9342. 'For I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand' means dominion over evils. This is clear from the meaning of 'giving into the hand' as overcoming and having dominion over; and from the meaning of 'the inhabitants of the land' as the Church's evils. Forms of good are meant by 'inhabitants', 2268, 2451, 2712, 3613, and therefore evils in the contrary sense; for the nations of the land of Canaan meant evils and falsities molesting and destroying the Church's forms of good and its truths, 9327.

5069. The expression 'the righteous', used of those on the right in the following statements - 'The righteous will answer Him, saying, etc.' and 'the righteous will go into eternal life' - means that the Lord's righteousness dwells with them. All in whom the good of charity is present are called 'the righteous'; not that of themselves they are righteous but that they are made such by the Lord, whose righteousness they take to themselves. Those who believe that of themselves they are righteous, or that they have been made righteous to such an extent that no evil at all is present in them any longer, are not among the righteous but among the unrighteous. For they attribute good to themselves and also make that good meritorious; and people like them cannot possibly possess true humility with which to worship the Lord. Therefore in the Word those people are called 'righteous and holy' who know and acknowledge that all good comes from the Lord and all evil from themselves, that is, they possess it from hell.