Week 5    Day 6

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The Inheritance Dan—Laish

Judges 18:26-29

26. And the sons of Dan went their way; and Micah saw that they [were] too strong for him, and he turned and returned to his house.

27. And they took what Micah had made [the teraphim], and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they smote them with the mouth of the sword, and burnt up the city with fire.

28. And [there was] no rescuer, because it [was] far from Zidon, and they had no word with [any] man; and it was in the valley which is by Beth-rehob; and they built the city and dwelt there.

29. And they called the name of the city Dan, by the name of Dan, their father, who was born to Israel; nevertheless, the name of the city [was] Laish at the first.

AC 3923.7. The first boundary, that is, the midst or inmost of the land, was Beersheba, before Jerusalem became so, because Abraham was there, and also Isaac; but the last boundary, or the outermost of the land, was Dan; and hence when all things in one complex were signified, it was said, “from Dan even to Beersheba.”

AC 3923.9. And because the lot did not fall to Dan among the inheritances of the rest of the tribes, but beyond their borders (Judges 18:1), that tribe was omitted by John in Revelation (Rev. 7:5-8), where the twelve thousand that were sealed are mentioned; for they who are only in the affirmative of truth and also of good, and go no further, are not in the Lord’s kingdom, that is, among the “sealed.” Even the worst men are able to know truths and goods, and also to affirm them; but the quality of the affirmation is known from the life.

AC 3923.10. The city called “Dan” was... the first boundary with respect to entering into the land of Canaan, or the last with respect to going out.

AC 6396.4. The quality of those who are in truth and not yet in good, was also represented by the Danites who sought out land where they might dwell (Judges 18), in their leading away a Levite out of the house of Micah, and taking away his ephod, teraphim, and carved image. By these things is signified the worship of those who are in truth and not yet in good; for they adore external things and disregard internal. No one perceives what is internal but one who is in good....

AR 362. In the enumeration of the tribes of Israel [in Revelation 7] neither Dan nor Ephraim is named. The reason is because Dan was the last of the tribes, and his tribe dwelt in the most remote part of the land of Canaan, and thus could not signify anything in the Lord’s New Heaven and New Church, where there will be only celestial and spiritual things. Therefore Manasseh is put in the place of Dan...

The Land of the Philistines

AE 700.19. What is signified by all this [in I Samuel chapters 4-6]—that the ark was taken by the Philistines, and the Philistines were smitten with hemorrhoids on account of the ark in Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron, also that mice laid waste their land, and that so many died there and in Bethshemesh—cannot be known unless it is known what the Philistines, and in particular the Ashdodites, Gittites, Ekronites, and Bethshemites, represented and thence signified...

AE 700.20. The Philistines represented, and thence signified, those who make no account of the good of love and charity, and thus no account of the good of life, placing everything of religion in knowledge and cognition. Therefore they were like those at the present day who make faith alone, that is, faith separated from charity, the essential of the church and the essential of salvation. This is why they were called “the uncircumcised,” for to be uncircumcised signifies to be destitute of spiritual love, thus of good; and because they had relation to those within the church, they were not spiritual, but merely natural, since he who makes no account of the good of charity and of life becomes merely natural, and even sensual, loving only worldly things, and is unable to understand any truths spiritually, and the truths he apprehends naturally he either falsifies or defiles.

AE 817.7. Because this religion exists in the churches with all who love to live a natural life, so in the land of Canaan the Philistines were not subjugated, as the other nations of that land were, and consequently there were many battles with them.... [W]hile the sons of Israel represented the truths of faith and the goods of love, and thus the church.... the Philistines represented a [kind of] religion separated from spiritual good, such as is the [kind of] religion of faith alone separated from its life, which is charity. This is why the sons of Israel whenever they fell away from the worship of Jehovah to the worship of other gods were given over to their enemies or were conquered by them.

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