined to good, is the ultimate of the church with man. For with man there are three degrees of life, the inmost, the middle, and the ultimate; in the inmost degree are those who are in the inmost or third heaven, in the middle degree are those who are in the middle or second heaven, and in the ultimate degree are those who are in the lowest or first heaven; so those who are in the inmost degree are called celestial, those who are in the middle are called spiritual, and those who are in the ultimate degree are called either spiritual-natural, or celestial-natural, and the conjunction of these in the ultimate degree is signified by "Benjamin." (Respecting these three degrees of life in man and angel, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 33, 34, 38, 39, 208, 209, 211, 435.) This now is why Benjamin was born the last of the sons of Jacob.

[3] He was called "the son of the right hand" because "son" signifies truth, and "right hand" signifies the power of truth from good, and in the spiritual world truth that is from good in the natural man has all power. All the power the spiritual man has is in this, because the effecting cause is in the spiritual man, and the effect is in the natural, and all the power of the effecting cause puts itself forth through the effect. (That all the power of the spiritual man is in the natural, and through the natural, see Arcana Coelestia 9836.) For this reason he was called "Benjamin," that is, "the son of the right hand." And as "Bethlehem" has a like signification, namely, truth conjoined to good in the natural man, David too was born there, and also anointed as king (1 Samuel 16:1-14; 17:12); for David as king represented the Lord in respect to truth from good, and this, too, is signified by "king" (as may be seen above, n. 29, 31, 205). For the same reason the Lord was born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1, 5, 6) because He was born a king, and truth conjoined to good was with Him from birth. For every infant is born natural, and the natural, because it is next to the external senses and the world, is first opened, and this with all men is ignorant of truth and desirous of evil; but in the Lord alone the natural had a desire for good and a longing for truth; for the ruling affection in man, which is his soul, is from the father; and with the Lord, the affection or soul from the Father was the Divine Itself, which is the Divine good of the Divine love.

[4] Because "Benjamin" and his tribe signify truth conjoined to good in the natural man:

His lot in the land of Canaan was between the sons of Judah and the sons of Joseph; Jerusalem also, where the Jebusites then were, fell to that tribe for an inheritance (Joshua 18:11-28);

so that the sons of Benjamin dwelt there with the Jews, who afterwards occupied that city. The tribe of Benjamin had its lot among the sons of Joseph, because that tribe represented and thence signified the conjunction of good and truth; for "Judah" signifies the good of the church, and "Joseph" the truth of the church. Jerusalem fell to that tribe because "Jerusalem" signified the church in respect to doctrine and worship, and all doctrine of the church is the doctrine of truth conjoined to good, and all worship is effected according to doctrine through the natural man; for, as was said above, worship is an effect from the effecting cause which is in the spiritual man.

[5] From this the signification of "Benjamin" in the following passages can be seen. In Jeremiah:

In hallowing the sabbath they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the circuits of Jerusalem and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland and from the mountain and from the south, bringing burnt-offering and sacrifice and meal-offering and frankincense (Jeremiah 17:26).

This was done for hallowing the sabbath because the "sabbath" signifies the union of the Divine and the Divine Human in the Lord, and in a relative sense the conjunction of His Divine Human with heaven and with the church, and in general the conjunction of good and truth (See Arcana Coelestia 8495, 8510, 10356, 10367, 10370, 10374, 10668, 10730). "The cities of Judah, the circuits of Jerusalem, and the land of Benjamin," signify truths conjoined to good in the natural man; "the cities of Judah" the truths of good; "the circuits of Jerusalem" the truths of doctrine in the natural man, and "the land of Benjamin" their conjunction; for "cities" signify truths, "Judah" the good of the church, "Jerusalem" the doctrine of truth, "circuits" such things as are round about or below, which are the truths of good in the natural man, and "the land of Benjamin" the church in respect to the conjunction of these in the natural man; "from the lowland, from the mountain, and from the south," signifies good and truth in the natural man from a celestial origin and from a spiritual origin; "lowland" signifying good and truth in the natural man, because in lowlands, that is, below the mountains and hills, those dwell who are in the lowest heaven, and are called celestial-natural and spiritual-natural, as was said above; "mountains" signifying those who are in celestial good, and "south" those who are in spiritual good, and thence in the light of truth; "to bring burnt-offering and sacrifice, and meal-offering and frankincense," signifies worship from celestial good and from spiritual good in the natural man; "burnt-offering" signifying worship from celestial good; "sacrifice" worship from spiritual good; "meal-offering and frankincense" good and the truth of good in the natural man. Such is the signification of these words. Why else should it be said that in hallowing the sabbath they should come "from the cities of Judah, from the circuits of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, the mountain, and the south," and why not from the whole land of Canaan?

[6] Because all these particulars signify such things as belong to heaven and the church, like things are also mentioned elsewhere in the same Prophet:

In the cities of the mountain, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the circuits of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that numbereth them (Jeremiah 33:13).

They shall buy fields with silver, and this by writing in a book, and by causing witnesses to witness, in the land of Benjamin, and in the circuits of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountain, and in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the south, for I will turn back their captivity (Jeremiah 32:8, 44).

In these passages "the land of Benjamin, the circuits of Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, the mountain, the lowland, and the south," have a similar signification as above; thus "Benjamin" signifies the conjunction of truth and good in the natural man, and accordingly the conjunction of truth and good with those who are in the lowest heaven.

[7] In the same:

Gather yourselves, ye sons of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and sounding sound the trumpet, and upon the house of the vineyard kindle a conflagration, for evil looketh forth from the north, and a great breaking up (Jeremiah 6:1).

In the spiritual sense this treats of the devastation of the church in respect to truth and good, because it is against Zion and Jerusalem, for "Zion" signifies the good of the church, and "Jerusalem" its truth; and as "the sons of Benjamin" signify the conjunction of good and truth, they are told "to gather themselves out of the midst of Jerusalem, to sound the trumpet, and upon the house of the vineyard to kindle a conflagration;" "to sound the trumpet" signifying combat against that church from truths that are from good; "house of the vineyard" that church itself, and "to kindle a conflagration" its destruction by evil loves; the "north from which the evil looks forth" signifies the falsity of evil, and "a great breaking up" signifies the dispersion of good and truth.

[8] In David:

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that sittest upon the cherubim shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy might, and come for salvation to us (Psalms 80:1, 2).

"Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh," do not mean Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, but those who are in natural truth and good, and with whom there is a conjunction of these (See above, n. 440), where this is explained).

[9] In the same:

Bless ye God in the assemblies, the Lord from the fountain of Israel. There little Benjamin is over them, the princes of Judah, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali (Psalms 68:26, 27).

Here Benjamin, the princes of Judah, of Zebulun, and of Naphtali, are not meant, but those things of the church that are signified by these tribes; and "little Benjamin" here signifies the innocence of the natural man; the innocence of the natural man is in the conjunction of good and truth there. (This too may be seen explained above, n. 439.)

[10] In the blessing of the sons of Israel by Moses:

Of Benjamin he said, The beloved of Jehovah, he shall dwell safely by him. He shall cover him all the day, and he shall dwell between His shoulders (Deuteronomy 33:12).

"Benjamin" here signifies the Word in the ultimate sense, which is natural; for in this blessing by Moses the Word is described, and each tribe signifies something of it; and as the ultimate sense of the Word, which is natural, has in it a marriage of good and truth, as has been shown in many places, therefore Benjamin is called "the beloved of Jehovah," and it is said "he shall dwell safely by him, and He shall cover him all the day, and he shall dwell between His shoulders," "to dwell between the shoulders" meaning in safety and in power.

[11] The signification of "Benjamin" in the prophecy of Israel the father respecting his son (Genesis 49:27) has been explained in the Arcana Coelestia 6439-6444). In that prophecy, Benjamin is the last one treated of, because he signifies the ultimate of the church and of heaven; the ultimate is the natural, in which truth is conjoined to good.

[12] Because this is the signification of "Benjamin":

The tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin pitched in the wilderness about the tent of meeting, on the west side (Numbers 2:18-24);

and these three tribes signify all who are in natural truth and good, and in the conjunction of these, "Ephraim" signifying truth in the natural man, "Manasseh" good there (as has been shown above), and "Benjamin" the conjunction of these. These tribes pitched on the west side, because in heaven those dwell at the west and at the north who are in the obscurity of good and in the obscurity of truth, thus who are in natural good and truth; but those dwell at the east and at the south in heaven who are in clearness of good and truth. (Respecting this see in the work on Heaven and Hell 141-153.)

[13] From this it can now be seen what "Benjamin" signifies in the Word, namely, the conjunction of good and truth in the natural man, and its conjunction through good with the spiritual; for all good that is good in the natural man flows in from the spiritual man, that is, through the spiritual man from the Lord. Without such influx there is no good in the natural man; therefore "Benjamin" signifies also the conjunction of the spiritual man with the natural, and "Joseph" the conjunction of the celestial man with the spiritual.