Arcana Coelestia #9339
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:
1. i.e. the Euphrates
2. The Latin means I will drive them out but the Hebrew means You will drive them out.
Arcana Coelestia #2124
2124. I have been told that good present in the will, as it was with members of the Most Ancient Church, existed no longer in those before the Flood, and that at the present time with members of the Christian Church good present in the understanding is starting to perish, so much so that little of it is left. The reason for this is that they believe nothing except that which they grasp with the senses, and nowadays they not only reason from the senses but also do so about Divine arcana by means of a philosophy unknown to the ancients. As a result the light of understanding is utterly darkened; and that darkness is growing so deep that it can hardly be dispelled.
