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.

Voetnoten:

8864. 'I am Jehovah your God' means the Lord in respect of the Divine Human reigning universally, in every single aspect of goodness and truth. This is clear from the consideration that in the Word no one other than the Lord is meant by 'Jehovah', 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 3448, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 8274, or likewise by 'Jehovah Zebaoth', 'the Lord Jehovih', and 'Jehovah God', 2921, 3023, 3448, 6303; and from the consideration that the Lord is called 'Jehovah' by virtue of the Divine Good, which is the Divine Being (Esse), and 'God' by virtue of Divine Truth, which is the Divine Coming-into-being (Existere), 6905, and also 709, 732, 1096, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921 (end), 4402. The reason why the Lord's Divine Human is what 'Jehovah God' is used to mean here is that the Lord in respect of that Divine Human is meant in the Word both by 'Jehovah' and by 'God'. Divine Good, which He is also in respect of the Human is meant by 'Jehovah', while Divine Truth, which He is because it goes forth from Him, is meant by 'God'.

[2] The reason why the Lord's Divine Human is meant by 'Jehovah God' is that the Divine Itself which is within the Lord cannot be seen in heaven or even perceived, thus cannot be received in faith and love; only the Divine Human can. The truth that the Divine Itself cannot be communicated to angels in heaven, still less to people on earth, except through the Divine Human is well known in the Churches from the Lord's words in the Gospels, where He says that He is the Door; that He is the Mediator; that nobody can come to the Father except through Him; that no one except Himself knows the Father; and that no one has seen the Father, not even some shape He might take. From all this it is evident that it is the Lord who is meant here by 'Jehovah God'. It is also well known that He is also the one who has redeemed the human race and delivered them from hell.

This truth is meant by the words that follow, by 'I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves'. From all this it is now evident that Jehovah God, who spoke from Mount Sinai, is the Lord in respect of the Divine Human.

[3] The reason why this is the first truth to be stated by the Lord from Mount Sinai is that it must be present, reigning universally in each and every truth that follows. For what is stated first must be held in mind and must be seen to reside universally in everything that follows. What 'universally reigning' describes will be seen below. The truths which were stated by the Lord are all of this nature. That is to say, truths stated first must reign in those stated next and incorporate them; these in turn must reign in and incorporate those after that, and so on sequentially. In the present chapter the truths stated next are the Ten Commandments, which are inward truths, and after these the statutes, which are outward truths. The latter and the former must have the Lord - His Divine Human - reigning within them, for they spring from Himself, and are Himself. For, to be sure, truths which are truths all emanate from Him; and the things which emanate from Him are Himself. The truth that the Lord's Divine Human is what must reign in every single part of faith is also well known in the Churches; for they teach that there is no salvation without the Lord, and that all the truth and good of faith comes from Him. Thus since He is the source of faith He is the faith present with a person; and if He is the faith He is also all the truth contained in teachings about faith that are drawn from the Word. This also is the reason why the Lord is called 'the Word'.

[4] The truth that what comes first must reign in what comes next, and so on sequentially, as stated above, is clear from the individual parts of the things spoken by the Lord, in particular from His prayer called the Lord's Prayer. All its parts follow one another in such a sequence that they constitute a pillar so to speak, widening from the top down to the base and holding inside itself the things that appear earlier in the sequence. What is first there is inmost, and what comes after in sequence adds itself gradually to the inmost and in that way grows wider. What is inmost then reigns in all the surrounding parts; it reigns universally, that is, in every detail, for it is essential to the existence of them all.