8315. 'The powerful ones of Moab' means those leading a life of falsity resulting from that love. This is clear from the meaning of 'the powerful ones' as ruling and predominant elements; and from the representation of 'Moab' as people who are governed by natural good yet easily allow themselves to be led into error, dealt with in 2468, thus who lead a life of falsity as a result. For people governed by natural good and not by good that springs from the truth of faith, thus who are not governed by spiritual good, allow themselves to be carried away into believing any falsities whatever, and so into living in accordance with them. They are carried away from truths to falsities, in particular by ones that accord with the kinds of love they have. These are the people that 'Moab' serves to mean. Those governed by natural and not by spiritual good cannot at all be led by any influx from heaven, see 3470, 3471, 3518, 4988, 4992, 5032, 6208, 7197, 8002. The word used in the original language to express 'powerful ones' refers to those strong in truth that is grounded in good, and in the contrary sense to those strong in falsity that is rooted in evil. The word is used in the latter sense in Ezekiel 31:11; 2 Kings 24:15.

4992. 'Behold, my lord does not concern himself with anything in the house' means that natural good did not have even the desire to make anything its own. This is clear from the meaning of 'his lord' as natural good, dealt with in 4973, and from the meaning of 'not concerning himself with anything in the house' as having no desire to make anything its own. This meaning of these words cannot be seen except from the train of thought in the internal sense, for now the subject is a third state, in which the celestial of the spiritual was present in the natural. In this state natural good and truth which are spiritual are separated from natural good and truth which are not spiritual. Consequently 'not concerning himself with anything in the house' means that no desire existed to make anything its own. But being arcana, these matters cannot be seen clearly without the help of examples.

[2] Let the following serve to shed light on the matter. If mere lust leads a man to be joined to his wife, this is something natural which is unspiritual; but if conjugial love leads him to be joined to her this is something natural which is spiritual. And if after that - when he is her husband - it is mere lust that joins him to her, he considers himself to be a sinner who is no different from someone behaving in a sexually immoral way; which being so he has no further wish to make such lust his own. Or let another example be given. To do good to a friend, regardless of his character and simply because he is one's friend, is a natural action that is unspiritual; but to do good to a friend on account of the good residing with him, all the more so when one regards good itself as the friend to whom one is to do good, is a natural action that is spiritual. When this attitude exists with a person, he realizes that he himself is a sinner if he does good to a friend who is evil; for in that case he does evil to others through that friend. When this is his state he turns away from making his own that unspiritual natural good which had existed with him previously. The same is so with everything else.