4903. 'Saying, Tamar your daughter-in-law has committed whoredom' means a perception at this point that to say anything of marriage exists between them is a falsity. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in the historical descriptions of the Word as perception, dealt with above in 4892; from the meaning of 'committing whoredom' as falsity, dealt with in 2466, 2729, 3399, 4865; from the representation of 'Tamar' as the internal aspect of the representative Church, also dealt with above, in 4864; and from the meaning of 'a daughter-in-law' as the truth of the Church, dealt with in 4843, 4869. Consequently the words 'saying, Tamar your daughter-in-law has committed whoredom' means a perception at this point that to say anything of marriage exists between them is a falsity. The implications of all this may be seen above in 4864-4866; with its semblance of religion the Jewish nation perceived the internal aspect of the Church to be nothing else than a harlot, and its preaching and life based on this to be nothing else than whoredom. For those people who are confined to what is external devoid of anything internal do not look on the internal aspect of the Church in any other way. They give the name falsity to that which is true, and the name truth to that which is false. They do so for the reason that being confined to what is external does not enable anyone to see whether a thing is false or true; only what is internal makes this possible internal sight is a necessary ability which can make judgements about things seen by external sight; and to make such judgements internal sight must be fully in the light of heaven. But it is not in the light of heaven unless the person has faith in the Lord and this faith leads him to read the Word.

[2] The fact that the Jewish nation were confined to what was external devoid of anything internal, so that it believed what was true to be falsity, and conversely what was false to be the truth, is quite evident from their teaching that one was allowed to hate an enemy and also from their life of hating all who did not belong to their semblance of religion. Indeed it is quite evident from their belief that they pleased and served Jehovah when they treated gentile nations in a savage and cruel fashion, that is to say, when they exposed the bodies of those whom they had slaughtered to be devoured by wild animals or birds, cut up those who were still alive, hacked them to pieces with iron picks and axes, or made them pass through the brickkiln, 2 Samuel 12:31. Indeed their teachings asserted that even an ally who for some reason had been declared an enemy was to be treated in much the same way. From these considerations it becomes quite clear that nothing internal at all lay within their semblance of religion. If anyone at that time had told them that such actions were contrary to the inner spirit of the Church they would have replied that this was a falsity. The fact that they were confined to what was external, having no knowledge at all of anything internal and leading lives contrary to what was internal, is also evident from what the Lord teaches in Matthew 5:21-48.

3399. The expression 'lying with a wife' means in the internal sense perverting and adulterating truth, here truth that is Divine, because 'a wife' - Rebekah - represents Divine Truth, as shown above. This may be seen from the consideration that instances of lying together, adultery, and prostitution in the Word do not mean anything other than perversions of good and falsifications of truth, as shown in 2466, 2729. The reason why they do so is that all adultery is absolutely contrary to conjugial love, so much so that it is destructive of it; and conjugial love originates in the marriage of good and truth, 2508, 2618, 2727-2759, 3132. Consequently things that are contrary to good and truth, or that destroy them, are in the Word called forms of adultery.

[2] But it should be realized that those who belong to the spiritual Church are not able to adulterate good to such an extent that they profane it, for the reason that they are not able to receive good so far as to perceive it, as those who are celestial do. They are able however to profane truth because they are able to acknowledge it. Yet in the final period of the Church they are not able even to acknowledge truth, because at that time universal disbelief prevails concerning the Lord, concerning life after death, and concerning the internal man. And the disbelief which reigns universally makes it impossible for them to penetrate into the interior truths of faith. That which prevails with everyone universally limits them and keeps them back from entering more deeply into such things, even when the person is unaware of that universal disbelief and also when he supposes that he does believe.

[3] But those who are able to profane good are such as belong to the celestial Church, for they are able to receive it so as to perceive it, as was done by those living before the Flood who have consequently been segregated from everyone else and are kept in a hell separated from the hells of others - regarding which see 1265-1272. The prevention of the occurrence ever again of the profanation of good is meant by the reference to Jehovah expelling man and causing cherubim to dwell away from the east towards the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword turning this way and that to guard the way of the tree of life, Genesis 3:24. On these matters, see 308, 310.