1679. And struck every field of the Amalekites symbolizes general categories of falsity, as can be seen from the representation and symbolism of the Amalekite nation. All the nations that lived in the land of Canaan represented categories of falsity and evil, as the following will establish, by the Lord's divine mercy. The Amalekites symbolized falsity and the Amorites in Hazazon-tamar symbolized the evil that springs from falsity. The fact that the Amalekites symbolized falsity that combats truth can be seen from mention made of them in Exodus 17:13-16; Numbers 13:29; 24:20; Deuteronomy 25:17, 18, 19; Judges 5:13-14; 1 Samuel 15:1-35, 27:8; Psalms 83:7-8.
[2] The Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, and Horites mentioned in verses 5-6 symbolized persuasive lies rising out of evil cravings, or in other words, out of evil. In the present verse, though, the Amalekites and the Amorite in Hazazon-tamar symbolize falsity that results in evil. Falsity that springs from evil is one thing; falsity and the evil that springs from it is not the same. Falsity bubbles up either from cravings, which belong to the will, or from the assumptions we make, which belong to the intellect.
Falsity that results from cravings in the will is vile and does not easily allow itself to be uprooted, since it clings to our actual life. What we crave, that is, what we love, is our actual life. When we justify this life — this appetite, this love — in ourselves, all our justifications are falsities, and they are grafted onto our life. That is what happened with the people who lived just before the Flood.
[3] However, falsity developing from our assumptions, which belong to the intellect, cannot take very deep root in our volitional side. An example is false or heretical doctrines, which originate outside our will; we are indoctrinated in them from childhood on and later confirm them for ourselves as adults. As they are false, however, they cannot help producing bad effects in our lives. For instance, when people believe they earn salvation by doing good deeds and confirm themselves in this idea, the resulting evil is the sense of merit itself, along with self-righteousness and smugness. On the other hand, when people believe it is absolutely out of the question for their lives to be godly if they do not place merit in good works, the resulting evil is that they surrender to desire and pleasure and wipe out any trace of a godly life in themselves. It is similar in many other areas.
These are the types of falsity and resulting evil that form the theme of the present verse.
