5832. 'You will cause my grey hair to go down in evil to the grave' means that spiritual good and so the internal aspect of the Church is going to perish. This is clear from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good, dealt with in 5807, 5812, 5813, 5817, 5819, 5825, and as the internal aspect of the spiritual Church, 4286; from the meaning of 'grey hair' as the final phase of the Church, [dealt with in 5550;] and from the meaning of 'going down in evil to the grave' as perishing, dealt with in 4785. Going down in good to the grave describes rising again and being regenerated, 2916, 2917, 5551, and therefore 'going down in evil to the grave' is the opposite, namely perishing. As regards a perishing of the internal aspect of the Church if the truth represented by 'Benjamin' perishes, the situation is this: For good to be good it must have its own truths, and for truths to be truths they must have their own good. Without truths good is not good, even as truths without good are not truths; together they constitute a marriage, which is called the heavenly marriage. Consequently if one departs the other perishes; and one can depart from the other by being torn to pieces by evils and falsities.

1737. 'Who has delivered your enemies into your hand' means victory. This becomes clear without explanation. The joining of the Human Essence to the Divine Essence was brought about and effected by the Lord by means of constant conflicts that constitute temptations, and by victories; and He did all this from His own power. Anyone who conceives the manner of conjunction and union to be different from that is much mistaken. This was the way in which He became Righteousness. The conjunction or union was effected with the celestial element of love, that is, with Love itself, which, as has been stated, is Jehovah. The joining of men to the Lord is also effected by means of temptations and by the implanting of faith in love. Unless faith is implanted in love, that is, unless a person by means of things that belong to faith receives the life of faith, which is charity, conjunction is not possible. This alone is what 'to follow Him' implies, namely to be joined to the Lord, even as the Lord as regards His Human Essence was joined to Jehovah. For the same reason all such people are called sons of God - from the Lord who is the only Son of God - and become images of Him.