9011. Then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. That this signifies a state of blamelessness, and that is exempt from punishment, is evident from the signification of “place,” as being state (see n. 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 3404, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381); and from the signification of “an asylum,” or place whither he should flee who unexpectedly, or by chance, had killed anyone, as being a state of blamelessness, and thus exempt from punishment; for they who had smitten anyone by chance, that is, without intent, thus not with premeditation, nor from an evil affection which is of the will, were not in any fault of their own; and therefore when such came to a place of asylum they were exempt from punishment. By these persons were represented those who not of set purpose injure anyone in respect to the truths and goods of faith, and consequently extinguish his spiritual life; for such are in a blameless state and one exempt from punishment; as for instance are those who have complete faith in their religiosity, which is also in what is false, and who from this reason against the truth and good of faith, and thus persuade, as heretics will sometimes do who are conscientious, and consequently are zealots.

[2] That such persons were represented by those who were to flee to asylums is evident in Moses:

Ye shall select suitable cities, which shall be cities of refuge for you; that the manslayer may flee thither that smiteth a soul through error; as if he hath struck him unexpectedly, without enmity, or hath cast upon him any instrument without set purpose, or with any stone wherewith he may die, seeing him not, so that he make it fall upon him, and he die, when yet he was not his enemy, neither sought his evil (Numbers 35:11, 35:22-23).

This is the word of the manslayer, who shall flee thither that he may live; when he hath smitten his companion unawares, when he was not his hater yesterday and the day before, when he come into the forest with his companion to hew wood, but when his hand hath struck with the axe, to cut the wood, and the iron hath been shaken off from the wood, and hath found his companion that he die; he shall flee unto one of these cities, that he may live (Deuteronomy 19:4, (Deuteronomy 19:6)).

[3] Here is described the state of one who is blameless and exempt from punishment, and who has injured someone by the falsities of faith which he had believed to be truths, or by means of memory-knowledges derived from the fallacies of the senses, and thus has done injury to the internal or spiritual life of the other. In order that this might be signified, such error or chance is described by an instrument of some kind, and by a stone which he cast upon his companion, so that he died, and likewise by an axe, or the iron thereof, falling from its wood while they were both hewing wood in the forest. The reason why this is described by such things, is that “an instrument” signifies memory-knowledge; “a stone” the truth of faith, and in the opposite sense falsity; in like manner “the iron of an axe;” and “to hew wood” signifies disputation concerning good from one’s religiosity.

[4] Everyone can see that homicide committed through error would not have been described without a secret reason by the iron of an axe falling from its wood in a forest, because such a mischance can rarely happen, in fact scarcely once in the course of many years. But such a mischance is so described on account of the internal sense, in which is described the injury to a soul by another through the falsities of faith which from his religiosity he had believed to be truths; for he who does an injury by means of falsities which he believes to be truths, does it not of set purpose, or from a better conscience, because he does it from the faith and consequent zeal of his religiosity. That these things might be signified in the internal sense, they are described, as before said, by those who kill their companions by mistake, with a stone, by hewing wood in a forest and the iron of the axe then falling from the wood upon a companion; for “a stone” denotes the truth of faith in the natural man, and in the opposite sense falsity (see n. 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8609, 8941), in like manner “iron” (n. 425, 426); “the iron of an axe falling from its wood” denotes truth separated from good, for “wood” denotes good (n. 643, 2812, 3720, 8354), “hewing wood,” the placing of merit in works (n. 1110, 4943, 8740); but “hewing wood in a forest” denotes discussing these and the like things, and also bringing them into question; for “a forest” denotes a religiosity.

[5] Such things are signified by “hewing wood in a forest with axes” in Jeremiah:

The hirelings of Egypt will go in strength, and will come against her with axes, as hewers of wood, they shall cut down her forest, said Jehovah (Jeremiah 46:22-23).

Here “to cut down wood in a forest” denotes to act from a false religiosity, and to destroy such things as are of the church; for the church is called a “forest,” a “garden,” and a “paradise;” a “forest” from knowledge, a “garden” from intelligence, and a “paradise” from wisdom (n. 3220), because “trees” denote the perceptions of good and of truth, and also the knowledges thereof (n. 103, 2163, 2722, 2972, 4552, 7690, 7692); and as a “forest” denotes the church as to knowledge, thus as to external things, it also denotes a religiosity.

[6] The church as to knowledge, or as to external things, is signified by a “forest” in David:

The field shall exalt, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the forest sing (Psalms 96:12).

Lo we heard of Him in Ephratah, we found Him in the fields of the forest (Psalms 132:6);

speaking of the Lord.

In Isaiah:

The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for flame. And it shall burn the glory of his forest, and his Carmel; it shall consume from the soul even to the flesh; whence the rest of the trees of his forest shall be a number that a child may describe them. He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a magnificent one (Isaiah 10:17-19, 34).

“The forest” denotes the church as to the knowledges of truth; “Carmel,” the church as to the knowledges of good; in like manner “Lebanon” and “Hermon;” the “trees of the forest” denote knowledges, as above; to be “a number that a child may describe” means few; “the thickets of the forest” denote memory-knowledges (n. 2831).

[7] In the same:

Thou hast said, By the multitude of my chariots I will go up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, the choice of the fir-trees thereof; then will I come unto the height of his border, the forest of his Carmel (Isaiah 37:24).

I will visit upon you according to the fruit of your works, and I will kindle a fire in her forest (Jeremiah 21:14).

Prophesy against the forest of the field unto the south; and say to the forest of the south, Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every tree (Ezekiel 20:46-47).

Feed Thy people with Thy rod, the flock of Thine heritage who dwell alone in the forest in the midst of Carmel (Mic. 7:14).

Who does not see that in these passages by “a forest” is not meant a forest, and that by “Lebanon” and “Carmel” which are “forests” are not meant Lebanon and Carmel, but something of the church? yet what of the church is meant has been hitherto hidden, because the internal sense lies hidden. And it is wonderful that in so learned a world as is Europe above all the rest, where they have the Word, in every particular of which there is an internal sense, the very knowledge of this sense is wanting; when yet this knowledge existed among the ancients in Chaldea, in Assyria, in Egypt, in Arabia, and thence in Greece, in whose books, emblems, and hieroglyphics such things are still to be met with. But the reason why such knowledge has perished, is that there is no faith that the spiritual is anything.

2722. He planted a grove in Beersheba. That this signifies doctrine thence with its knowledges and its quality, is evident from the signification of a “grove,” and from the signification of “Beersheba.” As regards groves: in the Ancient Church holy worship was performed on mountains and in groves; on mountains, because mountains signified the celestial things of worship; and in groves, because groves signified its spiritual things. So long as that church, namely, the Ancient, was in its simplicity, their worship at that time on mountains and in groves was holy, for the reason that celestial things, which are those of love and charity, were represented by things high and lofty, such as mountains and hills; and spiritual things, which are therefrom, by things fruitful and leafy, such as gardens and groves; but after representatives and significatives began to be made idolatrous, by the worship of external things without internal, that holy worship became profane; and they were therefore forbidden to worship on mountains and in groves.

[2] That the ancients held holy worship on mountains is evident from the twelfth chapter of Genesis, where we read of Abraham:

He removed thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the sea, and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar, and called on the name of Jehovah (Genesis 12:8, n. 1449-1455);

and also from the signification of a “mountain,” as being the celestial of love (n. 795, 796, 1430). That they also held holy worship in groves is evident from what is stated in this verse: “Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the God of eternity;” and also from the signification of a “garden,” as being intelligence (n. 100, 108, 1588); and of “trees,” as being perceptions (n. 103, 2163). That this was forbidden is evident from the following passages.

In Moses:

Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any tree beside the altar of Jehovah thy God which thou shalt make thee, and thou shalt not set thee up a pillar; which Jehovah thy God hateth (Deuteronomy 16:21-22).

In the same:

The altars of the nations shall ye break down, and dash in pieces their pillars, and cut down their groves (Exodus 34:13);

and they were commanded to burn the groves of the nations with fire (Deuteronomy 12:3).

[3] And as the Jews and Israelites, among whom the representative ritual of the Ancient Church was introduced, were solely in externals, and at heart were nothing but idolaters, neither knowing nor wishing to know what anything internal was, nor the life after death, nor even that the Messiah’s kingdom was a heavenly one, therefore whenever they were in freedom they held profane worship on mountains and hills, and also in groves and forests; and likewise in place of mountains and hills they made for themselves high places, and in place of groves carved representations of a grove, as is evident from many passages in the Word. As in the book of Judges:

The sons of Israel served Baalim and the groves (Judg. 3:7).

In the book of Kings:

Israel made groves provoking Jehovah (1 Kings 14:15).

And in another place:

Judah built them high places, and pillars, and groves, upon every high hill, and under every green tree (1 Kings 14:23).

And again:

Israel built them high places in all their cities, and set up pillars and groves upon every high hill, and under every green tree (2 Kings 17:9-10).

And again:

Manasseh king of Judah reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, and set the carved image of the grove which he had made in the house of God (2 Kings 21:3, 7);

from which it is manifest that they also made for themselves carved images of a grove. That these were destroyed by king Josiah may be seen in the same book:

Josiah caused all the vessels that were made for Baal and for the grove, and for the sun and the moon, and for all the army of the heavens, to be brought out of the temple of Jehovah, and he burnt them without Jerusalem, and the houses which the women had woven there for the grove (2 Kings 23:4-5, 7, 14-15).

He also cut down the groves which Solomon had made, and likewise the grove in Bethel which Jeroboam had made (2 Kings 23:4, 6-7, (23:6-7) 13-15). That king Hezekiah also demolished such things may be seen in the same book:

Hezekiah king of Judah removed the high places, and brake the pillars, and cut down the grove, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent which Moses had made (2 Kings 18:4).

[4] That the brazen serpent was holy in the time of Moses is evident; but when the external was worshiped it became profane, and was broken in pieces, for the same reason that worship on mountains and in groves was forbidden. These things are still more evident in the Prophets.

In Isaiah:

Inflaming yourselves with gods under every green tree; sacrificing the children in the rivers under the crags of the rocks; thou hast also poured out a drink-offering to the rivers, thou hast offered a gift; upon a high and lofty mountain hast thou set thy habitation, and thither wentest thou up ¹ to offer sacrifice (Isaiah 57:5-7).

In the same:

In that day shall a man look unto his Maker, and his eyes shall see the Holy One of Israel; and he shall not look to the altars the work of his hands, neither shall he see that which his fingers have made, and the groves and the sun images (Isaiah 17:7-8).

In Micah:

I will cut off thy graven images and thy pillars out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more bow thyself down to the work of thy hands; and I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy cities (Micah 5:13-14).

In Ezekiel:

That their slain may be among their idols, round about their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every tangled oak, the place where they did offer an odor of rest to all their idols (Ezekiel 6:13).

[5] From all this it is now manifest from what origin idolatrous worship came, namely, the worship of objects that were representative and significative. The most ancient people who were before the flood saw in each and everything-in mountains, hills, plains, and valleys, gardens, groves, and forests, rivers and waters, fields and plantations, trees and animals of every kind, and the luminaries of heaven-something representative and significative of the Lord’s kingdom; but they never dwelt with their eyes, still less with their minds, on these objects; but these things served them as means for thinking about the celestial and spiritual things in the Lord’s kingdom; and this to such a degree that there was nothing at all in universal nature that did not serve them as such means. The real fact is that everything in nature is representative, which is an arcanum at this day and scarcely believed by anyone. But after the celestial which is of love to the Lord had perished, the human race was then no longer in that state-namely, that from objects as means they could see the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord’s kingdom.

[6] Yet the ancients after the flood knew, from traditions, and from collections made by certain persons, that these things had such a signification; and as they were significative they esteemed them holy. Hence came the representative worship of the Ancient Church; which church, being spiritual, was not in the perception that a thing was so, but was in the knowledge of the fact; for it was relatively in obscurity (n. 2715). Nevertheless they did not worship outward things, but by means of outward things they called to mind inward things; and hence when they were in those representatives and significatives, they were in holiness of worship. They were able to be so because they were in spiritual love, that is, in charity, which they made an essential of worship; and therefore holiness from the Lord could flow into their worship. But when the state of the human race had become so changed and perverted that they removed themselves from the good of charity, and thus no longer believed that there was any heavenly kingdom, or any life after death, but that men were in a similar condition with animals, save only that they could think (as is also believed at this day), then the holy representative worship was turned into idolatry, and the outward things were worshiped. Hence with many Gentiles at that time, and also with the Jews and Israelites, the worship was not representative, but was a worship of the representatives and significatives; that is, of the outward things without the inward.

[7] As regards groves in particular, among the ancients they were of various signification, and indeed according to the kinds of trees in them. Groves of olive-trees signified the celestial things of worship; groves of vines signified the spiritual things of worship; but groves of fig-trees, cedars, fir-trees, poplars, and oaks, signified various things relating to what is celestial and spiritual. In the passage before us mention is made simply of a grove or plantation of trees; and this signifies the things of reason that were adjoined to doctrine and its knowledges; for trees in general signify perceptions (n. 103, 2163), but when they are predicated of the spiritual church they signify knowledges, for the reason that the man of the spiritual church has no other perceptions than those which come through knowledges from doctrine or the Word; for these become of his faith, and thus of conscience, from which he has perception.

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