9339. Verses 31-33 And I will set your boundary from the Sea Suph even to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness even to the River; ¹ for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out ² from before you. You shall not make a covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me when you serve their gods; for it will be a snare to you.

'And I will set your boundary from the Sea Suph even to the Sea of the Philistines' means the full range of truths from factual ones to interior truths of faith. 'And from the wilderness even to the River' means from delight belonging to the sensory level even to good and truth belonging to the rational level. 'For I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand' means dominion over evils. 'And you will drive them out from before you' means the removal of them. 'You shall not make a covenant with them and their gods' means no contact with evils and falsities. 'They shall not dwell in your land' means that evils must not exist together with the Church's forms of good. 'Lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me' means lest evils turn away forms of good from the Lord. 'When you serve their gods' means if worship is kindled by falsities. 'For it will be a snare to you' means owing to evils that are enticing and deceptive.

Fotnoter:

1167. In the Word 'Canaan' or the Canaanite means forms of ritual or external worship separated from internal. This is clear from very many places, especially in historical sections. This being the character of the Canaanites at the time that the sons of Jacob were brought into the land, permission was given to wipe them out. But in the internal sense of the Word Canaanites are used to mean all people whose worship is external separated from internal. And because this was pre-eminently true of the Jews and Israelites, they specifically are meant in the prophetic Word, as becomes clear from the following two places alone: In David,

They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was profaned with blood. ¹ They became unclean by their acts, and committed whoredom in their doings. Psalms 106:38-39.

Here 'pouring out the blood of sons and daughters' means in the internal sense that they destroyed every truth of faith and good of charity. 'Sacrificing sons and daughters to the idols of Canaan' means profaning matters of faith and charity by means of external worship separated from internal, which is nothing else than idolatrous worship. So 'they became unclean by their acts and committed whoredom in their doings'. In Ezekiel,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih to Jerusalem, Your tracings and your nativity are of the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. Ezekiel 16:3.

Here it is stated explicitly that they belonged to the land of Canaan. As regards 'Canaan' meaning external worship separated from internal, see what has appeared already in 1078, 1094.

Fotnoter: