9348. 'For it will be a snare to you' means owing to evils that are enticing and deceptive. This is clear from the meaning of 'a snare', when it has reference to evils, as enticement and deception. The reason why evils are enticing and deceptive is that all evils spring from self-love and love of the world, 9335, and self-love and love of the world are born together within a person. These are the source of what the person feels as the delight of his life right from when he is first born; indeed the life that is his comes from them. Those loves therefore, like the hidden currents in a river, are constantly drawing the person's thought and will away from the Lord to self, and away from heaven to the world, thus away from the truths and forms of the good of faith to falsities and evils. At this time reasonings based on the illusions of the senses are especially predominant, and also the literal sense of the Word wrongly explained and used.

[2] These two things are what 'snares', 'traps', 'pits', 'nets', 'ropes', 'fetters', and also 'pretences' and 'deceits' are used to mean in the spiritual sense of the Word, as in Isaiah,

Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. Consequently it will happen, that he who is fleeing from the sound of terror will fall into the pit, and he who is climbing out of the pit will be caught in the snare, for the floodgates from on high have been opened, and the foundations of the earth have been shaken. Isaiah 24:17-19.

And in Jeremiah,

Fear, the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of Moab. He who flees from the fear will fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare. Jeremiah 48:43-44.

'Terror' and 'fear' are the disturbance and commotion in the mind when it is held fast between evils and forms of good, and consequently between falsities and truths. 'The pit' is falsity created by reasonings based on the illusions of the senses to lend support to delights that are attributable to self-love and love of the world; 'the snare' is the enticement and deception of evil that results from it.

[3] In Isaiah,

They will go and stumble ¹ backwards, and be broken, and snared, and caught. Isaiah 28:13.

'Falling backwards' stands for turning oneself away from goodness and truth; 'being broken' stands for dispensing with truths and forms of good; 'being snared' stands for being enticed by the evils of self-love and love of the world; and 'being caught' stands for being carried away by them.

[4] In Ezekiel,

The mother of the princes of Israel is a lioness. One of her cubs learned to seize prey; he devoured men (homo). The nations heard about him; he was caught in their pit, and they led him away with hooks to the land of Egypt. Later on he ravished widows ² and devastated cities; the land and its fullness was desolated by the sound of his roaring. Therefore the nations from the provinces round about lay in ambush against him, and spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit. They put him in a cage with hooks, and led him to the king of Babel; [they led him away] in nets, that his voice should no longer be heard on the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 19:2-4, 7-9.

This describes the profanation of truth in successive stages by the enticements of falsities arising from evils. 'The mother of the princes of Israel' is the Church where primary truths are, 'the mother' being the Church, see 289, 2691, 2717, 4257, 5581, 8897, and 'the princes of Israel' primary truths, 1482, 2089, 5044. 'A lioness' is falsity that arises from evil and that perverts the Church's truths; 'a lion's cub' is evil in its power, 6367. 'Seizing prey' and 'devouring men' mean destroying truths and forms of good, for 'man' is the Church's good, 4287, 7424, 7523. 'The nations' are evils, 1259, 1260, 1849, 2588 (end), 4444, 6306. 'A pit', in which the nations caught him, is falsity arising from evil, 4728, 4744, 5038, 9086. 'The land of Egypt', to which he was led away with hooks, is factual knowledge through which falsity comes, 9340. 'Ravishing widows' means perverting forms of good which have the desire for truth, for 'ravishing' means perverting, 2466, 2729, 4865, 8904, and 'widows' forms of good that have the desire for truth, 9198, 9200. 'Devastating cities' means destroying the Church's teachings that present the truth, 402, 2268, 2449, 2943, 3216, 4478, 4492, 4493. 'Desolating the land and its fullness' means destroying all things of the Church, 9325. 'The sound of the lion's roaring' is falsity. 'Spreading a net over him' means enticing by means of delights belonging to earthly kinds of love and by means of reasonings attributable to them. 'Leading away to the king of Babel' is the profaning of truth, 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1307, 1308, 1321, 1322, 1326.

[5] The fact that such things do not happen when a person does not love self and the world above all things is described in the following manner in Amos,

Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth if there is no trap for it? Will a snare spring up from the earth if it has certainly not caught [anything]? Amos 3:4-5.

[6] It is evident to anyone that 'a snare' in the spiritual sense means enticement and deception effected by means of the delights of self-love and love of the world, thus the enticement and deception of evils, which operate through reasonings that are based on the illusions of the senses and lend support to those delights. For the ensnarement and capturing of people is brought about by nothing else. When the devil's crew makes its attack on a person it concentrates on his loves, which they charm in every way until they have captivated him; and when he has been captivated that person reasons from falsities against truths, and from evils against forms of good. Yet he does not remain content to do that; he also takes delight in snaring others and enticing them towards falsities and evils. The reason why he also takes delight in doing this is that he too is now one of the devil's crew.

[7] Since 'a snare', 'a trap', and 'a net' mean such things they also mean the destruction and so annihilation of spiritual life; for the delights belonging to those loves are what destroy it and annihilate it, since those loves, as stated above, are the source from which all evils spring. From self-love springs disdain for others in comparison with self, then mockery and denigration of them, followed by enmity if they disagree with oneself, and finally by the delight that goes with hatred, vengeance, and so with inhumanity, indeed barbarity. This love in the next life rises to such a height that unless the Lord shows such people favour and grants them dominion over others, they are not only disdainful of Him but also mock the Word which speaks of Him. At length they are stirred by hatred and vengeance to act against Him; and insofar as they are unable to do so they carry out their hatred and vengeance with inhumanity and barbarity against everyone who confesses Him. All this shows where the essential nature of the devil's crew springs from, namely from self-love. Therefore since 'a snare' means the delight of selfish and worldly love, it means the destruction and annihilation of spiritual life; for the whole of love and faith to the Lord, and the whole of love towards the neighbour are destroyed by the delight of selfish and worldly love where it reigns supreme; see the places referred to in 9335.

[8] The fact that those loves are the origins of all evils, that hell arises from them and lies within them, and that those loves are the fires of hell is not known in the world at the present day. Yet people could have known this from the consideration that those loves are the opposites of love towards the neighbour and love to God, and the opposites of humility of heart, and from the consideration that from those loves alone spring all disdain, all hatred, all vengeance, and all inhumanity and barbarity, as anyone may realize who gives any thought to the matter.

[9] The fact that 'a snare' therefore means the destruction and annihilation of spiritual life is evident from the following places: In David,

Jehovah will rain on the wicked, snares, fire and brimstone. Psalms 11:6.

'Fire and brimstone' are the evils of selfish and worldly love. For this meaning of 'fire', see 1297, 1861, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324, 7575, 9144, and for 'brimstone', 2446, from which it is evident what 'snares' mean. In Luke,

... lest that day comes on you suddenly, ³ for it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Luke 21:34-35.

This refers to the last phase of the Church, when there is no faith because there is no charity, since self-love and love of the world will reign. This is followed by annihilation, which is meant by 'a snare'. In Jeremiah,

Among My people are found wicked ones. They keep watch, like fowlers laying [snares]; they set a gin to catch human beings. Jeremiah 5:26.

In David,

Those seeking my life ⁴ lay snares, and those seeking my hurt speak of ways to annihilate, and contemplate deceits all the day. Psalms 38:12.

In the same author,

Keep me from the hands of the trap they have set for me, and from the snares of the workers of iniquity. Let them fall into their own nets, ⁵ the wicked together, until I pass by. Psalms 141:9-10.

In Isaiah,

He will be as a sanctuary, though He will be as a stone to strike against and as a rock to stumble over, ⁶ for both houses of Israel; He will be as a snare and as a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many among them will trip, and fall, and be broken to pieces, and be snared and caught. Isaiah 8:14-15.

This refers to the Lord. 'A stone to strike against' and 'a rock to stumble over' stand for stumbling blocks that are laid; and 'a snare' and 'a trap' for the annihilation accomplished by those who attack and try to destroy truths and forms of the good of faith in the Lord by means of falsities that lend support to self-love and love of the world. For to all proud people the very fact that the Divine appeared in a human form, and that He did so not in royal majesty but in a guise that was despised, is not only a stumbling block but also a snare.

From all this it is now evident that 'it will be a snare' means the enticement and deception of evils, and consequent annihilation, as in other places in Moses,

... lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land onto which you will come, lest it becomes a snare in your midst. Exodus 34:12.

In the same author,

You shall not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. Deuteronomy 7:16.

In the same author,

Beware lest perhaps you are ensnared to follow ⁷ the nations, and lest perhaps you inquire after their gods. Deuteronomy 12:30.

'The nations' are evils and the falsities arising from them.

脚注:

5037. The reason why 'being committed to the prison-house' and 'being kept bound there' mean being subjected to temptations involving false-speaking against good is that the expression 'the prison house' is used for the entire place just beneath and round about the soles of the feet where those undergoing vastation are kept. Those undergoing vastation there are people who, in spite of their false assumptions and of their evil life arising from falsity, have nevertheless had good intentions. Such people cannot be received into heaven until they have divested themselves of their false assumptions and also of a living delight in them which sprang from these assumptions. People in that place are subjected to temptations, for the false assumptions and the living delights springing from these cannot be ousted except by means of temptations. The place where those people are, or rather the state which they are passing through, is meant in general by 'the prison-house' and those actual places by 'pits'. Regarding vastations in the next life, see 698, 699, 1106-1113, 2699, 2701, 2704. Those undergoing vastations are called 'the bound'; not that they are literally bound in any way but that they lack freedom so far as their previous thoughts and resulting affections are concerned.

[2] Such is the condition of those meant in the Word by 'the bound' and by 'those who are in prison', as is evident from other places in the Word:

In Isaiah,

I will give You to be a covenant of the people, a light of the nations, to open the blind eyes, to bring the bound out of prison, out of the dungeon-house those who sit in darkness. Isaiah 42:6-7.

This refers to the Lord and His Coming. Here 'opening the blind eyes and bringing the bound out of prison, and out of the dungeon-house those who sit in darkness' stands for those who have no knowledge of goodness and truth but who nevertheless have the desire to know and be taught about these. But in this instance a different word is used in the original language to describe a prison.

[3] In the same prophet,

All the young men are hidden in prison houses; they have become a prey, and none delivers and none says, Bring out. Isaiah 42:22.

'The young men' in the internal sense are the truths of faith, which are said 'to be hidden in prison-houses and to become a prey' when they are not acknowledged any longer. In the same prophet,

It will be on that day, that Jehovah will visit the host of the height on high, and the kings of the ground on the ground, and the bound will be gathered together over the pit, and they will be shut in ¹ the dungeon; after a multitude of days they will be visited. Isaiah 24:21-22.

'The bound over the pit' stands for those undergoing experiences of vastation, that is, temptation.

[4] In the same prophet,

What will you do on the day of visitation and vastation? It will come from afar. To whom will you flee for help? [Anyone] who has not bowed himself down will fall beneath the bound and beneath the slain. Isaiah 10:3-4.

'Beneath the bound' stands for the hell which lies below the places of vastation.' The slain' stands for those who through the false assumptions adopted by them have destroyed the truths of faith to a smaller extent than those pierced [by the sword] have done, dealt with in 4503.

[5] In Zechariah,

He will speak peace to the nations, and His dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. Also as for You, through the blood of Your covenant I will let out the bound ones from the pit in which there is no water. Return to the stronghold, O bound ones of hope. Zechariah 9:10-12.

'Letting out the bound ones from the pit' stands for those who are undergoing vastation and temptation; for the places where such undergo vastation are called 'pits', see 4728, 4744. In David,

Jehovah hears the needy and does not despise His bound ones. Psalms 69:33.

In the same author,

Let the groaning of him who is bound come before You. Psalms 79:11.

In the same author,

Jehovah looked from the heavens towards the earth to hear the groaning of him who was bound, to open to the sons of death. Psalms 102:19-20.

'Those who are bound' stands for those who are undergoing vastation and temptations. In Isaiah,

In a time of good pleasure I have answered You, and in a day of salvation I have helped ² You; I have also guarded You, and I have given You for a covenant of the people to restore the land, to apportion the inheritances that have been laid waste, to say to those that are bound, Go out; and to those who are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They will feed ³ along the roads, and on all slopes will their pasture ⁴ be. And they will neither hunger nor thirst. Isaiah 49:8-10.

[6] In the same prophet,

The Spirit of the Lord Jehovih is upon Me, Jehovah has anointed Me; to bring good tidings to the poor He has sent Me, and to bind up the broken in heart; to preach liberty to captives, and to those who are bound, to him who is blind; to proclaim the year of Jehovah's good pleasure.

In David,

Jehovah who executes judgement for the oppressed, who gives bread to the hungry; Jehovah who sets the bound free; Jehovah who opens the blind [eyes]; Jehovah who lifts up the bowed down; Jehovah who loves the righteous; Jehovah who guards strangers, upholds the orphan and the widow. Psalms 146:7-9.

'The bound' stands for those who are undergoing vastation and temptations because of falsities.

From all these places it is also evident who are meant in Matthew by those who are bound or 'in prison' and likewise who are meant by 'the hungry, the thirsty, and strangers',

Then the King will say to those at His right hand, I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, naked and you clothed Me around, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. Matthew 25:34-36

Regarding these verses, see the preliminary section of the present chapter, 4954-4958.

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