4517. To the Canaanite and the Perizzite. That this signifies who are in good and truth, is evident from the signification of the “Canaanite,” as here being those who were in the good of the church, and of the “Perizzite,” as being those who were in the truth of the church. The reason why “the Canaanite and the Perizzite” have this signification is that the Ancient Church was still among them there, as stated just above (n. 4516). For in the land of Canaan there existed people of the Most Ancient Church (see n. 4447, 4454), and also people of the Ancient Church, especially from that Ancient Church called “Hebrew,” for which reason the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were in general called “Hebrews” (Genesis 40:15), and also had altars, and sacrificed, and therefore after they had become idolaters the destruction of their altars was so frequently enjoined. So long therefore as the church or anything of the church remained among them, the good of the church was signified by the “Canaanite,” and the truth of the church by the “Perizzite.” But when everything of the church with them, had been consummated, evil was signified by the “Canaanite,” and falsity by the “Perizzite” (n. 1573, 1574).

4516. Ye have troubled me, to make me to stink to the inhabitant of the land. That this signifies that they who were of the Ancient Church would abhor them, is evident from the signification of “troubling me, to make me to stink,” as being to cause them to feel abhorrence; and from the signification of “the inhabitant of the land,” as here being those who were of the Ancient Church, for by the “land” is signified the church (see n. 566, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 2928, 3355, 4447), thus by the “inhabitant of the land,” those who were of the church, here of the Ancient Church, because this still remained among some nations in the land of Canaan. The representative of a church was not instituted among the people sprung from Jacob until after this Ancient Church had altogether perished, which is also signified by the fact that the descendants of Jacob were not admitted into the land of Canaan until the iniquity of the inhabitants of the land had been consummated, as is said in Genesis 15:16; for no new church is set up until the former one has been vastated.