9335. 'And the wild animal of the field multiplies against you' means an inrush of falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. This is clear from the meaning of 'multiplying', when it has reference to a hurried removal of evils and falsities, as an inrush; and from the meaning of 'the wild animal of the field' as falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. For affections, good and bad, are meant in the Word by different kinds of beasts, 9280, and therefore affections for falsity that arise from the delights of self-love and love of the world are meant by 'wild animals'. These affections are also represented in the next life by wild animals, such as panthers, tigers, boars, wolves, or bears. Such affections furthermore resemble wild animals, for people ruled by those loves are steeped in evils of every kind and in the falsities arising from them. They are like wild animals in the way they see and treat companions. The fact that those loves are the source of all evils and falsities, see 2041, 2045, 2057, 2363, 2364, 2444, 4750, 4776, 6667, 7178, 7255, 7364, 7366-7377, 7488, 7490-7494, 7643, 8318, 8487, 8678.

[2] The reason why a hurried removal of evils and falsities leads to an inrush of falsities arising from those loves is that forms of good and truths, implanted in successive stages, must remove them; for falsities are not removed except by truths, nor evils except by forms of good. If this removal is not done in successive stages and in keeping with proper order, falsities that lend support to those selfish loves enter in, since those loves reign with every person before he has been regenerated; and when the falsities enter in truths cease to be acknowledged any longer. Also a person who is being regenerated is maintained in an affection for truth; and when maintained in this he searches for truths in all directions among factual knowledge in the natural. But at this time illusions of the outward senses, which exist in great abundance in the natural, present themselves there. From those illusions, when the delights of self-love and love of the world hold sway, the person deduces nothing except falsities, which come in and fill his mind if falsities arising from evil are removed suddenly. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal sense by I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest perhaps the land becomes desolate and the wild animal of the field multiplies against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

[3] The fact that 'wild animal' means falsity and evil arising from self-love and love of the world is evident from places in the Word which mention it, as in Isaiah,

There will be a path there and a way, which will be called the way of holiness. The unclean will not pass through it; the savage of the wild animals will not go up it. Isaiah 35:8-9.

In Ezekiel,

I will send famine and evil wild animals upon you, that they may make you bereft. Ezekiel 5:17.

In the same prophet,

When I cause evil wild animals to pass through the land and they leave it bereft so that ¹ it becomes a desolation, with the result that no one passes through on account of the wild animals ... Ezekiel 14:15.

In the same prophet,

You will fall on the open field; ² to the wild animals of the earth, and to the birds of the air I will give you for food. Ezekiel 29:5.

In the same prophet,

At that time I will make with them a covenant of peace, and I will banish ³ the evil wild animal from the land, in order that they may dwell securely in the wilderness. They will no longer be a prey for the nations, and the wild animals of the field will no longer devour them. Ezekiel 34:25, 28.

[4] In Hosea,

I will lay waste her vine and her fig tree; and I will make them into a forest, and the wild animals of the field will eat them. Hosea 2:12.

In the same prophet,

The land will mourn and every inhabitant will waste away because of the wild animals of the field and the birds of the air. Hosea 4:3.

In David,

The boar of the forest tramples on it, and the wild animal of the fields feeds on it. Return, O God Zebaoth, and visit Your vine. Psalms 80:13-14.

In the same author,

You dispose the darkness to become night, in which every wild animal of the forest comes forth. Psalms 104:20.

In Moses,

If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them, I will banish ³ the evil wild animals from the land. But if you despise My statutes, I will send into you the wild animals of the field, which will lay you waste. Leviticus 26:3, 6, 15, 22.

In the same author,

Jehovah your God will cast out the nations before you little by little, lest perhaps the wild animals of the field multiply against you. Deuteronomy 7:22.

In these places 'the wild animals of the field', 'the wild animals of the earth', and 'the wild animals of the forest' stand for the falsities and evils that belong to self-love and love of the world.

[5] Since 'wild animal' means falsity, and falsity can spring from two different origins, that is to say, it may stem from evil or it may stem from good, 9258, 'wild animal' in the Word also means upright nations or gentiles who, though they are subject to falsity, nevertheless lead upright lives. The term 'wild animal' is used in this sense in David,

Every wild animal of the forest is Mine, and beasts on mountains of thousands; I know every bird of the mountains, and the wild animal of My fields is with Me. Psalms 50:10-11.

In the same author,

Praise Jehovah, wild animals and all beasts! Psalms 148:7, 10.

In Isaiah,

All wild animals of My fields - come to eat, all wild animals in the forest. Isaiah 56:9.

In Ezekiel,

In the branches of the cedar, which was Asshur, all the birds of the air made their nests, and under its branches every wild animal of the field brought forth, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations. Ezekiel 31:6.

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6963. 'And behold, his hand was leprous, like snow' means the profanation of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'hand' as power, as above in 6947, and as truth since spiritual power consists in truth, 6948, 6960; and from the meaning of 'leprosy' as profanation, in particular the profanation of truth, dealt with below. In the historical part of the Word a great deal is said about leprosy - about the various manifestations of it in the skin, about determining the nature of it from those manifestations, and about whether a leper should be shut away, leave the community, or be set at liberty; and about leprosy in garments, vessels, and actual houses. So much is said about leprosy not on account of leprosy as a disease but because it was a sign of the profanation of truth, thus on account of its spiritual meaning and because the Jews and Israelites more than any others were capable of rendering truth profane.

[2] For if those people had known the inner contents of the Word and the actual truths which the religious observances of the Church among them represented, and if they had believed those truths and yet led the lives they were predisposed to lead - namely lives ruled by self-love and love of the world, involving acts of hatred and vengeance on one another, and involving cruelty to gentiles - they could not have avoided profaning the truths they had once believed. For believing truths and leading a life that goes against them is profaning them. It was for this reason too that they were withheld as far as was possible from any recognition of internal truth, 3398, 3489, withheld from it so completely that they did not even know that they would be alive after death. Nor did they believe that the Messiah was coming to save their souls for evermore, only that He would exalt that nation above all throughout the world. And because that nation was like this, and is also like it today, they are still withheld from faith, even though they live amid Christianity. This then is the reason why the nature of leprosy has been described so extensively.

[3] The meaning of 'leprosy' as the profanation of truth is evident from the regulations regarding leprosy in Moses, Leviticus 13:1-end. That description contains in the internal sense the whole nature of the profanation of truth - what profanation is like if recent, what it is like if long-established, what it is like if it exists inwardly in a person, what it is like if it also exists outwardly, what it is like if it can be cured, what it is like if it cannot, what means can be used, and a number of other details. No one can ever come to know about any of this without the help of the internal sense of the Word. But since profane things are what 'leprosy' describes, a detailed explanation of the contents of that description must not be given; heaven has a feeling of horror at the very mention of what is profane.

[4] So let just the following be quoted from those regulations,

If leprosy has broken out severely in the skin and the leprosy has covered the entire skin of [him who has] the plague, from his head to his heels, wherever the priest looks, ¹ and the priest sees that, behold, the leprosy has covered the person's entire flesh, then he shall pronounce [him] clean [who has] the plague. It has all turned white; he is clean. But on the day living flesh appears on him he shall be unclean. Leviticus 17:12-14.

Unless one knew from the internal sense how it could be that one who is leprous all over from his head to his heels was clean it would seem to be an absurdity. But one who is leprous from head to heels means a person who has a knowledge of internal truths but does not acknowledge them, that is, has no belief in them. Profanation does not exist with him inwardly, only outwardly, and is being removed. Therefore he is clean. But if he knows the truths of faith and believes them, and yet leads a life that goes against them, profanation does exist with him inwardly, as it also does with someone who has had a belief in them but subsequently denies them. This explains why it says, 'on the day living flesh appears in him he shall be unclean'; 'living flesh' is used to mean acknowledgement and faith. See also the paragraphs referred to above in 6959.

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