438. Verse 6. Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand sealed, signifies charity towards the neighbor, and that all who are in it are in heaven and come into heaven. This is evident from the signification of "the tribe of Asher," as being the spiritual affection which is charity (of which presently); and from the signification of "twelve thousand sealed," as being those who are in heaven and who come into heaven (as above, n. 433). That "the tribe of Asher" signifies love towards the neighbor, which is called charity, will be made clear from what follows, and is also clear from this, that the twelve tribes taken together represented heaven and the church, and therefore signify these in the Word, and that each tribe represented, and thence signifies, some universal essential that is a constituent of heaven and the church. Heaven and the church are constituted, in general, of three universal essentials, namely, love to the Lord, charity towards the neighbor, and the obedience of faith; love to the Lord is signified by the first three tribes, Judah, Reuben, and Gad (as was shown above); charity towards the neighbor is signified by these three tribes, Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh; while the obedience of faith is signified by the three tribes next named, Simeon, Levi, and Issachar; the conjunction of all of these with the Lord is signified by the last three tribes, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. This, in brief, is the signification of all these tribes named in this order, for their signification is determined by the order in which they are named (as has been said and shown above, n. 431, 435, 436).

[2] Furthermore, the "sealed" mean those who have been separated from the evil and received into heaven; and the first three tribes mean those who have been received into the highest or third heaven, in which all are in love to the Lord; the three tribes next named, which are now under consideration, mean those who have been received into the middle or second heaven, in which all are in charity towards the neighbor; while the three tribes that next follow mean those who have been received into the lowest or first heaven, where those are who are in the obedience that is called the obedience of faith; and the last three tribes mean the reception of all these into the three heavens by the Lord; for there are three heavens, distinguished from one another according to the degrees of the good of love. From all this it can first be seen that this second class of tribes, that is, the three tribes, Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh, mean those who are in charity towards the neighbor; "the tribe of Asher" meaning charity towards the neighbor; "Naphtali" the regeneration of those who are in that charity, and "Manasseh" their good of life.

[3] But what "Asher" signifies in the Lord's kingdom, that is, in the church, shall first be told. "Asher" signifies the blessedness of spiritual affections, and thence spiritual affection itself; and as spiritual affection is what is called love towards the neighbor or charity, so "Asher" here signifies charity; consequently the "twelve thousand" of that tribe here signify all who are in charity, and are thus in the second or middle heaven. That Asher was so called from what is blessed or from blessedness is evident both from the meaning of the word in Hebrew and also from what was said of him by Leah the wife of Jacob, when he was born, which is the following:

Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, bare Jacob a second son. And Leah said, In my blessedness, for the daughters will call me blessed; and she called his name Asher (Genesis 30:12, 13).

"The daughters who should call her blessed" signify the spiritual affections of truth, which constitute the church, from which is every internal blessedness that is heavenly, in which blessedness those are who are in charity towards the neighbor, for charity towards the neighbor is the spiritual affection of truth (as was just said above); and the spiritual affection of truth is to love truth in its essence, that is, to love truth because it is truth; moreover, the neighbor, in the spiritual sense, is nothing else than good and truth, and charity is love for this (as can be seen from what is said and shown in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, on Love towards the Neighbor, which is called Charity, n84-107. The rest of the passage may be seen explained in Arcana Coelestia 3936-3939).

[4] That "Asher" signified blessedness which is of love and charity is further evident from the blessing of Asher by Israel his father:

From Asher his bread is fat, and he shall yield the delicacies of a king (Genesis 49:20).

"From Asher" signifies from celestial and spiritual affections, which are those of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbor; "his bread is fat," signifies delight from good; "and he shall yield the delicacies of a king" signifies pleasure from truth. (This is further explained in Arcana Coelestia 6408-6410.)

[5] "Asher" has a similar significance in Moses' blessing, namely, the delight of the affection of truth from the Word; the blessing is this:

Of Asher he said, Blessed above sons be Asher; let him be acceptable unto his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil; thy shoe is iron and brass; and as the days so thy fame (Deuteronomy 33:24, 25).

Moses' blessing of the sons of Israel contains arcana respecting the Word; and "Asher," who is the one last mentioned there signifies the spiritual affection of truth from the Word; therefore it is said, "Blessed above sons be Asher, let him be acceptable to his brethren," "sons" signifying truths, and "brethren" the church from truths; and "blessed" and "acceptable" are predicated of the affection of truths. The good of love, from which are the truths of the Word in the sense of the letter, is signified by "dipping his foot in oil;" "foot" signifies truth in ultimates, which is the truth of the sense of the letter of the Word, and "oil" signifies the good of love. That the ultimate of the Word is natural truth and good is signified by "thy shoe is iron and brass;" natural truth is signified by "iron," and natural good by "brass," and the ultimate by "shoe." That the Word is to endure to eternity is signified by "as the days so thy fame." (That "iron" signifies natural truth, see above, n. 176; that "brass" signifies natural good, n. 70; and that "shoe" signifies the ultimate of the natural, which is the sensual, see Arcana Coelestia 1748, 2162, 6844)

[6] Because "Asher" signifies the delight of affections, such as those have who are in truths from the sense of the letter:

That tribe encamped, together with the tribe of Dan and the tribe of Naphtali, to the north (Numbers 2:25-31).

The encampments of the sons of Israel in the wilderness represented the arrangements of the angelic societies in the heavens (See above, n. 431), and there to the north are the dwelling places of those who, from the good of charity, are in the affection of spiritual knowledges.

[7] That "Asher" signifies spiritual blessedness, which is blessedness from love and charity, can be seen in Ezekiel, where the new land and the new city are treated of, and that land is distributed as an inheritance among all the tribes of Israel; and to the city twelve gates are assigned, one for each tribe. The inheritance of Asher is there described in chapter Ezekiel 48:1-3, and the gates in these words:

The corner towards the sea four thousand and five hundred; ¹ the gates of the city three; one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali. Round about eighteen thousand; and the name of the city from that day, Jehovah-is-there (verses 34, 35).

The "land" that was to be distributed for an inheritance signifies the church; the "sons of Israel" among whom it was to be distributed, signify all truths from good in the complex that belong to the church; the "city" signifies the doctrine of truth from good of love, therefore it is called Jehovah shammah, or "Jehovah-is-there;" the "gates" signify introductory truths, which are doctrinals; the number "four thousand and five hundred" signifies all truths from good, and "eighteen thousand" all the truths of doctrine encompassing and defending. This makes clear not only that each and all things there mentioned, even to the numbers, signify the things of the church, but also that no tribe of Israel is there meant, each tribe named standing for some universal essential of the church. It is evident, moreover, that "Asher" here signifies the spiritual affection of truth, which makes one with charity towards the neighbor. (That "Asher" signifies eternity in the highest sense, in the internal sense the felicity of life from blessedness of affections that are of love and charity, and in the external sense natural delight therefrom, see in Arcana Coelestia 3938, 3939, 6408.)

Footnotes:

6306. 'Which I took out of the hand of the Amorite' means because of the victory over evil. This is clear from the representation of 'the Amorite' as evil, dealt with in 1857; and from the meaning of 'taking out of the hand' as acquiring through victory. As regards 'the Amorites', it should be recognized that they mean evil, just as 'the Canaanites' and all the other nations in the land that are mentioned in the Word mean various kinds of evil and also of falsity. Such things were represented by the nations when the children of Israel were taking possession of the land of Canaan. The reason for this was that whenever the children of Israel represented the things of heaven those nations represented the things of hell; thus the land of Canaan represented every state that exists in the next life. Also, because the nations represented the things of hell they were utterly destroyed; and entrance into any treaty with those who might remain was forbidden.

[2] The action of the children of Israel, of their taking possession of and dwelling in the land of those who represented the hells, was representative. It represented what happened around the time of the Lord's Coming, when spirits from hell had possession of a large part of heaven but He, by coming into the world and making the human within Himself Divine, cast them out of there and down into hell, and thereby delivered heaven from them, which He then gave as an inheritance to those who belonged to His spiritual kingdom.

[3] The representation of the Amorite nation as evil in general is evident from the places where it is referred to, as in Ezekiel, Thus said the Lord Jehovih to Jerusalem, ¹ Your tradings and your births are of the land of the Canaanite. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. Ezekiel 16:3, 45.

'Father' in the internal sense means the Church's good, or in the contrary sense evil, and 'mother' means the Church's truth, or in the contrary sense falsity; and this is why it is said, 'Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite'.

[4] In Amos,

I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and whose strength was like the oaks. I led you in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. Amos 2:9-10.

Here also 'the Amorite' stands for evil, for the evil of self-love is described by 'the height of the cedars' and 'the strength of an oak'. The reason why 'the Amorite' means evil in general is that the entire land of Canaan was called 'the land of the Amorite'; for it says, 'I led you in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite'. In addition the second Book of Kings says,

Manasseh king of Judah did what was evil, greater than all the evil which the Amorites did, who were before him. 2 Kings 21:11.

[5] 'With my sword' means through truth engaged in conflict. This is clear from the meaning of 'sword' as truth engaged in conflict, dealt with in 2799, 4499.

'And my bow' means received from doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'bow' as doctrine, dealt with in 2686, 2709.

[6] The words used here, 'the portion which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow' were, it is quite evident, uttered by Israel on account of the internal sense; for Jacob did not take that portion from the Amorite with sword or bow. He bought it from the sons of Hamor, as is evident from Genesis 33, where these words occur, Jacob came to Salem, the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, as he was coming from Paddan Aram; and he encamped towards the face of the city. And he bought the portion of the field where he had stretched his tent, from the hand of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitahs. Genesis 33:18-19.

The fact that this field was the portion he gave to Joseph is clear in Joshua,

The bones of Joseph which the children of Israel caused to be brought up out of Egypt they buried in Shechem, in the part of the field which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitahs; and they had become an inheritance for the children of Joseph. Joshua 24:32.

From this it is evident that the portion had been bought, and that this is what was given to Joseph. Nor was the city of Shechem nearby meant, the city in which Simeon and Levi killed every male and which they took with the sword, Genesis 34. This is made clear by the fact that Jacob detested what they did and for that reason cursed Simeon and Levi, completely dissociating himself from the crime. He said,

Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of violence are their swords. Into their secret place let my soul not come; in their congregation let not my glory be united; for in their anger they killed a man, and in their pleasure they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was hard. ² I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. Genesis 49:5-7.

From all this it may now be seen that the words 'the portion which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow' were uttered by him, when the spirit of prophecy rested on him, for the sake of the internal sense.

Footnotes: