9335. 'And the wild animal of the field multiplies against you' means an inrush of falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. This is clear from the meaning of 'multiplying', when it has reference to a hurried removal of evils and falsities, as an inrush; and from the meaning of 'the wild animal of the field' as falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. For affections, good and bad, are meant in the Word by different kinds of beasts, 9280, and therefore affections for falsity that arise from the delights of self-love and love of the world are meant by 'wild animals'. These affections are also represented in the next life by wild animals, such as panthers, tigers, boars, wolves, or bears. Such affections furthermore resemble wild animals, for people ruled by those loves are steeped in evils of every kind and in the falsities arising from them. They are like wild animals in the way they see and treat companions. The fact that those loves are the source of all evils and falsities, see 2041, 2045, 2057, 2363, 2364, 2444, 4750, 4776, 6667, 7178, 7255, 7364, 7366-7377, 7488, 7490-7494, 7643, 8318, 8487, 8678.

[2] The reason why a hurried removal of evils and falsities leads to an inrush of falsities arising from those loves is that forms of good and truths, implanted in successive stages, must remove them; for falsities are not removed except by truths, nor evils except by forms of good. If this removal is not done in successive stages and in keeping with proper order, falsities that lend support to those selfish loves enter in, since those loves reign with every person before he has been regenerated; and when the falsities enter in truths cease to be acknowledged any longer. Also a person who is being regenerated is maintained in an affection for truth; and when maintained in this he searches for truths in all directions among factual knowledge in the natural. But at this time illusions of the outward senses, which exist in great abundance in the natural, present themselves there. From those illusions, when the delights of self-love and love of the world hold sway, the person deduces nothing except falsities, which come in and fill his mind if falsities arising from evil are removed suddenly. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal sense by I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest perhaps the land becomes desolate and the wild animal of the field multiplies against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

[3] The fact that 'wild animal' means falsity and evil arising from self-love and love of the world is evident from places in the Word which mention it, as in Isaiah,

There will be a path there and a way, which will be called the way of holiness. The unclean will not pass through it; the savage of the wild animals will not go up it. Isaiah 35:8-9.

In Ezekiel,

I will send famine and evil wild animals upon you, that they may make you bereft. Ezekiel 5:17.

In the same prophet,

When I cause evil wild animals to pass through the land and they leave it bereft so that ¹ it becomes a desolation, with the result that no one passes through on account of the wild animals ... Ezekiel 14:15.

In the same prophet,

You will fall on the open field; ² to the wild animals of the earth, and to the birds of the air I will give you for food. Ezekiel 29:5.

In the same prophet,

At that time I will make with them a covenant of peace, and I will banish ³ the evil wild animal from the land, in order that they may dwell securely in the wilderness. They will no longer be a prey for the nations, and the wild animals of the field will no longer devour them. Ezekiel 34:25, 28.

[4] In Hosea,

I will lay waste her vine and her fig tree; and I will make them into a forest, and the wild animals of the field will eat them. Hosea 2:12.

In the same prophet,

The land will mourn and every inhabitant will waste away because of the wild animals of the field and the birds of the air. Hosea 4:3.

In David,

The boar of the forest tramples on it, and the wild animal of the fields feeds on it. Return, O God Zebaoth, and visit Your vine. Psalms 80:13-14.

In the same author,

You dispose the darkness to become night, in which every wild animal of the forest comes forth. Psalms 104:20.

In Moses,

If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them, I will banish ³ the evil wild animals from the land. But if you despise My statutes, I will send into you the wild animals of the field, which will lay you waste. Leviticus 26:3, 6, 15, 22.

In the same author,

Jehovah your God will cast out the nations before you little by little, lest perhaps the wild animals of the field multiply against you. Deuteronomy 7:22.

In these places 'the wild animals of the field', 'the wild animals of the earth', and 'the wild animals of the forest' stand for the falsities and evils that belong to self-love and love of the world.

[5] Since 'wild animal' means falsity, and falsity can spring from two different origins, that is to say, it may stem from evil or it may stem from good, 9258, 'wild animal' in the Word also means upright nations or gentiles who, though they are subject to falsity, nevertheless lead upright lives. The term 'wild animal' is used in this sense in David,

Every wild animal of the forest is Mine, and beasts on mountains of thousands; I know every bird of the mountains, and the wild animal of My fields is with Me. Psalms 50:10-11.

In the same author,

Praise Jehovah, wild animals and all beasts! Psalms 148:7, 10.

In Isaiah,

All wild animals of My fields - come to eat, all wild animals in the forest. Isaiah 56:9.

In Ezekiel,

In the branches of the cedar, which was Asshur, all the birds of the air made their nests, and under its branches every wild animal of the field brought forth, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations. Ezekiel 31:6.

Примітки:

8311. 'The peoples heard' means all everywhere who were ruled by falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'the peoples' as those governed by truths springing from good, and in the contrary sense as those ruled by falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, 4619. The expression 'falsities arising from evil' is used in order to distinguish such people from those who are subject to falsities and yet are governed by good. Those who are subject to falsities yet at the same time are governed by good include, within the Church, those who are subject to heretical ideas but lead a good life, and outside the Church all who are governed by good. Falsities with these people are not damning, unless they are the kind of falsities that are opposed to good and destructive of an actual life of good. Falsities however which are not opposed to good are, it is true, essentially falsities; but so far as goodness of life is concerned, when they are not opposed to it, they virtually shed the character of falsity. Their application to good causes them to do so; for such falsities can be applied to good or they can be applied to evil. If applied to good they become mild, but if applied to evil they become harsh; for falsities can be applied to good, just as much as truths can be to evil. All truths without exception are falsified when they are applied to evil. Take as an example the idea that faith alone saves. Essentially this is a falsity, in particular among evil people who rule out the good of charity because, they say, it contributes nothing whatever to salvation. But this falsity is mellowed among those who lead a life of good since they apply it to good, saying that faith alone saves, but that it is not faith unless it exists together with its fruit, consequently unless it exists where good does so. It is like this with all other falsities.

[2] The statements immediately following in these verses refer to all those who were steeped in falsities arising from evil, and in evil resulting from falsities, and who were cast into hell when the Lord came into the world. There are very many kinds of evil and therefore also of falsity; for every kind of evil has its own falsity attached to it. Falsity is a product of evil and exists as the outward form of it, in exactly the same way as a person's understanding is the outward form of his will. For the will brings itself to light through the understanding, giving shape and form to itself there; it presents itself by means of mental pictures, those mental pictures by means of ideas, and these ideas by means of spoken words. These matters have been stated in order that people may know that very many kinds of evil and therefore of falsity exist. First they have been described by 'the Egyptians'. Now, that is, in the verses at this point, they are described by 'the inhabitants of Philistia', 'the chiefs of Edom', 'the powerful ones of Moab', and 'the inhabitants of Canaan', of whom it says that dismay and terror seized them because of what they heard. That is, they heard that those who upheld faith separated from charity and led a life of evil, those meant by 'the Egyptians', had been cast into hell, and that they likewise were to be thrown into hell, in order that those governed by truth and good might pass over in safety and unharmed and be led through to heaven. This last event is meant by these words contained in verses 16 and 17 following,

Alarm and dread fell on them; by the greatness of Your arm they are cut away like a stone, till Your people pass over, O Jehovah, till this people pass over [whom] You have possessed. You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place for You to dwell.