9339. Verses 31-33 And I will set your boundary from the Sea Suph even to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness even to the River; ¹ for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out ² from before you. You shall not make a covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me when you serve their gods; for it will be a snare to you.

'And I will set your boundary from the Sea Suph even to the Sea of the Philistines' means the full range of truths from factual ones to interior truths of faith. 'And from the wilderness even to the River' means from delight belonging to the sensory level even to good and truth belonging to the rational level. 'For I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand' means dominion over evils. 'And you will drive them out from before you' means the removal of them. 'You shall not make a covenant with them and their gods' means no contact with evils and falsities. 'They shall not dwell in your land' means that evils must not exist together with the Church's forms of good. 'Lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me' means lest evils turn away forms of good from the Lord. 'When you serve their gods' means if worship is kindled by falsities. 'For it will be a snare to you' means owing to evils that are enticing and deceptive.

Footnotes:

597. And his feet as pillars of fire, signifies Divine truth, or the Word in ultimates, which is natural, sustaining interior things there, and full of the good of love. This is evident from the signification of "feet," as being in reference to the Lord the Divine good of natural Divine love, which is the ultimate in Divine order (See above, n. 65, 69); from the signification of "pillars," as being lower truths which sustain the higher (See above, n. 219); and from the signification of "fire," as being in reference to the Lord the Divine love (See also above, n. 68, 496, 504). From this it can be seen that "the feet of the angel seen as pillars of fire" signify Divine truth or the Word in ultimates, which, as the natural sustaining interior things, is full of the good of love. Divine truth in ultimates means the Word in the sense of the letter; and because this sense is natural, and the natural is the ultimate of Divine order, therefore this is what sustains spiritual and celestial Divine truth, exactly as pillars sustain a house or feet sustain the body; for without the natural sense of the Word its interiors, which are spiritual and celestial, would fall apart, like a house when its pillars are removed. Each and all things, therefore, that are in the natural or ultimate sense of the Word are perpetual correspondences, that is, they correspond to the spiritual and celestial things that are in the heavens, and thus also they signify them. From this it can in some measure be seen how natural Divine truth, which is the Word in the world, sustains spiritual and celestial Divine truth, which is Divine truth in heaven, as pillars sustain a house. This makes clear also why the feet of the angel were seen as "pillars of fire." Moreover, that the Word in its ultimate or natural sense is full of the good of love can be seen from these words of the Lord:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and in all thy soul and in all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets (Matthew 22:37-40).

"The law and the prophets" mean the Word in all things and in every particular; consequently these words mean that each and all things in the Word hang upon the good of love to the Lord, and the good of charity toward the neighbor.