5749. 'You have done evil in what you have done' means that it is contrary to Divine law to claim that truth as their own. This is clear from the meaning of a theft, implied here by 'the evil which they had done', as claiming as one's own what is the Lord's, namely the truth meant by 'Joseph's cup made of silver', dealt with in 5747. The fact that making such a claim is contrary to Divine law is self-evident; see 2609. A person ought not to claim as his own anything that comes from the Lord, thus not anything that is true or good, so that he may dwell in the sphere of truth; and to the extent that he dwells in the sphere of truth he dwells in the light that the angels in heaven dwell in. Also to the extent that he dwells in that light intelligence and wisdom are present in him; and to the extent that intelligence and wisdom are present in him happiness is his. For this reason a person ought to have faith in his heart and acknowledge that nothing true or good at all originates in himself but that he receives everything good and true from the Lord; and this he ought to acknowledge because it is so.

2609. But as regards commandments to do with life ¹ - as all the Ten Commandments are, and as very many in the Law and the Prophets are because the service which these perform is to man's very life, they are of use in both senses, the literal sense and the internal. The things that exist in the literal sense were for the people and peoples of that period, who had no understanding of things that were internal, while the things that exist in the internal sense were for the angels, who have no interest in things that are external. Unless the Ten Commandments also contained internal things, they would never have been declared on Mount Sinai by means of so great a miraculous event; for everything contained in them, such as the commands to honour one's parents, not to steal, not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to covet what belongs to another, is known to gentiles also and has been laid down for them in their laws. And the children of Israel too, being members of the human race, ought to have known the same without any such declaration from Sinai. But it was because those commandments in both senses were to be of service to man's life, and were as external forms produced from internal, which corresponded to one another, that they came down out of heaven on Mount Sinai by means of so great a miraculous event - being declared and heard in heaven in the internal sense and declared and heard on earth in the external sense.

[2] Take, for example, the words that those who honoured their parents would have their days prolonged upon the land. By 'parents' the angels in heaven perceived the Lord, and by 'land' His kingdom, which those who worship Him in love and faith would possess for ever as sons and heirs. People on earth however understood parents by 'parents', the land of Canaan by 'the land', and years of life by 'the prolonging of their days'. By 'do not steal' angels in heaven perceived that they were not to take anything away from the Lord nor to ascribe any righteousness and merit at all to themselves. People on earth however understood that they were not to steal. From this it is clear that these commandments are true in both senses. Or take the commandment 'not to murder'; angels in heaven perceived that they were not to hate anyone nor to destroy any good and truth existing with another. But people on earth perceived that friends must not be murdered. And so it is with all the other commandments.

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