4816. 'And turned aside [even] to a man, an Adullamite' means a turning to falsity. This is clear from the meaning of 'turning aside' as a departure into perversity, for turning aside, like going down, is used to refer to a retreat from good to evil, and from truth to falsity; from the meaning of 'a man' as one who has intelligence, and in the abstract sense as truth since a genuine understanding is formed from truths, dealt with in 265, 749, 1007, 3134, 3309, but in the contrary sense as one who has no intelligence, and therefore as falsity. This falsity is represented by 'an Adullamite', for Adullam was on the border of the inheritance of Judah, Joshua 15:35, and consequently meant truth coming from good, as also in Micah,

I will again bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah; even to Adullam the glory of Israel will come. Micah 1:15.

But because most things in the Word also have a contrary sense, so also does Adullam, in which case it means falsity coming from evil. The reason most things also have a contrary sense is that before the land of Canaan became an inheritance for the sons of Jacob it was occupied by nations who meant falsities and evils, as it also was subsequently when the sons of Jacob entered into what was contrary. For territories take on the same representations as those of the nations or peoples inhabiting them, in accordance with the essential nature of these.

265. 'Husband' (vir) means the rational. This is clear from verse 6 of this chapter which says that the woman gave to her husband (vir) with her and he ate, meaning that he conceded. It is also clear from what was shown concerning the word 'man' (vir) in 158, where that word was used to mean a person who is wise and intelligent. Here however, because wisdom and intelligence had perished as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, it means the rational, for nothing else was left. Indeed the rational is an imitation or seeming likeness of intelligence.