10483. 'And Moses stood in the gate of the camp' means where the opening to hell is situated. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as the internal, dealt with above in 10468; from the meaning of 'in the gate' as where the opening is situated, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the camp' as hell, also dealt with above, in 10458. The reason why Moses stood in the gate of the camp and did not go inside the actual camp was in order that the impossibility for the internal to enter hell might be represented; for Moses represented the internal and the camp represented hell. The interest of all those in hell lies in external things separated from what is internal, because self-love and love of the world rule within them. Therefore what is internal cannot go in there since it is not received. Instead some who are there immediately reject it, some smother it and snuff it out, and some pervert it. Whether you say the internal or heaven, it amounts to the same thing; for heaven constitutes what is internal, not only the internal side of the Word but also the internal side of the Church and of worship, consequently the internal of the person who has celestial and spiritual love reigning within him, that is, love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour.

[2] What hell's opening is, meant by 'the gate' of this camp, must be stated briefly. Each hell is closed all the way around it, but it is opened above as necessity and need demand. It is an opening into the world of spirits, the world that lies midway between heaven and hell; for that world serves as the upper boundary of the hells and as the lower boundary of the heavens, 5852. The reason for saying that they are opened as necessity and need demand is that each person in the world has spirits present with him from hell, and angels from heaven. The spirits from hell are present in his bodily and worldly loves, and the angels from heaven in those which are celestial and spiritual; for without the spirits the person can have no life at all. If the spirits were taken away from him he would drop dead as a stone. Consequently to enable a person to lead a life in keeping with his loves the hells are opened of necessity and as need demands, and from there such spirits come out to him as are ruled by loves similar to his.

[3] That opening is what should be understood by the gate of hell. I have been allowed several times to see such openings. They are gates which the Lord guards by means of angels, to stop more spirits than are needed from coming out of there. From this it is evident what 'the gates of hell' and 'the gates of enemies' mean in the Word, as in Matthew,

Jesus said to Peter, On this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18.

'The gates of hell will not prevail' means that the hells will not dare to come out and destroy the truths of faith, 'the rock' on which the Church stands being faith in the Lord received from the Lord. This faith is the faith of charity because it is rooted in charity and for that reason makes one with it.

'The rock' means that faith, see Preface to Genesis 22, and also 8581, 10438.

Real faith consists in charity, 654, 1162, 1176, 1608, 2228, 2343, 2349, 2419, 2839, 3324, 4368, 6348, 7039, 7623-7627, 7752-7762, 8530, 9154, 9783, 9924.

[4] The like is also meant by your seed will inherit the gate of their enemies, Genesis 22:17; 24:60. 'Inheriting the gate of their enemies' means destroying evils and falsities which come from hell. This was also represented by driving out and destroying the nations in the land of Canaan; for the nations there represented evils and falsities which come from hell, see 1573, 1574, 1868, 4818, 6306, 8054, 8317, 9320, 9327.

Also in David,

Those who dwell in the gate plot against me; those who drink strong wine sing songs. Psalms 69:12.

In the same author,

Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver. They will not be put to shame, for they will speak with enemies in the gate. Psalms 127:5.

'Gates' in the good sense however stands for the opening into heaven.

In David,

Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O eternal doors, and the King of glory will come in. Psalms 24:7-10.

In addition admission into heaven and into the Church through truth and good is meant in the Word by 'gates', and also good and truth flowing in and present with a person.

4818. 'And there Judah saw the daughter of a man, a Canaanite' means the affection for evil begotten by falsity springing from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'the daughter' as the affection for good, dealt with in 2362, and in the contrary sense as the affection for evil, 3024; from the meaning of 'a man' as one who has intelligence and, in the abstract sense, as truth, but in the contrary sense as one who has no intelligence and as falsity, dealt with just above in 4816; and from the meaning of 'a Canaanite' as evil, dealt with in 1573, 1574. From these meanings it is evident that 'the daughter of a man, a Canaanite' means evil begotten by falsity springing from evil. What evil begotten by falsity springing from evil is will be stated below.

[2] Here the origins of the tribe of Judah must be stated first, since these are the subject in this chapter. That tribe, or the Jewish nation, has three origins, the first being Shelah, Judah's son by his Canaanite wife, the second and third being Perez and Zerah, Judah's sons by his daughter-in-law. The descent of the whole Jewish nation from these three sons of Judah is evident from the list of Jacob's sons and grandsons who accompanied him into Egypt, Genesis 46:12, and also from the grouping of them into families, referred to in Moses,

The sons of Judah according to their families were: of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites; of Perez, the family of the Parzites; of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites. Numbers 26:20; 1 Chronicles 4:21.

From this the nature of that nation's origin is evident; that is to say, a third of them were descended from a Canaanite mother and two thirds from a daughter-in-law. They were all therefore the product of an illicit union, because marriages to daughters of the Canaanites were strictly forbidden - as may be seen in Genesis 24:3; Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3; 1 Kings 11:2; and Chapters 9, 10 of Ezra - while lying with a daughter-in-law was a capital offence, as is evident in Moses,

As regards a man who has lain with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be killed; they have committed perversion; ¹ their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:12.

What Judah and his daughter-in-law had done together was linked by him to the law regarding leviratical marriages, which lays down the duty of a brother but never of a father, as is evident from verse 26 of the present chapter. Judah's linking of their deed together to this law implies that the sons of Tamar were to be recognized as the sons of Er the firstborn, who was born from the Canaanite mother, and who was evil in Jehovah's eyes and was therefore made to die, verse 7. For initially those born in a leviratical marriage did not belong to the one from whom they had been conceived but to him whose seed was being raised up, as is clear from Deuteronomy 25:5-6, and also from verses 8 and 9 of the present chapter. Furthermore, the sons whom Tamar bore were the result of whoredom, for when Judah went in to her he thought she was a prostitute, verses 15-16, 21. From all this one can see the origin of the Jewish nation and what kind of origin this was; and one can see that their words in John were founded on a lie,

The Jews said to Him, We were not born of whoredom. John 8:41.

[3] As regards what that origin implies and what it represents, this is evident from what follows. That is to say, those people's interiors were the same or had the same origin. Judah's marriage to a Canaanite implies and represents an origin that consisted in evil begotten by falsity springing from evil, for this is what is meant in the internal sense by 'the daughter of a man, a Canaanite'. And his lying through whoredom with his daughter-in-law implies and represents condemnation due to truth falsified by evil, for throughout the Word 'whoredom' means the falsification of truth, see 3703. ² Evil begotten by falsity springing from evil is an evil life resulting from a false teaching hatched by the evil of self-love - that is, by those governed by this evil - and backed up by a use of the sense of the letter of the Word. This is what the origin of the evil in the Jewish nation is like, and what the origin of the evil is like in the Christian world, especially among those meant in the Word by Babel. The nature of that evil is such that it closes every path leading into the internal man, closing every path so completely that no conscience at all can be formed there. For if any evil done by a person is due to a false teaching, he believes that this is good because he believes that it is true. He accordingly does it, because he has warrant to do so, with a sense of freedom and delight. All this being so, heaven is closed so completely against him that it cannot be opened.

[4] As an example to explain what this evil is like, take those who from the evil of self-love believe the following: One nation alone is Jehovah's chosen people, in comparison with whom all the rest of mankind are slaves. The rest, they believe, are so base that they may be killed at will and may be treated in a cruel fashion. Such ideas, likewise backed up by a use of the sense of the letter of the Word, were the beliefs of the Jewish nation, as they are also of the Babylonish ³ nation at the present day. Whatever kind of evil done by the latter that is the result of that false teaching, and of any other false teachings built on that one as their foundation, is evil begotten by falsity springing from evil. It destroys the internal man and shuts out even the possibility of any conscience being formed there. These people are referred to in the Word as those immersed in bloodshed; for they treat in savage ways the entire human race because it does not venerate what they believe and so themselves too, and because it does not present its gifts on their altars.

[5] Take another example - those who from the evil of self-love and love of the world believe in the necessity for someone to act as the Lord's vicar on earth. They believe that this person has power to open and close heaven, and so to control everyone's mind and conscience, and they back up this falsity by a use of the sense of the letter of the Word. In their case whatever kind of evil they perform as a result of these ideas is evil begotten by falsity springing from evil, which similarly destroys the internal man in those who are led by that evil to lay claim to that power and so control others. That evil destroys the internal man so completely that people cease to know any longer what the internal man is, or to know of the existence of conscience in anyone, with the result that they cease to believe any longer in a life after death, or in the existence of hell and of heaven, however much they talk about these.

[6] The nature of this evil is such that people in the world cannot tell it apart from other evils; but in the next life angels recognize it quite clearly. For in the next life the countless differences in the essential nature and the origin of evils and falsities are in full view; and it is also the genera and species to which these evils and falsities belong that mark off the hells from one another. Of these countless differences man knows scarcely anything. He believes in the existence of evil but has no knowledge of its essential nature, for the simple reason that he does not know what good is, and does not know what good is because he does not know what charity is. If he knew what the good of charity was he would also know its opposites, which are evils, and also their differences.

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