LEVITICUS 18
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Leviticus Chapter 18

Summary of the Spiritual Sense

1. The man of the church is instructed that he ought not to live according to the evils and falsities of the merely natural man, nor of the corrupted church; but that the Lord who is Good and Truth conjoined, or rather united, ought to be worshiped, vers. 1-5.
2. Therefore, generally, man is forbidden to profane good or truth by conjoining them with evil or falsity, ver. 6.
3. Nor, in particular, ought he to profane them by any illegitimate conjunctions whatever, which are described in a series, and by which the corrupted church is defiled, and is incapable of properly realizing either good or evil, vers. 7-25.
4. On the contrary, the man of the Spiritual Church must live according to the laws of Divine Order and avoid abominations, lest he too should become corrupt, be entirely separated from genuine good and truth, and be altogether incapable of that obedience to the Lord which is the result of the heavenly marriage of good and truth from Him, vers. 26-30.

1.  This is evident, because by Jehovah is denoted the Divine Being as to His love, 2001; by speaking is denoted influx, 2951; by Moses is represented Divine Truth or the Word, 7010; and by saying is denoted perception, 1791, 1822.

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2.  Speaking to the children of Israel and saying to them denotes instruction to the man of the Spiritual Church from which he learns, 7010, 3654, 10355, 1791. 1822; and "I am the Lord your God " denotes that the Lord is the only God, and that from Him is all good and truth conjoined, 2001.

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3.  By not doing after the doings of the land of Egypt in which you dwelt is denoted that he ought not to live according to the evils and falsities of the merely natural state into which he is born, 5755, 5276, 1293; not doing after the doing of the land of Canaan whither they were to be brought denotes not according to the evils and falsities of the corrupted church, which is to be succeeded by the Spiritual Church, 1868; and not walking in their statutes denotes that worship was not to be any longer external and idolatrous, 8420, 7884, 8357.

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4.  Doing the Lord's judgements, and keeping his statutes to walk therein, denotes to worship Him by means of the Word, or by truths internal and external, and by obedience in the daily life, 5755, 8357; and " I am the Lord your God" denotes because the Lord manifests Himself as good and truth conjoined; as truth derived from good; and as the External in harmony with the Internal, 2001.

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5.  Keeping, therefore, the Lord's statutes and judgements denotes that man must first engage in external worship leading to internal, 8357; doing them and living in them denotes that by obedience to the laws of which, he will become internal, 5755; and " I am the Lord" denotes that thus he will acknowledge the Lord especially as Divine Good, 2001.

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6.  Not approaching to any one that is near of kin to him to uncover nakedness denotes that consequently the spiritual man is forbidden to profane holy truths by contamination with evils and falsities hereditary or actual by conjunction therewith, 6348, 4434, 9960; and " I am the Lord" denotes that Divine Good requires that good thence derived can alone be legitimately conjoined with truths, and also the confirmation of that conjunction, 2001, 7192.

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7.  "The nakedness of your father, even the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover," denotes that it is contrary to Divine Order to profane good by contamination with hereditary evil directly, through conjunction with the essential falsity conjoined therewith, because by this adultery is denoted the profanation of good, 6348, by father is denoted hereditary evil, and by mother is denoted the falsity conjoined therewith, 3703²⁰; "she is your mother" denotes that this falsity is the external origin of a new form of evil, 1815, 1895; and "you shall not uncover her nakedness" denotes contamination and exposure, 9960¹⁰.

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8.  "The nakedness of your father's wife you shall not uncover," denotes that it is not lawful to profane good by contamination with falsity conjoined with hereditary evil in the external man, since by this adultery is denoted also the profanation of good, 6348, by father is denoted hereditary evil, 3703²⁰, and by the father's wife is denoted the falsity conjoined therewith in the external man, 409, 1369; and "it is your father's nakedness" denotes that such falsity is only another form of hereditary evil, because as truth is the form of good, so falsity is the form of evil, 9637.

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9.  A sister denotes falsity in the understanding, since in a good sense she denotes intellectual truth, 1475; the daughter of a father, or the daughter of a mother, denotes procedure either from interior hereditary evil or from exterior, 568, 1815, 1895; born at home, or born abroad, denotes activity in the internal or external man or church, because this case is similar to that of a native and a sojourner, 8013; and not uncovering the nakedness of a sister denotes that falsification of truth and profanation of such a character are unlawful, 6348.

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10.  By the son's daughter, or the daughter's daughter, is denoted an evil affection springing from actual falsity or evil, as appears from the signification of a son as denoting falsity, and of a daughter as denoting evil, 568, and it is said, actual falsity and evil, because a man's own son or daughter, as distinguished from his father's or mother's children, evidently denotes this; not uncovering their nakedness denotes that it is not lawful to falsify and profane the truth by such contamination, 6348; and by "for theirs is your own nakedness" is denoted that evil affections of this kind are the intensification of actual evil, 313, 494.

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11.  As the father's wife who is not the mother is not in such close relationship as the father's wife who is at the same time the mother, therefore it has been said that the former denotes falsity, conjoined with hereditary evil in the external man, ver. 8; and hence the father's wife's daughter will denote the affection of hereditary evil in the external man, arising from the conjunction of that evil with falsity there, 568; "she is your sister" denotes that this affection is actual falsity in the understanding, ver. 9, 1475; and her nakedness not to be uncovered denotes that the truth is not to be falsified and profaned by contamination with such evil, 6348.

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12.  By the father's sister is denoted falsity in the understanding allied with hereditary evil in the internal man but not directly conjoined therewith, 3703²⁰, 1475; "she is your father's near kinswoman" denotes that this is falsity on the same plane with hereditary evil, 3160; and by nakedness not to be uncovered is denoted that the truth is not to be falsified and profaned by contamination with the affection of such falsity, 6348.

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13.  By the mother's sister is denoted falsity in the understanding allied with hereditary evil, but not directly conjoined therewith, in the external man, 1815, 1895, 1475; by the mother's near kinswoman is denoted falsity on the same plane with external hereditary evil, 3160; and by nakedness not to be uncovered is denoted that the truth is not to be falsified and profaned by contamination with the affection of such falsity, 6348.

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14.  By the father's brother is denoted collateral hereditary evil, 3612; by the wife of the father's brother is denoted the falsity conjoined with such evil, 1369; by her being the aunt is denoted that this falsity is the outward form of more remote hereditary life, 3612, 4145; and by nakedness not to be uncovered is denoted that it is not lawful to profane good by contaminating it with such falsity, 6348.

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15.  By the daughter in law is denoted falsity conjoined with actual evil, 4843, 10490; her being the son's wife denotes the outward form of that evil, 3049, 5337, 9474³; and nakedness not to be uncovered denotes that it is not lawful to profane good by contamination with such falsity, 6348.

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16.  The brother denotes collateral evil, 3612; the wife denotes falsity conjoined with that evil, 1369; the brother's nakedness denotes the outward form of that evil, 9960¹⁸, 3049, 5337, 9474; and nakedness not to be uncovered denotes that it is not lawful to profane good by contamination with such falsity, 6348.

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17.  The woman and her daughter denote falsity and the evil thence derived, 1369, 568; her son's daughter and her daughter's daughter denote evil from the falsity thence, and evil from the evil thence, 568; that they are allied evils is denoted by their being near kinswomen, 3160; nakedness not to be uncovered denotes that it is not lawful to falsify and profane the truth by contamination with such evils, 6348; and its being wickedness denotes the intensification of evil, as is evident.

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18.  As a sister denotes falsity in the understanding, ver. 9, two sisters will denote collateral falsities with their affections, 3160; being a rival to her, or vexing her, denotes a conflict of falsities, 6420, 9308; and not uncovering nakedness denotes that it is unlawful to falsify and profane the truth by contamination with such falsities, 6348, while beside the other in her lifetime evidently denotes the activity of conflicting feelings and thoughts during regeneration, 4366².

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19.  A woman impure, or separated, for her uncleanness, denotes falsified truth caused by the superabundance of merely natural affection during the process of regeneration, 10130, 4161; and nakedness not to be uncovered denotes that it is not lawful to profane the truth by contamination with such falsifications, 6348.

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20.  Not to lie carnally with the neighbour's wife to defile yourself with her, denotes that it is not lawful to profane by adulterating the good of the church which is the greatest impurity, 6348.

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21.  Not giving any seed to pass through the fire to Molech denotes that it is unlawful to profane by falsifying the incipient truths of the church through selfish love, 1610, 934, 2468¹⁶; not profaning the name of your God denotes that the truth must always be held in reverence, and we may add especially the conjunction of the Human with the Divine in the Lord, or the Divine Human, 6280, 2001; and " I am the Lord " denotes that Divine Truth is the form of Divine Good, 2001.

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22.  Not lying with mankind as with womankind, and its being an abomination, denotes that the contamination of truth with falsities from sensual love is unlawful, being most degraded and detestable, 725, 2056, 6052, 6348.

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23.  Not lying with any beast to defile yourself therewith, and a woman not standing before a beast to lie down thereto, it being confusion, denotes that, generally, the contamination of the truth with evil as well as the contamination of good with falsity, is profanation, 46, 1326, 6348.

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24.  Not defiling oneself with any of these things denotes that the spiritual man must not render himself impure by any kind of profanation, 10130, 6348; and the nations which were cast out being thus defiled denotes that this is the practice of the corrupted church who are confirmed in evil, and are to be rejected by the power of Divine Truth, 1205, 2657.

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25.  The land being defiled denotes that the church rejected is utterly corrupted, 10130; visiting the iniquity upon it denotes that it suffers the consequences of its corruption, 696, 9937; and the land vomiting out her inhabitants denotes that it is incapable of properly realizing either good or evil, 9527, 3705.

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26.  Keeping the Lord's statutes and judgements and not doing any of these abominations denotes that the truly spiritual man is obedient to Divine laws externally and internally, and abominates all profanation, 8357, 6052; and neither the native nor the stranger that sojourns among you denotes whether he belongs to the internal or external church, 8013.

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27.  "All these abominations have the men of the land done which were before you " denotes that these corruptions are common to those who are in selfish and worldly love, 1205, 693; which were before you denotes spiritually prior states of the church as an individual and as a community, and hence states from heredity, 8550; and the land being defiled denotes the actual evil derived from the perverted loves of self and the world, 8551, 10130.

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28.  "That the land vomit not you out as it vomited the nation which was before you, when you defile it," denotes that the spiritual man becomes defiled and profane by wilfully corrupting the truth as former perverted churches have done, 9527, 10130.

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29.  "Whosoever does these abominations " denotes all who profane the good and the true as described in the whole chapter, 6052; and their being cut off from the people denotes separation entirely from those who are in truths, 5302, 1259.

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30.  To keep the charge of the Lord evidently denotes to be obedient, 8830, 8513; not doing any of these abominable customs denotes lest there should be profanation extremely as in former corrupt churches, 6052, 8550, 8551; not defiling themselves denotes not becoming impure, 10130; and " I am the Lord your God " denotes that the Lord only must be worshiped in Whom Good and Truth are One, 2001.

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The introduction to the subject of this chapter is very significant, owing to the fact that the Divine proclaims Himself three times successively. The reason is, because the revelation of the Lord to man is successive. He first manifests Himself to the natural man as one Divine Being, in Whom love and wisdom are united. We ought, therefore, thus to think of Him naturally, as an infinitely glorious and Divine Man, since love and wisdom, or good and truth, or affection and intelligence, constitute finite man. And this must be the case, not only with the natural man, who thinks in simplicity without deep reflection, but also with the spiritual man, who distinguishes; and that is the reason why it is added, in the second instance, "as truth derived from good, and as the External in harmony with the Internal," ver. 4. For when the natural man is made spiritual, he proceeds by means of truths to the state of good, conjoining the natural with the spiritual in himself. But in the third instance it is only said, " I am the Lord," because by his obedience the spiritual man becomes celestial, thus uniting truth with good, and living then from good by truth. Now every one who is regenerated must pass through this process, and only by doing so can he overcome the tendency in himself to profane the truth, or to profane goodness, in the various ways specified in what follows.

The whole subject, however, is first presented in a few words, and in those the expression, "I am the Lord," is again repeated, confirming the general prohibition, and also showing, that with him who is regenerated, good and truth alone can be legitimately conjoined, as they are united in the Divine Being. But let us consider next the profound truth involved in the fact that the fully regenerated man is preserved by the Lord from ever, spiritually, uncovering nakedness. That is, the hereditary and actual evils of his life, although they cannot be abolished, but remain for ever, yet are quiescent, and cannot be exposed. Compare 868 and 9960; and reflect on the character of the Divine Word, in its interiors, and thence in its ultimate expressions, as being most holy and pure, and that we may properly regard all these prohibitions as a description of the exceedingly great perfection and purity of angelic life, which is free from all impurity, and especially from the possibility of profaning good and truth in any way whatever; at the same time that it may be acknowledged that, apart from the Lord, every man of the church on earth, and every angel in heaven is nothing but evil, and is disposed to profane good and truth by laying bare hereditary conditions and acquired states of evil, which love and charity from the Lord have covered up, and always will make atonement for, in those who, during the earthly life, renounce all evil and falsity, and love and practise all goodness and truth, the marriage of goodness and truth being regeneration in every individual.

And this brings us to the consideration of another point here involved. It is that these unlawful connections, which are commonly called the forbidden degrees within which marriage may not be allowed, forcibly remind us that the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of the Lord with His church, and thus the conjunction of goodness and truth in general, is also to be looked upon as the marriage of goodness and truth in particular. That is, not only has every good its opposite evil, and every truth its opposite falsity, with which the man of the church may not contaminate himself and thus commit profanation, but also every good must be conjoined with its own truth, and every truth with its own good, and not with any other, because such is, evidently, not the true marriage. It follows, therefore, that, since each individual, whether man or woman, is really a distinct form of life, which cannot be repeated, and thus is a distinct form of good or truth which cannot be repeated, there is undoubtedly a true and eternal marriage of each individual, with his or her corresponding form of truth or goodness; and also that this marriage, if not effected in this life, is quite sure to be effected in heaven, according to the Lord's own words that two congenial minds of this kind ought not to be, and in fact cannot be separated. For He said, " What God has joined together, let not man put to pieces " (Matt 19:4-6). Hence, then, we see that the true marriage with every one goes hand in hand, so to speak, with his regeneration; and also that marriages on earth are holy as, under any circumstances, they assume to be, and therefore represent the true heavenly marriage.

But it is now to be observed that the internal sense, in dealing with the subject before us, in addition to stating what violations of the marriage of goodness and truth constitute profanation, also gives the reasons why. All these, however, may be included in one general statement, namely, that the hereditary life of man is nothing but evil. But it may be immediately thought by many that surely children inherit from their parents good dispositions as well as bad ones, and good capacities for acquiring truths as well as falsities. Is not this quite evident in families? How is it, then, that such good dispositions and capabilities notwithstanding, man is by birth nothing but evil? It is because no finite human being can possess inherent goodness, there being only one source of goodness, which is the Lord; because this good cannot be inherited by children from their parents; because it can only be received from the Lord through regeneration; and because the so-called good, which man receives by heredity, is contaminated by the evil so received. But see Matt 19:17; John 3:5, 6; 1 Kings 8:46,

From all these reflections it may now be more clearly seen why the terms father, mother, brother, sister, etc., are here to be taken correspondingly as denoting various kinds of evils and falsities, although in the best sense they denote various kinds of goods and truths, which is the same thing as various forms of affection and intelligence from the Lord. Hence the Lord says to the unbelieving Pharisees: "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father thereof" (John 8:44). Here, by "your father the devil," is not meant any personal devil, as is commonly supposed, but all hell in the aggregate, and also the principle of selfish love, which makes hell, the term father signifying that this love is the origin of all evil and the falsity thence derived. This text, therefore, justifies the signification given to the term father in our chapter, and thence justifies the signification given to all the other terms of relationship mentioned therein. We, therefore, as members of the Lord's church, must oppose ourselves earnestly, as from ourselves, to all the evils and falsities here symbolized; contend manfully against them, as manifested within ourselves; and by no means allow ourselves to profane heavenly things generally, and especially the holiness and purity of true marriage love, by such illegitimate spiritual or natural conjunctions. And that we may be stimulated to do so, let us recall these other words of the Lord where He says: "Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Matt 10:34-35). But refer to 4843 and 10490 for a full explanation, observing that there is a difference in the application of the terms in the two cases, each interpretation being legitimate according to the state of perception at different times; both generally harmonious; and both showing the correspondence of the terms in the best sense and in the opposite.

We have now, therefore, only to conclude our meditations on this part of the Word by some additional remarks on hereditary evil as distinguished from actual evil, which distinction is involved in the words, "all these abominations," used in the last few verses. For it is to be carefully remembered, that just as no state of merely natural good inherited from parents and ancestors is really the good which saves a person by constituting a part of his angelic life, so no state of hereditary evil condemns a person. But why so? Evidently because no one can tell what the particular hereditary conditions of his children may be; he cannot avoid those conditions; and much more are children free from responsibility in this matter. For every one is responsible only for the evil he adopts from hereditary tendencies and makes actual, and for every new form of evil which is the result of his own violation of the laws of order (Ezek 18:20). But in this connection the following statements are valuable: "A certain one, who died an infant, but who became adult in heaven, was in this opinion, namely, that the good he had was from himself, and not from the Lord, wherefore he was sent back into the life of evils which was innate to him, and then it was given me to perceive from his sphere that he had a desire to rule over others, and that he made light of lasciviousness, which evils he derived hereditarily from his parents; but as soon as he acknowledged that he was such, he was again received among the angels among whom he was before. No one ever suffers punishment in the other life on account of hereditary evil, because it is not his; consequently he is not blameable for it; but he suffers punishment on account of actual evil, which is his, consequently in proportion as by actual life he has appropriated to himself hereditary evil, as was said above," 2307, 966. And also the use of merely natural good hereditary dispositions, in the course of regeneration, may be known from the following: "Natural good of truth is not spiritual good, that is, the good of faith and the good of charity, until it is reformed. Natural good is from a man's parents... but spiritual good is from the Lord. Wherefore a man must be regenerated in order that he may receive spiritual good. Whilst this is being effected, there are adjoined to him, at first, truths from another source than from genuine truth itself which are of such a nature that they do not adhere, but only serve as means of introducing genuine truths, and when these have been introduced, then truths not genuine are separated.... It is as with fruits, which are first filled with bitter juice, before they can receive sweet juice, the bitter juice which is not genuine being the means of introducing the sweet, and when the latter enters the former is dissipated. Thus also it is with man's Natural while it is being regenerated; for natural good is such, that, of itself, it is not willing to obey and serve rational good, as a servant serves a master, but it wants to have the command. In order, therefore, that it may be reduced to a state of compliance and service, it is harassed by states of vastation and temptation, until its cravings become weakened, and then by an influx of the good of faith and charity, through the internal man from the Lord, it is tempered, until the good received hereditarily is by degrees extirpated, and a new good is implanted in its place, into which good the truths of faith are insinuated, which are like the fibres inserted into the heart of a man, through which fibres new juice is introduced, and a new heart has grown by degrees," 3470. Let us diligently and earnestly, therefore, take heed to our last verse both in its literal and spiritual senses, and thus reap the reward of a genuine state of the love of good and truth and usefulness for their own sakes, which is the true heavenly state, and is only attainable by regeneration, and the purification that follows it, from the Lord.

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