8910. 'You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male slave nor his female slave, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's' means that one must be on one's guard against self-love and love of the world, and so one must take care to prevent the evils contained in the preceding commandments from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it. This is clear from the meaning of 'coveting' as a wanting that springs from an evil love. The reason why 'coveting' has this meaning is that all covetousness or craving exists as the result of some kind of love. For nothing is coveted unless there is a love of it, and therefore covetousness extends as a continuation from some kind of love, in this instance from self-love and love of the world. It is so to speak the life of what those loves breathe, for what an evil kind of love breathes is called covetousness or craving, whereas what a good kind breathes is called desire. The love itself belongs to one of two parts of the mind, which is called the will; for what a person loves, that he wills and intends. but covetousness belongs to both parts, to both the will and the understanding, that is, it is an attribute of the will within the understanding, to be precise. All this shows why it is that the words 'you shall not covet the things that are your neighbour's' mean that one must take care to prevent them from becoming present in the will, since what takes possession of the will becomes the person's own; for, to be sure, the will is the real person.

[2] The world believes that thought is the person. But there are two powers that constitute a person's life - understanding and will - and thought belongs to the understanding, the affection inherent in love being what belongs to the will. Thought without the affection inherent in love does not in any way at all constitute a person's life; but thought springing from such affection, that is, the understanding springing from the will, does constitute it. Those two powers are distinct from each other, which is evident to anyone who stops to reflect on the matter from the consideration that with his understanding a person can perceive that that thing is bad which his will desires, and that that thing is good which his will either does or does not desire. From all this it is plain that the will is the real person, not his thought, except so far as anything passes into it from the will. So it is that things which enter a person's thought but do not pass on through it into his will do not render him unclean; only those which pass through thought on into the will do so. The reason why the latter render a person unclean is that he takes them to himself then and makes them his; for the will, as has been stated, is the real person. The things which become part of his will are said to go into his heart and to go out from there, whereas those which are merely part of his thought are said to go into the mouth and to go out by way of the bowels into the sewer, according to the Lord's words in Matthew,

Not what enters the mouth renders a person unclean, but what comes out of the mouth, this renders the person unclean. Everything that goes into the mouth departs into the bowels and is cast out into the sewer. But the things which come out of the mouth come out of the heart, and these render a person unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, ravishments, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Matthew 15:11, 17-19.

[3] From these words as from all the others the nature of the Lord's manner of speaking becomes clear. That is, its nature was such that internal or spiritual matters were meant, but they were expressed by means of external or natural things and in accordance with correspondences. For the mouth corresponds to thought, and so do all parts of the mouth, such as the lips, tongue, and throat, while the heart corresponds to the affection inherent in love, and so to the will. For the correspondence of the heart to these, see 2930, 3313, 3883-3896, 7542. Consequently 'entering the mouth' is entering thought, and 'going out of the heart' is going out of the will. 'Departing into the bowels and being cast out into the sewer (or latrine)' is going away into hell; for the bowels correspond to the way to hell, while the sewer or latrine corresponds to hell itself. Hell also in the Word is called 'the latrine'. All this shows what is meant by 'everything that goes into the mouth departs into the bowels and is cast out into the sewer', namely that evil and falsity are introduced into a person's thought by hell and are discharged back there again. Such evil and falsity cannot render a person unclean because they are discharged from him. For a person cannot help thinking what is evil, but he can refrain from doing it. As soon however as he receives evil from his thought into his will it does not go out but enters into him; and this is said 'to enter the heart'. The things that go out from here are what render him unclean; for what a person desires in his will goes out into speech and action, so far as external restraints do not inhibit him, those restraints being fear of the law, and fear of the loss of reputation, position, gain, or life. From all this it is now evident that 'you shall not covet' means that one must take care to prevent evils from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it.

[4] The fact that 'covetousness' is a craving or lusting on the part of the will, and so of the heart, is also clear from the Lord's words in Matthew,

You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that if anyone looks at a woman ¹ so that he lusts after her he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28.

'Lusting for' is used here to mean desiring in the will, and - but for the fears acting as external restraints - also doing. This is why it says that one who looks at a woman so that he lusts after her has committed adultery with her in his heart.

[5] Lusting after what is evil is also meant by 'the right eye causing one to stumble', and lusting after what is false by 'the right hand causing one to stumble' in the Lord's words, again in Matthew,

If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you; for it will be better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be cast into gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you; for it will be better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be cast into gehenna. Matthew 5:29-30.

From these words the Lord's way of saying things is again clear. That is to say, He was speaking from the Divine, as in every other place in the Word, in such a way that He expressed inward and heavenly matters through outward or natural ones in accordance with correspondences. In this instance He expressed an affection for evil or lusting after it by 'the right eye causing one to stumble', and an affection for falsity or lusting after it by 'the right hand causing one to stumble'. For the eye corresponds to faith, the left eye to the truth of faith, and the right eye to the good of faith, or in the contrary sense to the evil of faith, so that 'the right eye causing one to stumble' corresponds to lusting after what is evil, 4403-4421, 4523-4534. But the hand corresponds to the power that truth possesses, the right hand to the power of truth coming from good, or in the contrary sense the power of falsity coming from evil, so that 'the right hand causing one to stumble' corresponds to a lusting after it, 3091, 4931-4937, 8281. 'Gehenna' is the hell of lusts, cravings, or covetousness. Anyone may see that here 'the right eye' was not used to mean the right eye or that it was to be plucked out; also that 'the right hand' was not used to mean the right hand or that it was to be cut off, but that something other was meant. What this is cannot be known unless one knows what is really meant by 'the eye', in particular by 'the right eye', also what is meant by 'the hand', and in particular by 'the right hand', as well as what 'causing to stumble' really means. Nor can the meaning of these expressions be known except from the internal sense.

[6] Lusts, cravings, or covetous desires are what spring from an evil will, thus from a heart that is such; and according to the Lord's words in Matthew 15:19, murders, adulteries, ravishments, thefts, false witness, blasphemies come out of the heart or will, that is, the kinds of evils contained in the preceding commandments of the Decalogue. In all this lies the reason for saying that this - 'you must not covet the things which are your neighbour's' - means that one must take care to prevent the evils contained in the ''receding commandments from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it. The reason why 'you shall not covet the things which are your neighbour's' also means that one must be on one's guard against self-love and love of the world is that all the evils composing covetousness well up from those loves as their source, see 2045, 7178, 7255, 7366 7377, 7488, 8318, 8678.

Footnotes:

962. And there came a great ¹ and noxious sore, signifies evil works therein and consequent falsifications of the Word. This is evident from the signification of a "sore," as being works that are done from man, thus that are from what is his own [proprium] and that are evil (of which presently); and as "great" ¹ is predicated of good, and in the contrary sense of evil, and "noxious" of what is falsified, therefore "a great ¹ and noxious sore" signifies evil works, and consequent falsifications of truth. "Sores" signify works from what is one's own [proprium], and thus evils, because from what is man's own nothing but evil can be produced. For what is man's own is that into which he is born, and which he afterwards carries into effect by means of his life. And as what is his own is thus from very birth composed of mere evils, man must be as it were created anew, that is, regenerated, that he may be in good and thus be received into heaven. When he is being regenerated the evils that are from his own are removed, and goods are implanted in their place, and this is effected by means of truths. That evil works and falsifications of truths are with those who acknowledge faith alone in doctrine, and confirm it in life is meant by what follows, namely, that "a great ¹ and noxious sore is on the men who have the mark of the beast and who adore his image."

[2] That "sores" signify works that are from one's own can be seen from the Word where sores and wounds, also diseases of various kinds, as leprosies, fevers, ulcers, emerods, and many others, are mentioned. All of these correspond to the cupidities that arise from evil loves, and thus signify them. Moreover, what sores or wounds signify can be seen from the following passages. In Isaiah:

From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; wound, and bruise, and the fresh blow, they have not been pressed out nor bound up nor softened with oil. Your land is a solitude, your cities are burned with fire (Isaiah 1:6, 7).

This describes that there is no good and consequently no truth in the church, but evil and falsity therefrom. "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness" signifies that both natural and spiritual things which are the interiors of man and of his will have been destroyed. "Wound and bruise and fresh blow" signify the evils of the will, and the falsities of the thought therefrom continually increasing. Evils of the will are also evil works. "Not bound up nor softened with oil" signifies not amended by repentance and tempered by good. "Your land is a solitude, your cities are burned with fire" signifies that the church has been devastated as to all truth, and its doctrinals have been destroyed by a life according to the cupidities that spring from an evil love.

[3] In Hosea:

Ephraim saw his disease, and Judah his wound; and Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb, and he was not able to heal you, neither shall he cure you of your wound (Hosea 5:13).

"Ephraim" signifies the church as to the understanding of truth, here as to the understanding of falsity; and "Judah" signifies the will of good, but here the will of evil; the "Assyrian" and "king Jareb" signify the rational perverted as to good and truth. This makes clear the signification of these words in the series, namely, that man is unable from self-intelligence to amend the falsities that spring from the evils of the will, "wound" meaning the evil of the will, which also is the evil of the life.

[4] In David:

Mine iniquities have passed over my head. My wounds have putrefied, they have wasted away because of my foolishness (Psalms 38:4, 5).

Here, too, "wounds" stand for evils of the will, which are evil works, these are said "to putrefy and to waste away because of foolishness" when it is the delight of the will and of the thought therefrom to do them.

[5] In Isaiah:

In the day that Jehovah shall bind up the breach of His people, and shall heal the wound of their blow (Isaiah 30:26).

"The breach of the people" signifies the falsity of doctrine; and "the wound of their blow" the evil of life; the reformation of doctrine by means of truths is signified by "Jehovah shall bind up the breach of His people;" and reformation of the life by means of truths is signified by "He shall heal the wound of their blow."

[6] In Luke:

The Samaritan bound up the wounds of the man disabled by robbers, and poured into them oil and wine (Luke 10:33, 34).

This signifies that by means of truths from good, those who are in the good of charity will to amend the evils that spring from falsities; "robbers" mean those who have infused falsities from which come evils, in particular the Jews; "wounds" mean those evils; "oil" means the good of love; and "wine" the truth of the Word and of doctrine. (But this may be seen explained above, n. 376, 444)

[7] In Luke:

Lazarus, full of sores, who was cast forth at the vestibule of the rich man (Luke 16:20, 21),

signifies the nations that were in falsities from ignorance of truth, and thus were not in goods. From this he is said to have been "fall of sores;" "the rich man" at whose vestibule he was cast forth means the Jewish nation, which could have been in the truths from the Word that it possessed.

[8] That "a boil breaking forth" was one of the plagues in Egypt is evident in Moses:

Jehovah said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses scatter it towards heaven before the eyes of Pharaoh; and it shall become dust upon all the land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace, and Moses scattered it towards heaven, and it became a boil of pustules breaking forth on man and beast; and the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boil, because the boil was upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians (Exodus 9:8-11).

"Pharaoh and the Egyptians" signify the natural man obsessed by evils and falsities of every kind, and the natural man's striving after dominion over the spiritual; the spiritual man is here signified by the sons of Israel. The miracles in Egypt, which were so many plagues, also called diseases, signify so many evils and falsities infesting, devastating, and destroying the church which is with spiritual men. "The ashes of the furnace" which Moses scattered towards heaven signify the falsities of lusts that are stirred up; "the dust in the land of Egypt" signifies damnation; "the boil breaking forth in pustules" signifies the filthy things of the will with blasphemies. (But this may be seen explained in detail in the Arcana Coelestia 7516-7532.)

[9] So, too, these words in Moses have a like signification:

Jehovah shall smite thee with the boil of Egypt and with emerods, and with scab and the itch, so that thou canst not be healed, with which thou shalt become mad from the sight of their eyes. Jehovah shall smite thee with an evil boil upon the knees and upon the thighs, of which thou canst not be healed (Deuteronomy 28:27, 34-36).

The plagues here mentioned signify evils and falsities of various kinds arising from the filthy loves of the natural man, for they correspond thereto. For sores and wounds exist from injury to flesh and blood, and evils and falsities from injury to the Divine good and the Divine truth; and flesh corresponds to good, and thus signifies it in the Word, and blood to truth, and thus signifies it.

[10] As "leprosy" signifies the profanation of truth, and the profanation of truth is various, is light or grievous, interior or exterior, and is according to the quality of the truth profaned, so too its effects are various, and these are signified by the appearances in leprosy, which were:

Tumors, suppurating tumors, white pustules, reddenings, abscesses, burnings, tetter, scall (Leviticus 13 to the end). The Jewish nation was afflicted with such things from correspondence because of their profanations of the Word, not only in their flesh, but also in their garments, houses, and vessels.

(Continuation respecting the Second Commandment)

[11] As the Divine truth or the Word is meant by "the name of God," and the profanation of it means a denial of its holiness, and thus contempt, rejection, and blasphemy, it follows that the name of God is interiorly profaned by a life contrary to the commandments of the Decalogue. For there is profanation that is interior and not exterior, and there is profanation that is interior and at the same time exterior, and there can be also a kind of profanation that is exterior and not at the same time interior. Interior profanation is produced by the life, exterior by the speech. Interior profanation, which is produced by the life, becomes exterior also, or of the speech, after death. For then everyone thinks and wills, and so far as it can be permitted, speaks and acts, according to his life; thus not as he did in the world. In the world, for the world's sake and to gain reputation, man is wont to speak and act otherwise than as he thinks and wills from his life. This is why it has been said that there is profanation that is interior and not at the same time exterior. There can also be a kind of profanation that is exterior and not at the same time interior. It can come from the style of the Word, which is not at all the style of the world, and for this reason it may be to some extent despised from ignorance of its interior sanctity.

Footnotes: