8906. 'You shall not steal' means that no one's spiritual goods or possessions must be taken away from him, and that things which are the Lord's must not be attributed to self. This is clear from the meaning of 'stealing' as taking spiritual goods or possessions away from someone. The reason why 'stealing' has these meanings is that wealth and riches in the spiritual sense are cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth, in general everything that composes the faith and charity, that is, the spiritual life a person has. Therefore taking these away from someone is what 'stealing' means in the spiritual sense. And since all spiritual goods or possessions, that is, everything composing faith and charity, come wholly from the Lord and not at all from man, 'stealing' also means attributing to self things which are the Lord's. People who do this are also called 'thieves' and 'robbers' in John,

Truly I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who is entering by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. I am the door of the sheep. All who were before Me were thieves and were robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come in order that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. John 10:1-13.

'Entering by the door into the sheepfold' doing so through the Lord, for the Lord is 'the door', as He Himself says. 'The sheep' are those who have charity and consequently faith, and they enter the fold through the Lord when they acknowledge that He is the source of everything composing faith and charity; for then these flow in from Him. But to attribute them to others, especially to self, is to take them away, which is 'to kill and destroy' them. People who attribute entirely to themselves those things which are the Lord's also assume that merit lies in works and consider themselves righteous; such people are dealt with in 1110, 1877, 2027, 2273, 2340, 2373, 2400, 3816, 4007 (end), 4174, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6393, 6478. This then is 'stealing' in the spiritual sense, and it is what comes to mind with angels in heaven when a person reads in the Word about 'stealing'; for angels understand the Word wholly on a spiritual level.

[2] 'Stealing' has a like meaning in Hosea,

When I healed Israel the iniquity of Ephraim was revealed, and the evils of Samaria; for they practiced a lie, and a thief came, a band [of robbers] encircles the house. ¹ Now their own works surround them before My face; they make a king glad through their wickedness, and princes through their lies. Hosea 7:1-3.

And in Joel,

The day of Jehovah comes. Fire devours before him, and behind him a flame burns; like the garden of Eden is the land before him, but behind him there is a desert waste. Its appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like horsemen, so they run. Like the noise of chariots over the peaks of mountains [they leap]. They run about the city, they run on the wall, they climb up into the houses, they go in through the windows like a thief. The earth quaked before him, the heavens trembled. The sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining. Joel 2:1-10.

This refers to the desolation of the Church, when falsities break in and destroy truths. These falsities are 'the thieves that climb up houses and go in through the windows'. Will anyone fail to wonder why it says that the day of Jehovah will be 'like the appearance of horses', and that at this time 'like horsemen, so they will run', 'they will run about the city, run on the wall, climb up into the houses, and go in through the windows', and 'the earth will quake, the heavens will tremble, the sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars will withdraw their shining'? The person who does not know anything about the internal sense and in his heart calls into doubt the holiness of the Word will say that these are simply words without anything of God concealed in them; and he will perhaps call the sayings meaningless. But the person who believes that the Word is most holy because it is Divine, and furthermore knows that there is an internal sense, in which the Church, heaven, and the Lord Himself are the subject, will profess that every word there carries weight. Therefore let a brief explanation be given of what the words and sayings there mean.

[3] 'The day of Jehovah' is the final state or final period of the Church, when there is no longer truth but falsity instead. 'The fire' which devours before him is the desire for evil, and 'the fire' which burns after him is the resulting desire for falsity. 'The appearance of horses' is intellectual powers that reason from falsity as if from truth; 'the horsemen' who run are reasoners; 'chariots' are matters of doctrine that uphold falsity; 'the city' is doctrine itself; 'the wall' on which they run is a false essential; 'the houses' which they will climb up are a person's will; 'the windows' which they will go in through are intellectual concepts; 'a thief' is falsity which takes away truth; 'the earth' which will quake before him is the Church, and so are 'the heavens' which will tremble; 'the sun' is love to the Lord, 'the moon' faith in Him, which are said 'to be darkened' when they are no longer apparent; 'the stars' are cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth which will no longer possess light from faith and love, thus from heaven, meant by 'withdrawing their shining'. From all this one may recognize what these words in general imply, and also in what sense that day or final state of the Church is called 'a thief' who will climb up houses and go in through the windows - falsity which will at that time take possession of the entire person, of both his will and his understanding, and so will take away all truth and goodness. 'A thief' has a like meaning in Obadiah,

The Lord Jehovih said to Edom, If thieves come to you, if those who overturn in the night - how you will have been cut off! - will they not steal that which is enough for themselves? Obad. verses 1, 5.

'A thief' or 'one who steals' has a like meaning in Zechariah 5:1-4; Psalms 50:18-20; Matthew 6:19-20.

[4] As all the regulations which the Lord commanded the children of Israel were founded on the laws of order which exist in heaven, that is, they sprang from the spiritual world and derived their essential nature from there, this was no less so with the laws laid down regarding thefts, such as the law,

Anyone who has stolen an ox and sells it shall repay five, or four if one of the flock. Exodus 21:37. ²

Also these laws,

If a thief has been struck while breaking in, no blood [is required] for him; but if the sun has risen, blood [is required]. A thief must pay compensation or be sold. If [what he has stolen] is found in his hand he shall restore double. Exodus 22:2-4.

Anyone who steals a man and sells him - and he is found in his hand - shall surely die. Exodus 21:16.

If there is found a man who has stolen a soul from his brothers, from the children of Israel, and has made profit on him, when he has sold him, that thief shall be killed, so that you remove evil from the midst of you. Deuteronomy 24:7.

'Men from the children of Israel' in the internal sense are those who are governed by the truths and forms of the good of faith. Accordingly in the abstract sense they are the truths and forms of good themselves, 5414, 5879, 5951, so that 'stealing a man from the children of Israel' means taking these away, and 'selling him' means alienating them and also reducing them to a state of servitude. For since truths and forms of the good of faith come from the Lord they exist in a state of freedom, and are subservient to none except the Lord alone; but when they are alienated they come into a state of servitude since they are subservient to some evil of self-love or love of the world, thus to some bodily desire. This is how that law [in Deuteronomy 24:7] was derived and what it corresponds to; and since from being in freedom the Church's truth and good is reduced to subservience, and so from being living is made dead, the punishment, which is the outcome, is death.

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4013. 'Jacob took for himself fresh rods of poplar' means the power proper to natural good. This is clear from the meaning of 'a rod' as power, and from the meaning of 'poplar' as the good of the natural, dealt with below. 'A rod' is referred to in various places in the Word, and in every case it means power, for one reason because of its use by shepherds in the exercise of power over their flocks, and for another because it served to support the body, and existed so to speak for the sake of the right hand - for 'the hand' means power, 878, 3387. And because it had that meaning a rod was also used in ancient times by a king; and the royal emblem was a short rod and also a sceptre. And not only a king used a rod, but also a priest and a prophet did so, in order that he too might denote by means of his rod the power which he possessed, as Aaron and Moses did. This explains why Moses was commanded so many times to stretch out his rod, and on other occasions his hand, when miracles were performed, the reason being that 'a rod' and 'the hand' means Divine power. And it is because 'a rod' means power that the magicians of Egypt likewise used one when performing magical miracles. It is also the reason why at the present day a magician is represented with a rod in his hand.

[2] From all these considerations it may be seen that power is meant by 'rods'. But in the original language the word used for the rod that a shepherd, or else a king, or else a priest or a prophet possessed, is different from that used for the rods which Jacob took. The latter were used by wayfarers and so also by shepherds, as becomes clear from other places, such as Genesis 32:10; Exodus 12:11; 1 Samuel 17:40, 43; Zechariah 11:7, 10. In the present verse, it is true, the rod is not referred to as one supporting the hand but as a stick cut out from a tree, that is to say, from the poplar, hazel, or plane, to be placed in the troughs in front of the flock. Nevertheless the word has the same meaning, for in the internal sense it describes the power of natural good and from that the good that empowers natural truths.

[3] As regards 'the poplar' from which a rod was made, it should be recognized that trees in general mean perceptions and cognitions - perceptions when they have reference to the celestial man, but cognitions when they have reference to the spiritual man, see 103, 2163, 2682, 2722, 2972. This being so, trees specifically mean goods and truths, for it is these that are involved in perceptions and cognitions. Some kinds of trees mean the interior goods and truths which belong to the spiritual man, such as olives and vines, other kinds mean the exterior goods and truths which belong to the natural man, such as the poplar, the hazel, and the plane. And because in ancient times each tree meant some kind of good or truth, the worship which took place in groves accorded with the kinds of trees there, 2722. The poplar referred to here is the white poplar, so called from the whiteness from which it gets its name. Consequently 'poplar' means good which was a product of truth, or what amounts to the same, the good of truth, as also in Hosea 4:13, though in this instance the good has been falsified.