These things that Israel stated regarding Simeon and Levi, and also those regarding Reuben, do not mean such things as would happen, as verse 1 says, to their descendants at the end of days. This can be recognized from the fact that those descended from Simeon and from Levi were not cursed; nor were they divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel. The tribe of Simeon existed among the rest of the tribes as one of their number, while the tribe of Levi became the priesthood and so was blessed rather than cursed. Nor likewise was the tribe of Reuben inferior to any other tribe. From this it is quite evident that the things stated in this chapter about what would happen to the sons of Jacob at the end of days refer to what would happen not to those actual descendants but to people who are meant by them in the internal sense. At this point what would happen to those with faith separated from charity is meant, for they are the ones who are meant at this point in the internal sense by Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. From this it becomes perfectly clear that the internal sense of the Word is not that which shows itself in the letter; nor can that sense be seen by anyone unless he has a knowledge of the correspondences of natural things with spiritual ones. Indeed it is not seen at all by anyone who does not know what the spiritual is or what the celestial is.