4503. 'The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city' means that all his descendants destroyed that doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sons of Jacob' as descendants from Jacob, dealt with above; from the meaning of 'plundering' as destroying; and from the meaning of 'the city' as the doctrine of the Church, dealt with above in 4500. Simeon and Levi's going away after they had killed every male in the city as well as Hamor and Shechem, and then Jacob's sons' coming upon the slain and plundering the city, involves an arcanum, the meaning of which is not evident except from the internal sense.

[2] That arcanum is this: After the truth and good of the Church which are represented by 'Simeon and Levi' were wiped out and falsity and evil took their place, further falsities and evils were added, which are meant in the contrary sense by the rest of Jacob's sons. Each son of Jacob represented some general aspect of faith and charity, as has been shown in 2129, 3858, 3913, 3926, 3939, 4060.

Which aspect is represented by each, see the following:

Reuben, 3861, 3866, 3870;

Judah, 3881;

Dan, 3921-3923;

Naphtali, 3927, 3928;

Gad, 3934, 3935;

Asher, 3938, 3939;

Issachar, 3956, 3957;

Zebulun, 3960, 3961.

These general aspects of faith and charity which those sons represented become falsities and evils of that kind once the truth and good of the Church have been wiped out and those further falsities and evils have been added to them; for falsities and evils are constantly on the increase within the Church once it has been perverted and wiped out. It is these added falsities and evils that are meant by the reference to Jacob's sons coming upon the slain and plundering the city after Simeon and Levi had killed every male in the city as well as Hamor and Shechem, and had taken Dinah and gone away.

[3] That 'the slain' in the Word means truths and goods which have been wiped out may be seen from the following places: In Isaiah,

You are cast out from your sepulchre like an abominable branch, a garment of the killed - slain with the sword - who go down to the stones of the pit like a dead body trodden underfoot. Isaiah 14:19.

This refers to Babel. 'Those slain with the sword' stands for those who have profaned the truths of the Church. In the same prophet,

So that their slain are cast out and the stench of their dead bodies rises up. Isaiah 34:3.

This refers to the falsities and evils which infest the Church, 'the slain' standing for these.

[4] In Ezekiel,

The violent of the nations will draw the sword against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will profane your loveliness. They will bring you down into the pit and you will die the deaths of those slain in the midst of the seas. Ezekiel 28:7-8.

This refers to the prince of Tyre who means the leading cognitions of truth and good. 'Dying the deaths of those slain in the midst of the seas' stands for those who use facts to hatch falsities and in consequence defile the truths of the Church.

[5] In the same prophet,

They also will go down with them into hell, to those slain with the sword. You will be made to go down with the trees of Eden into the nether world, in the midst of the uncircumcised you will lie with those slain with the sword. Ezekiel 31:17-18.

In the same prophet,

Go down and lie with the uncircumcised; they will fall in the midst of those slain with the sword; the chief of the powerful ones will speak to him in the midst of hell. Ezekiel 32:19-21.

This refers to Pharaoh and Egypt. 'Those slain with the sword' stands for those who by their use of knowledge become insane; by their use of it they destroy all belief in the truth known to the Church.

[6] In David,

I have been reckoned with them going down to the pit; I have become as a man with no strength, neglected among the dead, like the slain lying in the sepulchre whom you remember no more and who have been cut off by your hand.

'The slain' in hell - those in the pit and 'in the sepulchre' - stands for those who have destroyed the truths and goods residing with them by means of falsities and evils. Anyone can recognize that these are not in hell merely because they have been slain with the sword.

[7] In Isaiah,

A city of tumults, an exultant city, [your slain] have not been slain with the sword, and they have not been killed in war. All who have been found in you have been bound together in chains. They have fled from far away. Isaiah 22:2-3.

This refers to the illusions resulting from the evidence of the senses which do not enable the truths of the Church to be seen. It refers therefore to people subject to negative doubt, and these are called 'slain but not with the sword'.

[8] In Ezekiel,

I am bringing a sword upon you and destroying your high places; and your altars will be destroyed, and your statues will be broken; and I will cause your slain to lie before your idols. When the slain have fallen in the midst of you, you will know that I am Jehovah. Then you will acknowledge, when the slain are in the midst of their idols, around their altar. Ezekiel 6:3-4, 7, 13.

'The slain' stands for those who are governed by falsities of doctrine.

[9] In the same prophet,

Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. They went forth and smote in the city. Ezekiel 9:7.

This is a prophetic vision. 'Defiling the house and filling the courts with the slain' stands for profaning goods and truths. In the same prophet,

You have multiplied your slain in this city, and have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore said the Lord Jehovih, Your slain whom you have placed in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and that is the pot; and he will lead you out from the midst of it. Ezekiel 11:6-7.

[10] Because 'the slain' meant those who have annihilated the truths of the Church by means of falsities and evils, therefore also in the representative Church those who touched one who had been slain were unclean. Such persons are referred to in Moses as follows,

Everyone who has touched on the surface of the field one slain with the sword, or one dead, or a human bone, or a sepulchre will be unclean for seven days. Numbers 19:16, 18.

Inquiry was therefore made and atonement effected by means of a heifer. In the same author,

If one is found slain, lying in the field, and it is not known who smote him, then the elders of the city and the judges shall come out and they shall measure [the distance] to the cities which are around the one slain. It shall be, that in the city nearest to the one slain the elders of that city shall take a heifer by means of which no work has been done, which has not pulled in the yoke, and they shall bring it down to the river or valley, and there they shall break the heifer's neck. And they shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck has been broken and shall say, Our hands have not shed blood, and our eyes have not seen it. Expiate Your people Israel, O Jehovah, and do not set innocent blood in the midst of Your people; and the blood shall be expiated for them. Deuteronomy 21:1-8.

[11] These laws were laid down because one who has been slain means the perversion, destruction, and profanation of the truth of the Church by means of falsity and evil, as is evident from each detail in the internal sense. The expression 'one slain, lying in the field' is used because 'the field' means the Church, see 2971, 3310, 3766. 'A heifer by means of which no work has been done' means the innocence of the external man which is present within ignorance. Without a clear knowledge of these things meant in the internal sense everyone will be surprised that a procedure such as this for making expiation should ever have been ordained.

3727. As regards the meaning of 'a pillar', the reason why it means a holy boundary and so the ultimate degree of order is that in most ancient times people used to place stones where their boundaries ran which separated one person's property or inheritance from another's. These served as a sign and witness to the existence of the boundaries there. The most ancient people, who in every object and in every pillar thought of something celestial or spiritual, 1977, 2995, thought, when they saw these stones set up as pillars, of the ultimate things present in man, and so of the ultimate degree of order, which is truth in the natural man. And it was from those most ancient people who lived before the Flood that the ancients who lived after it acquired this custom, 920, 1409, 2179, 2896, 2897, and began to regard the stones they set up on their boundaries as sacred, for the reason, as stated, that they meant holy truth as it exists in the ultimate degree of order, and also called those stones 'pillars'. This was how it came about that pillars were introduced into their worship, and why they erected them where they had their sacred groves and subsequently their temples, and also anointed them with oil, a point to be dealt with shortly. Indeed the worship of the Ancient Church consisted of things that had been perceived and things that had carried a meaning among the most ancient people prior to the Flood, as is evident from the paragraphs that have just been referred to. Since the most ancient people talked to angels and were in their company while still on earth, they received it from heaven that 'stones' means truth and 'wood' good; see just above in 3720. This then is why 'pillars' means a holy boundary, and so truth as it exists in the ultimate degree of order with man. For good which flows in from the Lord by way of the internal man terminates in the external man, and in the truth that is there. Man's thought, speech, and activity, which are the ultimates of order, are nothing else than truths stemming from good. In fact they are the images or forms which good takes, for they belong to the understanding part of the human mind, whereas the good that is within them, and from which they spring, belongs to the will part.

[2] The fact that pillars were erected as a sign and a witness, and were also introduced into worship, and that in the internal sense they mean a holy boundary, or truth within man's natural, which is the ultimate degree of order, becomes clear from other places in the Word, as in the following verses where the subject is the covenant made between Laban and Jacob,

Now come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and let it be a witness between me and you. And Jacob took a stone and erected it as a pillar. Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have erected between me and you. This heap is a witness and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and that you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. Genesis 31:44-45, 51-52.

Here 'pillar' means truth, as will be seen in the explanation of those verses.

[3] In Isaiah,

On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak with the lips of Canaan and swear to Jehovah Zebaoth. On that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border to Jehovah, which will be a sign and a witness to Jehovah Zebaoth in the land of Egypt. Isaiah 19:18-20.

'Egypt' stands for facts which belong to the natural man, 'an altar' for Divine worship in general, for in the second Ancient Church that began with Eber the altar became the first and foremost representative in its worship, 921, 1343, 2777, 2811. 'The midst of the land of Egypt' stands for the primary and inmost aspect of worship, 2940, 2973, 3436. 'Pillar' stands for truth as it exists in the ultimate degree of order in the natural. The fact that it stood at the border as a sign and a witness is quite evident.

[4] In Moses,

Moses wrote down all the words of Jehovah and rose up in the morning and built an altar beside Mount Sinai, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. Exodus 24:4.

Here similarly 'an altar' was the representative of all worship, and indeed was the representative of good present in worship. 'The twelve pillars' however were the representative in worship of truth that stems from good - 'twelve' meaning every aspect of truth in its entirety, see 577, 2089, 2129 (end), 2130 (end), 3272; and the twelve tribes likewise meaning every aspect of truth in the Church, as in the Lord's Divine mercy will be shown in the next chapter.

[5] Because altars were representative of all good in worship, and the Jewish Church was established so as to represent the celestial Church which acknowledged no other truth than truth stemming from good, which is called celestial truth (for the celestial Church was totally unwilling to separate truth from good, so much so that it was unwilling even to refer to anything of faith or truth without thinking about good, and doing so from good, see 202, 337, 2069, 2715, 2718, 3246), truth was therefore represented by the stones of the altar. And they were forbidden to represent it by means of pillars lest in so doing they separated truth from good and by representation worshipped truth instead of good. This accounts for the following prohibition in Moses,

You shall not plant for yourself a grove of any kind of tree beside the altar of Jehovah your God which you shall make for yourself. And you shall not erect for yourself a pillar, which Jehovah your God hates. Deuteronomy 16:21-22.

For worshipping truth separated from good, or faith separated from charity, is contrary to the Divine since it is contrary to order, meant by 'you shall not erect for yourself a pillar, which Jehovah your God hates'.

[6] Despite this they did erect them and so represented things that are contrary to order, as is clear in Hosea,

Israel, according to the multiplying of his fruit, multiplies altars; according to the goodness of their land they make well their pillars. But He will overturn their altars, and lay waste their pillars. Hosea 10:1-2.

In the first Book of Kings,

Judah did what was evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and they built for themselves high places and pillars and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree. 1 Kings 14:22-23.

In the second Book of Kings,

The children of Israel set up pillars for themselves and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. 2 Kings 17:10.

In the same book,

Hezekiah removed the high places, and broke down the pillars, and cut down the grove, and smashed the bronze snake which Moses had made, because they had been burning incense to it. 2 Kings 18:4.

[7] Since gentile nations too derived through tradition the idea that the holiness of worship was to be represented by means of altars and pillars, and yet they were under the influence of evil and falsity, the altars among the nations therefore mean the evils of worship and the pillars the falsities. This was why the command was given for them to be destroyed. In Moses,

The altars of the nations you shall overthrow, and you shall break down their pillars and tear down their groves. Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; 12:3.

In the same author,

You shall not bow down to the gods of the nations, or worship them, or do according to their works, for you shall utterly destroy them, and utterly break down their pillars. Exodus 23:24.

'The gods of the nations' stands for falsities, 'their works' for evils, 'breaking down their pillars' for destroying worship arising out of falsity.

[8] In Jeremiah,

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel will break down the pillars of the house of the sun that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire. Jeremiah 43:13.

In Ezekiel,

By means of the hoofs of his horses Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel will trample all your streets, slay the people with the sword, and cause your mighty pillars to come down to the ground. Ezekiel 26:11.

This refers to Tyre. 'Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel' stands for that which lays waste, 1327 (end). 'The hoofs of horses' stands for the lowest form of intellectual concepts, such as facts based on mere sensory impressions - 'hoofs' meaning lowest concepts, as will in the Lord's Divine mercy be confirmed elsewhere. 'Horses' stands for matters of the understanding, 2760-2762, 'streets' for truths, and in the contrary sense for falsities, 2336. 'trampling' on them is destroying cognitions of truth, which are meant by 'Tyre' - 'Tyre', the subject here, meaning cognitions of truth, 1201. 'Slaying the people with the sword' stands for destroying truths by means of falsity - 'people' being used in reference to truths, 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, and 'sword' meaning falsity engaged in conflict, 2799. From this one may see what 'causing your mighty pillars to come down to the ground' means - 'might' being used in reference either to truth or to falsity, as is also clear from the Word.