[293] When they are asked whether they only who are in the world will be led into Canaan, they reply that they will then return into the world, and they will dwell with them in the land of Canaan. When they are asked whether they will then be again born, they say they will not, but that they will descend to them, believing that thus they will be men like them. When they are asked whether Canaan will be capacious enough for all who have been born from that nation from the time of Abraham, they say that the land of Canaan will then be enlarged. When they are asked how the Messiah, the Son of Jehovah, can dwell with such evil persons, they say that they are not evil. When it is said that Moses in his song said that they were the worst, and do they read it and sing it as was commanded by Moses, they reply that Moses was angry when he wrote that, because they departed from him, and therefore they do not read it, but run through it quickly. When it is said to them that their origin is from a Canaanitess, and from whoredom with a daughter-in-law, they then are angry and depart, saying that it is enough that they are from Abraham and Jacob. They say that Moses and David will also return and go with the Messiah, one at His right and the other at His left. They narrate many fabulous things concerning the Messiah, how He will introduce them into the land of Canaan, and how rich Christians will follow them freely, if they give them their money. Nevertheless many of them who know that Christ who is the Messiah rules all things in the heavens, say that they wish to receive this, but cannot; they hear it from Moses, who sometimes appears above with a rod, and teaches this, and when they hear, they go away in various directions. They said to me, "Why did He suffer the cross?" I replied, "Because He was the greatest prophet, and therefore He carried the iniquities of the people, like the prophet who lay on his right side and on the left, and ate bread made of barley and filth, of whom it is said that he bore their iniquities; likewise other prophets, one who took a harlot to wife, who put on ashes, who went barefoot, who thus bore their iniquities; in like manner it is said of the Messiah" (Isa. 53). When they heard this they said that they would go off among themselves and consult together. They who have not become foul from filthy avarice, and who have not become devils from hatred, fraud and revenge, are tolerated below the heavens where their habitations are, because they regard the Word as holy, and they who suffer themselves to be instructed concerning the Lord, are transferred to societies where they are instructed, and are sent back to those who have not yet received. Their business is dealing in diamonds and precious stones as in the world. They procure them for themselves from heaven. They learn that they have that business, because they regard the Word as holy, because the sense of the letter corresponds to those stones and signifies them. Therefore the more holy they regard the Word, the better do they succeed there in that business.