4446. Verses 8-12 And Hamor spoke to them, saying, Shechem my son, his soul longs for your daughter; give her, I beg you, to him for a wife. And intermarry with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. And you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you; dwell, and carry on trade throughout it, and have possessions in it. And Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, Let me find grace in your eyes, and I will give that which you tell me. Increase the dowry and gift to any size, ¹ and I will give whatever you tell me, and give me the young woman for a wife.

'Hamor spoke to them, saying' means the good of the Church among the Ancients. 'Shechem my son' means the truth derived from that good. 'His soul longs for your daughter; give her, I beg you, to him for a wife' means a longing to be joined to this new Church which in outward appearance was similar to the Ancient Church. 'And intermarry with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves' means the union of goods and truths. 'And you shall dwell with us' means life. 'And the land shall be before you; dwell' means the Church which would be one. 'Carry on trade throughout it, and have possessions in it' means matters of doctrine which, because they are communicated, would accord with one another. 'And Shechem said to her father and to her brothers' means counsel taken by the truth from the ancient Divine stock with the good and truth of this semblance of religion. 'Let me find grace in your eyes, and I will give that which you tell me' means that if they on their part were similar in mind to him on his part. 'Increase the dowry and gift to any size, and I will give whatever you tell me' means that he will accept the things which exist with them and will make those things his own. 'And give me the young woman for a wife' means provided the joining together takes place.

Footnotes:

1437. 'They came out to go into the land of Canaan' means that in this manner He drew closer to the celestial things of love. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land of Canaan'. That 'the land of Canaan' represents the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth becomes clear from many things in the Word. The reason it does so is that the representative Church was established in that land, a Church in which every single thing represented the Lord and the celestial and spiritual things of His kingdom. This applied not only to religious observances but also to everything associated with those observances - to both the persons who ministered and to the things they administered, and even to the places where the ministrations took place because the representative Church was centred there the land was consequently called 'the Holy Land', even though it was anything but holy, seeing that idolaters and profaners inhabited it. This then is the reason why 'the land of Canaan' here and in what follows means the celestial things of love Indeed the celestial things of love, these alone, exist in the Lord's kingdom and constitute that kingdom