9339. Verses 31-33 And I will set your boundary from the Sea Suph even to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness even to the River; ¹ for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out ² from before you. You shall not make a covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me when you serve their gods; for it will be a snare to you.

'And I will set your boundary from the Sea Suph even to the Sea of the Philistines' means the full range of truths from factual ones to interior truths of faith. 'And from the wilderness even to the River' means from delight belonging to the sensory level even to good and truth belonging to the rational level. 'For I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand' means dominion over evils. 'And you will drive them out from before you' means the removal of them. 'You shall not make a covenant with them and their gods' means no contact with evils and falsities. 'They shall not dwell in your land' means that evils must not exist together with the Church's forms of good. 'Lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me' means lest evils turn away forms of good from the Lord. 'When you serve their gods' means if worship is kindled by falsities. 'For it will be a snare to you' means owing to evils that are enticing and deceptive.

Footnotes:

6112. 'And Joseph gathered up all the silver' means all factual knowledge that held truth in it and was appropriate. This is clear from the meaning of 'gathering up' as bringing together into a single whole; from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal celestial, often dealt with already; and from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in '551, 2954, 5658, but in this case factual knowledge that holds truth in it and is appropriate, for this silver existed, as stated in the words that immediately follow, in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan. All this shows that 'Joseph gathered up all the silver' means that the internal celestial brought together into a single whole all factual knowledge that held truth in it and that was appropriate. Factual knowledge is said to hold truth in it and to be appropriate when there are no illusions to darken it, for as long as these cannot be dispelled, factual knowledge is rendered inappropriate. The same is true of factual knowledge which has not become perverted through applications of it to falsities and to evils by others or by oneself, for once imprinted on factual knowledge such falsities and evils remain. Factual knowledge therefore which does not languish under these defects is factual knowledge that holds truth in it and is appropriate.