10647. Lest perchance thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land. That this signifies in this manner a conjunction with the evil of any religious persuasion, is evident from the signification of “a covenant,” as being conjunction (see n. 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804, 8767, 8778), thus “to make a covenant” denotes to be conjoined; and from the signification of “the inhabitant of the land,” as being a religious persuasion in which is evil (see above, n. 10640). Whether you say a religious persuasion in which is evil, or the evil of a religious persuasion, it is the same. Its being now again said that a covenant must not be made with the inhabitant of the land, is for the sake of the connection in the internal sense.

8778. And Moses reported the words of the people unto Jehovah. That this signifies correspondence and conjunction, is evident from the signification of “reporting the words unto Jehovah,” as being correspondence and the consequent conjunction; for the subject treated of is the covenant which was to be made with the people, and because covenants are made by consent on both sides, therefore something resembling this is done here, namely, Jehovah proposes, and the people answer, here through Moses, by whom is represented truth from the Divine conjoined with truth Divine in heaven (see n. 8760), which is mediating. But the covenant is not made with man otherwise than through the reception of the influx of truth from the Divine, and then through correspondence; for when higher things flow in into lower, they are not received in any other way.

[2] What correspondence is and reception thereby, can be seen from what has been shown at the end of many chapters concerning the correspondence of all things in man with those things which are in heaven, and also that all conjunction of natural things with spiritual, and in general of lower things with higher, is effected through this correspondence; for there is no correspondence unless lower things are made subject to higher ones through subordination; and when they have been made subject, the higher things act in the lower exactly as a cause acts in its effect. From all this it can be seen how the case is with the reciprocity of man when the Divine flows in; and in regard to the conjunction which is here described in the sense of the letter by the manner in which covenants are made; namely, that Jehovah speaks by a go-between to the people, and the go-between reports the answer unto Jehovah; for in this way conjunction with the Divine can be apprehended by man.