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:

110. Which is in the midst of the paradise of God, signifies that all the knowledges of good and truth in heaven and in the church look thereto and proceed therefrom. This is evident from the signification of "the midst," as being the center to which all things that are round about look and from which they proceed (of which above, n. 97 [1-2]) and from the signification of "paradise," as being the knowledges of good and truth and intelligence therefrom (Arcana Coelestia 100, 108, 1588, 2702, 3220); and because these are signified by "paradise," therefore by the "paradise of God" heaven is signified, and as heaven, so also the church is signified, for the church is the Lord's heaven on the earth. Heaven and the church are called the "paradise of God," because the Lord is in the midst of them, and from Him is all intelligence and wisdom. Since it has not been known heretofore that all things in the Word are written by correspondences, consequently that there are spiritual things in every particular that is mentioned therein, it is believed that by the "paradise" treated of in the second chapter of Genesis, a paradisal garden is meant. But no earthly paradise is there meant, but the heavenly paradise which those possess who are in intelligence and wisdom from the knowledges of good and truth (See above, n. 109); and in the work on Heaven and Hell 176, 185).

[2] From this it can be seen not only what is signified by the "paradise" or "garden in Eden," but also by the "paradises" or "gardens of God" elsewhere in the Word, as in Isaiah:

Jehovah shall comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places, even that He may make her wilderness into Eden, and her desert into a garden of Jehovah; joy and gladness shall be found therein (Isaiah 51:3).

In Ezekiel:

Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering (Ezekiel 28:13).

These things are said of Tyre, because by "Tyre" in the Word a church that is in the knowledges of truth and good and in intelligence therefrom is signified (See Arcana Coelestia 1201); its intelligence therefrom is "Eden, the garden of God," likewise "the precious stone" from which is its "covering" (See n. 114, 9863, 9865, 9868, 9873). In the same:

Behold Asshur a cedar in Lebanon. The cedars have not hid it in the garden of God; nor was any tree in the garden of God equal to it in beauty. I have made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches; and all the trees of Eden in the garden of God envied it (Ezekiel 31:3, 8, 31:8-9).

By "Asshur" in the Word those who have become rational by the knowledges of good and truth, thus whose minds are illustrated from heaven, are meant. (That "Asshur" is the rational of man, see Arcana Coelestia 119, 1186.)

[3] Something shall now be said to explain how it is to be understood that all knowledges of good and truth look to the good of love to the Lord and proceed therefrom, which is the significance of these words: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God." The good of love to the Lord is the Lord Himself, since the Lord is in the good of His love with man, spirit, and angel. That all knowledges of good and truth look thereto, or to the Lord, is known in the Christian church; for the doctrine of the church teaches that there is no salvation apart from the Lord, and also that all salvation is in the Lord.

The knowledges of good and truth, or doctrinals from the Word, teach how man can come to God and be conjoined to Him. (That no one can be conjoined to God except from the Lord and in the Lord, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 283, 296.) From this it can be seen that all things taught by the church from the Word look to the Lord and to love to Him, as the end to which [ad quem]. That all knowledges of good and truth, or all doctrinals from the Word, proceed from the Lord is also known in the church, for it is there taught that everything of love and everything of faith is from heaven, and that nothing is from man; and that no one can love God and believe in Him from himself. To love God and to believe in Him involve all things that the church teaches, called doctrinals and knowledges, since from these is God loved and believed in. There is no love and faith without previous knowledges; for without knowledges man would be empty.

[4] From this it follows that as everything of love and of faith proceeds from the Lord, so do all knowledges of good and truth which make and form love and faith. Because all knowledges of good and truth look to the Lord, and proceed from Him, and this is what is signified by "the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God," therefore all the trees in paradise are called "trees of life" and "trees of Jehovah;" in Revelation "trees of life":

In the midst of the street and of the river (flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb) on this side and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits (Revelation 22:2).

In David they are called "trees of Jehovah":

The trees of Jehovah are satisfied, the cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted (Psalms 104:16).

From this also it is clear that by the "tree of life in the midst of paradise" is meant every tree there, in other words, every man in the midst of whom, that is, in whom is the Lord. From what has been shown here and in the preceding article, what is signified by the words, "The Lord will give to him that overcometh to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God," may be learned.