CL 510 - united lives

CL 510
The excellence of a man's life
depends on his married love,
for his life then unites itself
with the life of his wife
and by that union is ennobled.

Solomon Builds the Temple

When Hiram king of Tyre heard
that Solomon had been anointed king
to succeed his father David,
he sent his envoys to Solomon,
because he had always been
on friendly terms with David.
Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:

"You know that because of the wars waged
against my father David from all sides,
he could not build a temple
for the Name of the Lord his God
until the Lord put his enemies under his feet.
But now the Lord my God
has given me rest on every side,
and there is no adversary or disaster.
I intend, therefore, to build a temple 
for the Name of the Lord my God,
as the Lord told my father David, when He said,
'Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place
will build the temple for My Name.'

"So give orders
that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me.
My men will work with yours,
and I will pay you for your men
whatever wages you set.
You know that we have no one so skilled
in felling timber as the Sidonians."

When all the work King Solomon had done
for the temple of the Lord was finished,
he brought in the things his father David
had dedicated -
the silver and gold and the furnishings -
and he placed them in the treasuries
of the Lord's temple.

(1 Kings 5:1-6; 7:51)

CL 499 - basing judgment

CL 499
. . . one ought not to base his judgment of a person
on the wisdom of his lips alone,
but on the wisdom of his life, too.

David's Last Words to Solomon

When the time drew near for David to die,
he gave a charge to Solomon his son.

"I am about to go the way of all the earth," he said,
"So be strong, show yourself a man,
and observe what the Lord your God requires:
Walk in His ways,
and keep His decrees and commands,
His laws and requirements,
as written in the Law of Moses,
so that you may prosper in all you do
and where you go,
and that the Lord may keep His promise to me:
'If your descendants watch how they live,
and they walk faithfully before me
with all their heart and soul,
you will never fail to have
a man on the throne of Israel.'"

(1 Kings 2:1-4)

CL 491 - defending evil & falsity

CL 491
It is possible for everyone 
to defend evil as easily as good,
likewise falsity as easily as truth. 
The defending of evil 
is also perceived as more pleasing
than the defending of good,
and the affirmation of falsity 
appears as more enlightened
than the affirmation of truth. 
That is because any defense of evil and falsity
draws its reasonings from the pleasures, gratifications,
appearances and fallacies of the bodily senses,
whereas the defense of good and truth
draws its reasons from a realm above
the sensual elements of the body.

Solomon Crowned King

. . . Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet
have anointed him king at Gihon.
From there they have gone up cheering,
and the city resounds with it.
That's the noise you hear.
Moreover, Solomon has taken his seat on the royal throne.
Also, the royal officials have come to congratulate
our lord King David, saying,
'May God make Solomon's name more famous than yours
and his throne greater than yours!'
And the king bowed in worship on his bed and said,
'Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
who has allowed my eyes to see
 a successor on my throne today.'
(1 Kings 1:45-48)

CL 480, 482 - married love unites

CL 480
. . . following the pledge and covenant,
the married love of one man with one wife
unites their souls.
CL 482
Married love in this, its highest seat,
is spiritual, holy and pure,
because the soul of every person
from its origin
is celestial.
Consequently it receives influx from the Lord directly,
for it receives from Him
a marriage of love and wisdom,
or good and truth,
and this influx makes the person a human being . . ..

David Praises the Lord

"He reached down from on high
and took hold of me;
He drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
He rescued me because He delighted in me.
"The Lord has dealt with me
according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands
He has rewarded me.
"You are my lamp, O Lord;
the Lord turns my darkness into light.
With Your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall.
"As for God, His way is perfect;
the word of the Lord is flawless.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him.
For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is the Rock except our God?"
(2 Samuel 22:17-21,25,29-32)

CL 466 - loving a mistress

CL 466 [3]

. . . the more he loves the mistress,

the less he loves his wife,

or the warmer he grows toward the first,

the colder he becomes to the latter.

Moreover, what is even more despicable,

in the same measure, too,

he at heart accepts the Lord

only as a natural man and Mary's son,

and not at the same time as the Son of God,

and to that extent also

attaches little importance to religion.

Barzillai

Barzillai the Gileadite came down down from Rogelim

to cross the Jordan with the King

and to send him on his way from there.

Now Barzillai was a very old man, eighty years of age.

He had provided for the king during his stay in Mahanaim,

for he was a very wealthy man.

The king said to Barzillai,

"Come, cross over with and stay with me in Jerusalem,

and I will provide for you."

But Barzillai answered the king,

"How many more years will I live,

that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?

I am now eighty years old.

Can I tell the difference between what is good

and what is not?

Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks?

Can I still hear the voices of men and women singers?

Why should your servant be an added burden

to my lord the king?

Your servant will cross over the Jordan with the king

for a short distance,

but why should the king reward me in this way?

Let your servant return,

that I may die in my own town

near the tomb of my father and mother.

But here is your servant Kimham.

Let him cross over with my lord the king.

Do for him whatever pleases you."

The king said,

"Kimham shall cross over with me,

and I will do for him whatever pleases you.

And anything you desire from me

I will do for you."

So all the people crossed the Jordan,

and then the king crossed over.

The king kissed Barzillai

and gave him his blessing,

and Barzillai returned to his home.

(2 Samuel 19:31-39)

CL 461 - the Lord activates

CL 461 [6]
. . . the Lord activates
all the elements of the soul
and all the elements of the mind
in angels, spirits and men
through an influx from Him,
and this through an influx of love and wisdom;
and this influx is the underlying activity
from which springs every delight,
which in its origin is called
bliss, happiness and felicity,
and in its descent
delight, gratification and pleasure,
and in its universal sensation, good.

King David Flees Jerusalem

A messenger came and told David,
"The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom."
Then David said to all his officials
who were with him in Jerusalem,
"Come! We must flee,
or none of us will escape from Absalom.
We must leave immediately,
or he will move quickly to overtake us
and bring ruin upon us
and put the city to the sword."
The king's officials answered him,
"Your servants are ready to do
whatever our lord the king chooses."

(2 Samuel 15:13-15)

CL 457, 458 - the precious jewel

CL 457, 458
Married love is the precious jewel of human life
because the character of a person's life is such
as the character of that love in him,
that love forming the inmost element of his life.
For it is the life of wisdom
dwelling together with its love,
and of love 
dwelling together with its wisdom,
and thus it is the life 
of the delights of both.

. . . no others come into this love
and no others can be in it
but those who go to the Lord
and love the truths of His church
and do the good things it teaches;
(as) this love comes comes from the Lord alone . . ..

A New Baby

Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba,
and he went to her and lay with her.
She gave birth to a son,
and they named him Solomon.
The Lord loved him;
and because the Lord loved him,
He sent word 
through Nathan the prophet
to name him Jedidah*.
(2 Samuel 12:24-25)
(*Jedidiah means loved by the Lord.)

CL 452 - intention

CL 452 [3]

. . . intention is the soul in all actions . . .

A Portion of David's Prayer

How great you are, O Sovereign Lord!

There is no one like you,

and there is no God but you . . .

(II Samuel 9:22)

CL 444 - the origin of good, the origin of evil

CL 444 [4]

. . . nothing is good

that is good in itself

unless it is from God. 

Consequently it is the person

who looks to God

and wills to be led by God

who is motivated by good. 

But the person who turns away from God

and wills to be led by himself

is not motivated by good;

for the good that he does

is either for the sake of himself

or for the sake of the world;

thus it is either merit-seeking, or feigned, or hypocritical. 

From this it is apparent

that man himself is the origin of evil -

not that that origin was infused into man from creation,

but that by turning from God to self

he infused it into himself.

Share Alike

Then David came to the two hundred men

who had been too exhausted to follow him

and who were left behind at the Besor Ravine.

They came out to meet David and the people with him.

As David and his men approached,

he greeted them.

But all the evil men and trouble makers

among David's followers said,

"Because they did not go out with us,

we will not share with them the plunder we recovered.

However, each man may take

his wife and children and go."

David replied, "No, my brothers,

you must not do that with

what the Lord has given us.

He has protected us

and handed over to us

the forces that came against us.

Who will listen to what you say?

The share of the man who stayed with the supplies

is to be the same as that of him who went into battle.

All will share alike."

David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel

from that day to this.

(I Samuel 30:21-25)

CL 426 - the natural and spiritual self; CL 431 - uncleanliness in the church

CL 426

The natural self is the character into which

everyone is first led as he matures,

which is accomplished through

various kinds of knowledge and concepts,

and by rational matters having to do with the intellect. 

But the spiritual self

is the character into which he led

by a love of being useful,

a love which is also called charity. 

Accordingly,

in the measure that anyone is in a state of charity,

in the same measure he is spiritual;

but in the measure that he is not in that state,

in the same measure he is natural,

even if he should be discerning in acumen

and wise in his judgment.

AC 431 [2]

. . . uncleanness in the church springs from licentious love,

and that cleanness in it springs from conjugial love.

David Saves Saul - Twice

After Saul returned from pursing the Philistines,

he was told, "David is in the Desert of En Gedi."

So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel

and set out to look for David and his men

near the Crags of the Wild Goats.

He came to the sheep pens along the way;

a cave was there,

and Saul went in to relieve himself.

David and his men were far back in the cave.

. . . Then David crept up unnoticed

and cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

Afterward, David was conscience-stricken

for having cut off a corner of his robe.

He said to his men,

"The Lord forbid

that I should do such a thing to my master,

the Lord's anointed,

or lift my hand against him,

for he is the anointed of the Lord."

With these words

David rebuked his men

and did not allow them to attack Saul.

And Saul left the cave and went his way.

Then David went out of the cave and called to Saul,

"My lord and the king!"

When Saul looked behind him,

David bowed down and prostrated himself

with his face to the ground.
(I Samuel 24:1-8)

The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said,

"Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah,

which faces Jeshimon?"

So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph,

with his three thousand chosen men of Israel,

to search there for David.

Saul made his camp beside the road

on the hill of Hakilah facing Jeshimon,

but David stayed in the desert.

When he saw that Saul had followed him there,

he sent out scouts

and learned that Saul had definitely arrived.

Then David set out

and went to the place where Saul had camped.

He saw where Saul

and Abner son of Ner, the commander of the army,

had lain down.

Saul was lying inside the camp,

with the army encamped around him.

David then asked Ahimelech the Hittite

and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother,

"Who will go down to the camp with me to Saul?"

""I'll go with you," said Abishai.

So David and Abishai went to the army by night,

and there was Saul,

lying asleep inside the camp

with his spear stuck in the ground near his head.

Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.

Abishai said to David,

"Today God had delivered your enemy into your hands."

. . . But David said to Abishai, "Don't destroy him!

Who can lay a hand on the Lord's anointed

and be guiltless?

As surely as the Lord lives," he said,

"the Lord Himself will strike him,

either his time will come and he will die,

or he will go into battle and perish.

But the Lord forbid

that I should lay a hand on the Lord's anointed.

Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head,

and let's go."

So David took

the spear and the water jug near Saul's head,

and they left.

No one saw or knew about it,

nor did anyone wake up.

They were all sleeping,

because the Lord had put them into a deep sleep.

(I Samuel 26:1-12)

CL 425 - knowing good and evil

CL 425 [3]

No one knows good from the experience of evil,

but evil from the experience of good.

For evil dwells in darkness,

while good abides in light.

David at Adullam and Mizpah

David left Gath

and escaped to the cave of Adullam.

When his brothers and father's household

heard about it,

they went down to him there.

All those who were in distress

or in debt or discontented

gathered around him,

and he became their leader.

About four hundred men were with him.

From there David went to Mizpah in Moab

and said to the king of Moab,

"Would you let my father and mother

come and stay with you

until I learn what God will do for me?

(I Samuel 22:1-4)

CL 410, 411, 413 - little children in heaven

CL 410

As soon as little children are resuscitated

(which takes place immediately after death),

they are raised into heaven

and entrusted to angels of the feminine sex

who, in the life of their body in the world,

loved little children and at the same time venerated God. 

Because they had loved all little children

with a motherly tenderness,

they receive these little children as their own,

and the little children there

almost instinctively love them

as though they were their mothers. 

The heaven where little children reside

appears up front in the region of the forehead,

in the line or direction in which angels

look directly to the Lord. 

That heaven is situated there

because the little children are all raised under

the immediate guidance of the Lord. 

After they have passed through this first age,

they are transferred to another heaven,

where they receive their schooling.

CL 411

. . . as the little children are perfected in intelligence,

so they grow in stature,

and in this respect also look more mature. 

The reason for this is that intelligence and wisdom

are the essence of spiritual nourishment. 

Therefore the things that nourish their minds there

also nourish their bodies.

CL 413

Many people may suppose

that little children remain little children

and become angels immediately after death. 

But it is intelligence and wisdom that make an angel. 

Consequently, as long as little children

do not have that intelligence and wisdom,

they are indeed among angels,

but are not themselves angels. 

They become angels for the first time

only when they have become intelligent and wise.

Little children are therefore led from

the innocence of early childhood

to the innocence of wisdom;

that is, from an external innocence to an internal one. 

This latter innocence is the goal

in all their instruction and advancement. 

Consequently, when they reach the innocence of wisdom,

attached to it is the innocence of their early childhood,

which in the meantime had served them as a foundation.

Saul Is Afraid of David

Saul was afraid of David,

because the Lord was with David

but had left Saul.

So he sent David away from him

and gave him command over a thousand men,

and David led the troops in their campaigns.

In everything he did

he had great success,

because the Lord was with him.

When Saul saw how successful he was,

he was afraid of him.

But all Israel and Judah loved David,

because he led them in their campaigns.

(I Samuel 18:12-16)

CL 405 - spiritual parents

CL 405

Spiritual parents love their children

for their spiritual intelligence and moral life,

loving them thus for their fear of God

and for their piety of conduct or life,

and at the same time

for their affection for and application to

useful endeavors of service to society,

thus for the virtues and good habits in them. 

Out of a love for these traits principally

do they provide for and supply their needs. 

Consequently, if they do not see such traits in them,

they estrange their heart from them

and only out of duty do anything for them.

The Lord Tells Samuel

"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.

Man looks a the outward appearance,

but the Lord looks at the heart."

(I Samuel 16:7)

CL 396 - innocence joins

CL 396

The innocence of the Lord

flows into the angels of the third heaven,

where all are in an innocence of wisdom,

passes on through the lower heavens,

but only through the innocent affections of angels there,

and so descends directly and indirectly

into little children.

. . . innocence flowing into the souls of parents

joins itself with the innocence of little children.

The Lord Saves

Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving . . ..

(I Samuel 14:6)

CL 394 - innocence and peace

CL 394

Innocence and peace

are the two innermost elements of heaven. 

We call them innermost,

because they emanate directly from the Lord. 

For the Lord is the essence of innocence

and the essence of peace. 

Because of His innocence the Lord is called a Lamb,

and because of His peace He says,

"Peace I leave with you,

My peace I give to you."

(John 14:27)

. . . Innocence and peace

are the innermost elements of heaven

for the further reason

that innocence is the very essence of every good,

and peace is the serenity

of every delight that is connected with good. 

Samuel and the Philistines

While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering,

the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle.

But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder

against the Philistines

and threw them into such a panic

that they were routed before the Israelites.

The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah

and pursued the Philistines,

slaughtering them along the way

to a point below Beth Car.

Then Samuel took a stone

and set it up between Mizpah and Shen.

He named it Ebenezer, saying,

"Thus far has the Lord helped us."

So the Philistines were subdued

and did not invade Israelite territory again.

Through Samuel's lifetime,

the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.

The towns from Ekron to Gath

that the Philistines had captured from Israel,

were restored to her,

and Israel delivered the neighboring territory

from the power of the Philistines.

And there was peace

between Israel and the Amorites.

Samuel continued as judge over Israel

all the days of his life.

From year to year he went on a circuit

from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah,

judging Israel in all those places.

But he always went back to Ramah,

where his home was,

and there he also judged Israel.

And he built an altar there to the Lord.

(I Samuel 7:10-17)

CL 384 - love & wisdom

CL 384

. . . love through wisdom

creates beauty,

and wisdom from love

receives it.

Samuel Tells Eli

Samuel lay down until morning

and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord.

He was afraid to tell Eli the vision,

but Eli called him and said,

"Samuel, my son."

Samuel answered, "Here I am."

"What was it He said to you?" Eli asked.

"Do not hide it from me.

May God deal with you,

be it ever so severely,

if you hide from me anything He told you."
So Samuel told him everything,

hiding nothing from him.

Then Eli said,

"He is the Lord;

let Him do what is good in His eyes."

The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up,

and he let none of His words fall to the ground.

And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized

that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.

The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh,

and there He reveled to himself to Samuel

through His word.

(I Samuel 3:15-21)

CL 365 - zeal

CL 365

The zeal of a good love

harbors in its inner aspects friendship and love,

but the zeal of an evil love

harbors in its inner aspects hatred and vengeance. 

We said that zeal appears in outward respects

like anger and rage,

both in those who are prompted by a good love

and in those who are prompted by an evil love. 

But because the internal elements are different,

so also their expressions of anger and rage are different;

and the differences are as follows:

1.  The zeal of a good love is like a heavenly flame,

which never leaps out to attack another,

but only defends itself -

defending itself against an evil assailant

in much the same way

as when such a one rushes at fire and is burned;

whereas the zeal of an evil love is like a hellish flame,

which spontaneously leaps out and rushes upon another

and tries to devour him.

2.  The zeal of a good love

immediately dies down and softens

when the other desists from the attack;

whereas the zeal of an evil love persists

and is not extinguished.

3.  The reason for this is that the internal element in one

who is prompted by a love of good,

is, in itself, gentle, mild, friendly and kind. 

Consequently, even when, to protect itself,

the external element hardens, stiffens, bristles,

and so acts harshly,

still it is tempered by the goodness

which moves its internal element. 

Not so in evil people. 

In them the internal element is hostile, savage, harsh,

seething with hatred and vengeance,

and it feeds on the delights of those emotions. 

And even if it is appeased,

still those emotions lie concealed within,

like fires smoldering in the wood beneath the ash;

and if these fires do not break out in the world,

nevertheless they do after death.

The Israelites Fight the Benjaminites

On that day

twenty-five thousand Benjaminite swordsmen fell,

all of them valiant fighters.

But six hundred men turned and fled into the desert

to the rock of Rimmon,

where they stayed four months.

The men of Israel went back to Benjamin

and put all the towns to the sword,

including the animals and everything else they found.

All the towns them came across they set on fire.

In those days Israel had no king;

everyone did as he saw fit.

(Judges 20:46-48; 21:25)

CL 359, 360 - love and fire

CL 359

Love is said to blaze like fire,

because love is nothing but spiritual warmth,

arising from the fire of the angelic sun,

which is pure love.

CL 360

Love in the will

knows nothing about itself,

because it has no sensation of itself there;

nor does it operate by itself there,

but it does so in the intellect and its thought.

Consequently, when love is attacked,

it then works itself up in the intellect,

doing so by various reasonings.

These reasonings are like sticks of wood

which the fire ignites,

and which then blaze up.

And Down Came the Temple

Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled

to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god

and to celebrate, saying,

"Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy,

into our hands."

While they were in high spirits, they shouted,

"Bring out Samson to entertain us."

So they called Samson out of the prison,

and he performed for them.

When they stood him among the pillars,

Samson said to the servant who held his hand,

"Put me where I can feel the pillars

that support the temple,

so that I may lean against them."

Now the temple was crowded with men and women;

all the rulers of the Philistines were there,

and on the roof

were about three thousand men and women

watching Samson perform.

Then Samson prayed to the Lord,

"O Sovereign Lord, remember me.

O God, please strengthen me just once more,

and let me with one blow

get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."

Then Samson reached toward the central pillars

on which the temple stood.

Bracing himself against them,

his right hand on the one

and his left hand on the other,

Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!"

Then he pushed with all his might,

and down came the temple

on the rulers and all the people in it.

Thus he killed many more when he died

than while he lived.

(Judges 16:23,25-30)

CL 356 - as one

CL 356 [7,8]

When a man loves his partner continually,

does he not love her

with his whole mind and his whole body?

For love directs all things of the mind

and all things of the body

to that which it loves;

and because it is reciprocated,

it so joins the two

that they become as one.

. . . so far as a person loves wisdom

from a love of wisdom,

or truth from goodness,

so far he experiences true married love

and its accompanying power.

An Angel Appears to Manoah and His Wife

Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord,

"What is your name,

so that we may honor you

when your word comes true?"

He replied, "Why do you ask my name?

It is beyond understanding."

Then Manoah took a young goat,

together with a grain offering,

and sacrificed it on a rock

to the Lord.

And the Lord did an amazing thing

while Manoah and his wife watched:

As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven,

the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame.

Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell

with their faces to the ground.

When the angel of the Lord

did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife,

Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.

"We are doomed to die!" he said to his wife.

"We have seen God!"

But his wife answered,

"If the Lord had meant to kill us,

He would not have accepted

a burnt offering and grain offering

from our hands,

nor shown us all these things

or now told us this."

The woman gave birth to a boy

and named him Samson.

(Judges 13:14-24)

CL 341 - presence and conjunction; CL 350 - everyone is born

CL 341 [2]

The Lord's presence in a person is one thing,

and conjunction with Him another. 

Going to Him occasions His presence;

and living according to His commandments

brings about conjunction. 

CL 350 [2]

For everyone is born for heaven,

and no one for hell;

and from the Lord

each comes into heaven,

and from self into hell.

And Again

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths,

and the gods of Aram,

the gods of Sidon,

the gods of Moab,

the gods of the Ammonites

and the gods of the Philistines.

And because the Israelites forsook the Lord

and no longer served Him,

He became angry with them.

He sold them into the hands

of the Philistines and the Ammonites,

who that year shattered and crushed them.

For eighteen years

they oppressed all the Israelites

on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead,

the land of the Amorites.

The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan

to fight against Judah, Benjamin,

and the house of Ephraim;

and Israel was in great distress.

Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord,

"We have sinned against You,

forsaking our God and serving the Baals."

The Lord replied,

"When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites,

the Philisines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites

and the Moanites oppressed you

and you cried to Me for help,

did I not save you from their hands?

But you have forsaken Me and served other gods,

so I will no longer save you.

Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen.

Let them save you when you are in trouble!"

But the Israelites said to the Lord,

"We have sinned.

Do with us whatever You think best,

but please rescue us now."

Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them

and served the Lord.

And He could bear Israel's misery no longer.

(Judges 10:6-16)

CL 340 - natural & spiritual

CL 340

 It must be understood in general

that a person is born natural and becomes spiritual,

and that as long as he remains natural,

he is, so to speak, in the dark of night

and as though in a state of sleep

with respect to spiritual things. 

In that state he is not aware even

that there is a difference between

the external, natural person

and the internal, spiritual one.

Midian Oppresses Israel

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord,

and for seven years

He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

Because the power of Midian was so oppressive,

the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves

in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops,

the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples

invaded the country.

They camped on the land and ruined the crops

all the way to Gaza

and did not spare a living thing for Israel,

neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.

They came up with their livestock and their tents

like swarms of locusts.

It was impossible to count the men and their camels;

they invaded the land to ravage it.

Midian so impoverished the Israelites

that they cried out to the Lord for help.

(Judges 6:1-6)

CL 332 - marriage and reasonings

CL 332

People know

that the institution of monogamous marriage

is founded on the Word of the Lord,

that anyone who divorces his wife,

excepting for licentiousness,

and marries another,

commits adultery;

that from the beginning

or from the first inauguration of marriage,

it was ordained that the two become one flesh;

and that man is not to separate

what God has joined together. (Matthew 19:3-11) 

But although the Lord made these declarations

from the Divine law engraved on marriage,

still, if the intellect cannot support it

by some reason of its own,

by the circumvolutions customary to it

and by wrong interpretations

it is nevertheless possible for it

to draw the Divine law around

and bring it into hazy uncertainty,

and finally into an affirmative-negative estimation -

affirmative, because monogamy

is enjoined also by civil law,

and negative, because it does not accord

with people's own rational sight.

The human mind falls inevitably into this state

unless it is first  instructed

in respect to the aforementioned concepts,

concepts given to serve the intellect

as an introduction to its own reasonings;

namely, that there is such a thing as truly conjugial love;

that it is not possible except between two;

that neither is it possible between two

except from the Lord alone;

and that engraved on this love

is heaven with all its blessings.

After Joshua

After that whole generation

had been gathered to their fathers,

another generation grew up,

who knew neither the Lord

nor what He had done for Israel.

Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord

and served the Baals.

They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers,

who had brought them out of Egypt.

They followed and worshiped various gods 

of the peoples around them.

They provoked the Lord to anger

because they forsook Him

and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

In His anger against Israel

the Lord handed them over to raiders

who plundered them.

He sold them to their enemies all around,

whom they were no longer able to resist.

Whenever Israel went out to fight,

the hand of the Lord

was against them to defeat them,

just as He had sworn to them.

There were in great distress.

Then the Lord raised up judges,

who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

Yet they would not listen to their judges

but prostituted themselves to other gods

and worshiped them.

(Judges 2:10-17)

CL 331 - love & esteem

CL 331 [2]

. . . love esteems what it loves.

Esteem always accompanies love,

though love may not always accompany esteem.

Serve the Lord

But as for me and my household,

we will serve the Lord.

(Joshua 24:15)

CL 326 - speech, writing, thoughts; CL 329 - infinity

CL 326 [4,5,6]
. . . people in the spiritual world

all speak a spiritual language

which has nothing in common

with any language of the natural world,

and that every person comes automatically

into use of that language after death. 

. . . the very intonation of spiritual language

is so different from the intonation of natural language

that the intonation of spiritual language, even when loud,

is not at all audible to a natural person,

nor the intonation of natural language to a spiritual person.

. . .  their writing included and contained

a countless number of elements

which no natural writing could ever express. 

. . . this is because a spiritual person thinks thoughts

incomprehensible and inexpressible to a natural person,

and these cannot descend

or be put into any other form of writing or language. 

. . . spiritual ideas were higher than natural ones,

being inexpressible, ineffable and incomprehensible

to the natural man. 

And because spiritual ideas are so transcendent,

they began to say that spiritual ideas or thoughts

compared to natural ones

were the essences of ideas and the essences of thoughts,

and that they therefore expressed

the essences of qualities and the essences of affections;

consequently that spiritual thoughts

were the germs and origins of natural thoughts. 

It also became evident from this

that spiritual wisdom was the essence of wisdom,

thus unintelligible

to any person of wisdom in the natural world. 

. . . there is a still more interior or higher wisdom,

called celestial,

which has a similar relationship to spiritual wisdom

as spiritual wisdom does to natural wisdom;

and that these levels of wisdom flow in succession

in accordance with the heavens

from the Lord's Divine wisdom,

which is infinite.

CL 329 [3]

. . . everything divided

becomes more and more multiple,

and not more and more simple,

because as something is divided again and again

it approaches nearer and nearer to the Infinite

in which are all things infinitely.

They Could Not Dislodge

Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites,

who were living in Jerusalem;

to this day the Jebusites live there

with the people of Judah.

(Joshua 15:63)

They did not dislodge the Canaanites

living in Gezer;

to this day the Canaanites live

among the people of Ephraim

but are required to do forced labor.

(Joshua 16:10)

Yet the Manassites were not able

to occupy these towns,

for the Canaanites were determined

to live in that region.

However, when the Israelites grew stronger,

they subjected the Canaanites to forced labor

but did not drive them out completely.

(Joshua 17:12-13)

(But the Danites had difficulty

taking possession of their territory,

so they went up and attacked Leshem,

took it,

put it to the sword and occupied it.

They settled in Leshem

and named it Dan after their fore-father.)

(Joshua 19:47)

CL 325 - truth - the good right arm of good

CL 325 [2]

. . .  that good cannot provide or manage anything

accept by means of truth;

that good cannot protect itself either

except by means of truth,

accordingly that truth is the protection

and so to speak

the good right arm of good;

and that good without truth is without counsel,

because it has

its counsel, wisdom and judgment

by means of truth.

Caleb

Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal,

and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him,

You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God

at Kadesh Barnea about you and me.

. . . "Now give me this hill country

that the Lord promised me that day.

You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there

and their cities were large and fortified,

but, the Lord helping me,

I will drive them out 

just as He said."

Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh

and give him Hebron as his inheritance.

So Hebron has belonged to Caleb

son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since,

because he followed the Lord,

the God of Israel, 

wholeheartedly.

. . . Then the land had rest from war.

(Joshua 14:6,12-14,15)

CL 316 - right and left

CL 316 [5]

. . . in the twinned pairs of organs . . .

the one on the right symbolizes

the good connected with the two,

and the one on the left

the truth connected with them;

and that this is owing to

the marriage of good and truth

engraved on each person

in his whole being 

and in his every least part,

good having relation to the will

and truth to the understanding,

and the two together to a union of these. 

For this reason, in heaven

'the right eye' means the good connected with sight,

and 'the left eye' the truth connected with it. 

So, too, 'the right ear' means

the good connected with hearing,

and 'the left ear'

the truth connected with it. 

Similarly, 'the right hand' means

the good connected with a person's strength,

and 'the left hand' the truth connected with it. 

And so on with the rest of these twinned pairs.

. . . because 'right' and 'left'

have these symbolic associations,

the Lord said:

If your right eye causes you to slip, pluck it out . . .. 

And if your right hand causes you to slip, cut it off . . ..

(Matthew 5:29,30)

He meant by this

that if something good is turned to evil,

it should be cast away.

For the same reason He also told His disciples

to cast their net on the right side of the boat,

and when they did so,

they caught a great number of fish. 

(John 21:6) 

And by this He meant

they should teach the good of charity,

and by doing so would gather in people.