26
There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.
Ezekiel 32:26
Arcana Coelestia #3024
3024.'That you do not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites' means that the Divine Rational should not be joined to any affection incompatible with truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'taking a woman' as being joined by means of the marriage covenant; from the meaning of 'my son', namely Isaac, as the Lord's Divine Rational, dealt with in 1893, 2066, 2083, 2630; from the meaning of 'daughters' as affections, dealt with in 489-491, 568, 2362; and from the meaning of 'the Canaanites' as evil, dealt with in 1444, 1573, 1574. Consequently 'the daughters of the Canaanites' are affections incompatible with truth. The subject here is Divine truth which was to be allied to the Divine good of the Lord's Rational, as may be seen in 3013 under 'Contents'. 'A woman' who was to be associated by means of a marriage covenant is used to mean that truth itself which is summoned from the natural man in the normal manner. 'My son' is used to mean the Lord's Rational as regards the good with which it was to be allied or associated. From this one may recognize that the command not to take a wife for his son from the daughters of the Canaanites means that the Divine Rational should not be joined to any affection incompatible with truth. All joining of truth to good is effected by means of affection, for no truth ever enters the rational part of a person's mind or is joined to it except by means of affection, for affection has within it the good that flows from love, which good alone effects the joining together, 1895, as also anyone may know who stops to reflect on it.
[2] As regards 'the daughters of the Canaanites' meaning affections incompatible with truth, that is, affections for what is false, this becomes clear from the meaning of 'daughters'. For the noun 'daughters' occurs in many places in the Word, and in these anyone may see that it is not used to mean daughters. By such expressions as 'the daughter of Zion', 'the daughter of Jerusalem', 'the daughter of Tarshish', 'the daughter of My people', affections for good and truth are meant, as shown in the paragraphs referred to above. And since affections for good and truth are meant so also are Churches, for Churches are Churches by virtue of these affections. Consequently 'the daughter of Zion' means the celestial Church, and means this by virtue of the affection for good, whereas 'the daughter of Jerusalem' means the spiritual Church from the affection for truth, 2362. And it is the same with 'the daughter of My people' in Isaiah 22:4; Jeremiah 6:14, 26; 8:19, 21-22; 9:1; 14:17; Lamentations 2:11; 4:6; Ezekiel 13:17.
[3] This shows what is meant by the daughters of the nations, such as by the daughters of the Philistines, the daughters of Egypt, the daughters of Tyre and Sidon, the daughters of Edom, the daughters of Moab, the daughters of the Chaldeans and Babel, and the daughters of Sodom. They mean affections for evil and falsity, from which their varieties of religion sprang, and so mean those varieties themselves. That this is the meaning of 'daughters' becomes clear from the following places: In Ezekiel,
The daughters of the nations will lament over Egypt. Wail over the multitude of Egypt, and send her down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the lower earth, together with those who go down to the pit. Ezekiel 32:16, 18.
'The daughters of majestic nations' stands for affections for evil. In Samuel,
Tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult. 2 Samuel 1:20.
In Ezekiel,
You committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt. I delivered you to those who hated you, the daughters of the Philistines. Before your badness was revealed, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all round about her, the daughters of the Philistines who despise you from round about. Ezekiel 16:26-27, 57.
Anyone may see that not daughters were meant here but the varieties of religion among such people as are meant by the Philistines - those who speak repeatedly of faith yet do not at all pursue the life taught by faith, see 1197, 1198. This also explains why they are called 'the uncircumcised', that is, devoid of charity.
[4] In Jeremiah,
Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! Make for yourself vessels of migration, O inhabitant daughter of Egypt. The daughter of Egypt has been put to shame; she has been delivered into the hand of the people from the north. Jeremiah 46:11, 19, 24.
'The daughter of Egypt' stands for the affection for reasoning from facts about whether truths of faith really are true, and so stands for the variety of religion which springs from this, the nature of which is to believe nothing except that grasped by the senses, and so to believe nothing of the truth of faith, see 215, 232, 233, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1385, 2196, 2203, 2209, 2568, 2588. In Isaiah,
He said, You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Isaiah 23:12.
In David,
The daughter of Tyre with an offering, the rich of the people will entreat your face. Psalms 45:12.
What 'the daughter of Sidon' and 'the daughter of Tyre' mean is evident from the meaning of Sidon and Tyre, dealt with in 1201. In Jeremiah,
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom. Your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is at an end. He will no more cause you to migrate; your iniquity will be punished, O daughter of Edom. Lamentations 4:21-22.
In Isaiah,
Like a wandering bird, a scattered nest, will the daughters of Moab be. Isaiah 16:2.
In the same prophet,
Come down and sit on the dust, O virgin daughter of Babel; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. Sit quietly and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for no more will they call you the mistress of kingdoms. Isaiah 47:1, 5.
In Jeremiah,
A people coming from the north, arrayed as a man for war against you, O daughter of Babel. Jeremiah 50:41-42.
In the same prophet,
The daughter of Babel is like the threshing-floor; it is time to thresh her. Jeremiah 51:33
In Zechariah,
Ho, Zion! escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babel. Zechariah 2:7.
In David,
The daughter of Babel has been laid waste. Psalms 137:8.
In Ezekiel,
Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters will return to their condition as of old, and Samaria and her daughters will return to their condition as of old. Ezekiel 16:55.
[5] Anyone may see that in these places 'daughters' is not used to mean daughters but affections incompatible with truth, and so the varieties of religion that spring from them. But which particular varieties they are is evident from the meaning of those peoples - from the meaning of Edom, Moab, the Chaldeans, Babel, Sodom, Samaria, all of which have been dealt with in various places in the explanations to previous chapters of Genesis. From this what is meant in the present chapter by 'the daughters of the Canaanites' becomes clear.
[6] This command not to contract marriages with the daughters of the Canaanites also had regard to the spiritual requirements that good should not be joined to falsity, nor evil to truth, for the result of any such joining together is profanation. The prohibition was also a representative of the matter referred to in Deuteronomy 7:3, and in Malachi,
Judah has profaned the holiness of Jehovah, in that he loved and married the daughter of a foreign god. Malachi 2:11.
Lamentations 3
1
I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2
He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3
Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.
4
My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.
5
He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.
6
He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
7
He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.
8
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9
He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
10
He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
11
He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
12
He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13
He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14
I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
15
He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
16
He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
17
You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
18
I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.
19
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20
My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21
This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.
22
[It is of] Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail.
23
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24
Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25
Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
26
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
27
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28
Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29
Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
30
Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.
31
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32
For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33
For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35
To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36
To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve.
37
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it?
38
Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39
Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
41
Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42
We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.
43
You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.
44
You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45
You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
46
All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47
Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction.
48
My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49
My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission,
50
Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.
51
My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52
They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54
Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
55
I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
56
You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
57
You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.
58
Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
59
Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60
You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.
61
You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,
62
The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
63
You see their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
64
You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
65
You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66
You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
