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:

7489. This being so it is evident that to the extent that a person is moved by self-love and love of the world he is not moved by love towards the neighbour, still less by love to the Lord. For the former kinds of love are the opposite of the latter.

9965. 'That they may not bear iniquity and die' means the elimination of the whole of worship. This is clear from the meaning of 'bearing the iniquity', when the subject is the priestly office of Aaron and his sons, as a removal or shifting away of falsities and evils with those who are governed by good derived from the Lord, dealt with above in 9937. But when it speaks of them 'bearing iniquity and dying' the elimination of the whole of worship is meant, see 9928; for the representative worship died because nothing of it appeared any longer in heaven. The situation in all this may become clear from what has been stated and shown above in 9959-9961. They also died when they did not act in accordance with the statutes, ¹ as is evident from Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu, who were devoured by fire from heaven when they did not take the fire of the altar to burn incense but foreign ² fire, Leviticus 10:1-2ff. 'The fire of the altar' represented God's love, thus love from the Lord, whereas 'foreign fire' represented love from hell. The elimination of worship was meant by their burning incense with this fire and their consequent death. For the meaning of 'fire' as love, see 5215, 6832, 7324, 7575, 7852.

[2] Many places in the Word state that they would bear iniquity when they did not do things in accordance with the statutes, and by this was meant damnation because sins had not been removed. Not that they themselves were condemned on account of disobeying the statutes. Rather by doing so they eliminated representative worship and in so doing represented the damnation of those who remain in their sins. For none are condemned because they fail in their performance of outward religious observances, only because of evils in the heart, thus because of failing in such observances as a result of evil in the heart. This is what 'bearing iniquity' means in the following places: In Moses,

If a soul sins and acts against any of Jehovah's commandments regarding what ought not to be done, ³ though he does not know it, yet he will be guilty and will bear his iniquity. Leviticus 5:17-18.

Here the retention of evils and consequent damnation should not be understood literally by 'bearing iniquity', although that is the spiritual meaning; for it says 'though he does not know it', implying that what the person has done does not spring from evil in the heart.

[3] In the same author,

If any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering is eaten at all on the third day, the one offering it will not be accepted. It is an abomination, and the soul that eats it will bear his iniquity, and will be cut off from his people. Leviticus 7:18; 19:7-8.

Here also 'bearing iniquity' means remaining in his sins and being as a result in a state of damnation. It does so not because the person ate some of his sacrifice on the third day, but because 'eating it on the third day' represented something abominable, namely an action leading to damnation. Thus 'bearing iniquity and being cut off from his people' represented the damnation of those who performed the abomination meant by that deed. Nevertheless there was no condemnation on account of his having eaten it, for interior evils that were represented are what condemn, not exterior actions in which those evils are not present.

[4] In the same author,

Every soul who eats a carcass ⁴ or that which has been torn, and does not wash his clothes and bathe his flesh shall bear his iniquity. Leviticus 17:15-16.

Since 'eating a carcass or that which has been torn' represented making evil or falsity one's own, the expression 'bearing iniquity' also has a representative meaning. In the same author,

If a man who is clean fails to keep the Passover, this soul shall be cut off from his people, because he did not bring the offering of Jehovah at its appointed time; he shall bear his sin. Numbers 9:13.

'The Passover' represented deliverance by the Lord from damnation, 7093 (end), 7867, 7995, 9286-9292; and 'the Passover supper' represented being joined to the Lord through the good of love, 7836, 7997, 8001. And since these things were represented it was decreed that anyone who did not keep the Passover should be cut off from his people and that he should bear his sin. The failure to keep it was not really so great a crime; rather it represented those who at heart refuse to accept the Lord and consequently deliverance from sins, and so who have no wish to be joined to Him through love. Thus it represented their damnation.

[5] In the same author,

The children of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting, or else they will bear iniquity and die. ⁵ Levites shall perform the work of the tent of meeting, and these shall bear the iniquity. Numbers 18:22-23.

The reason why the people would bear iniquity and die if they were to go near the tent of meeting to do the work there was that they would thereby eliminate the representative worship assigned to the function of the priests. The function of the priests or the priestly office represented the Lord's entire work of salvation, 9809; and this is why it says that the Levites, who also were priests, should bear the people's iniquity, by which expiation or atonement was meant, that is, removal from evils and falsities with those who are governed by good derived from the Lord alone, 9937. 'Bearing iniquity' means real damnation when this expression is used in reference to those who perform evil deeds because their heart is evil, such as those mentioned in Leviticus 20:17, 19-20; 24:15-16; Ezekiel 18:20; 23:49; and elsewhere.

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