2426. 'In case the evil clings to me and I die' means it would inevitably result in evil existing with him at the same time and that this being so he would be condemned. This is clear without explanation. What these words embody can be recognized from what has been stated and shown already in 301-303, 571, 582, 1001, 1327, 1328 - that the Lord is continually making provision to prevent the mixing together of evil with good. But to the extent a person is immersed in evil, he is further away from good. It is better to be immersed completely in evil than in evil and at the same time in good. For if a person is under the influence of evil and of good simultaneously he inevitably stands condemned for ever. It is the deceitful and the hypocritical within the Church who more than anybody else stand in danger of this. This then is the meaning in the internal sense of 'in case the evil clings to me and I die'.

1182. 'Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar' means that these types of worship existed in those areas, and that at the same time these same nations mean types of worship themselves, whose external features appear holy but whose interiors are unholy. This is clear from the meaning of 'Babel' and of 'the land of Shinar'. In the Word much reference is made to Babel, and wherever it occurs it means such worship, that is to say, worship whose exteriors look holy but whose interiors are unholy. But since Babel is the subject in the next chapter it will be shown there that Babel means such things, and also that such worship in the beginning was not as unholy as it became subsequently. For the real nature of external worship is determined entirely by its interiors. The more undefiled the interiors are, the more undefiled is the external worship, but the more foul the interiors the more foul the external worship. And the more unholy the interiors are, the more unholy is the external worship. To put it briefly, the more love of the world and self-love exist in someone with whom external worship exists, the less life and holiness his worship has within it. The more hatred towards the neighbour there is present within his self-love and love of the world, the more unholiness his worship has within it. The more wickedness there is present within his hatred, the more unholiness still his worship has within it. And the more deceit that wickedness contains, the more unholiness still his worship has within it. These types of love and these forms of evil are the interior features of the external worship meant by 'Babel', which is dealt with in the next chapter.