Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9005

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9005. 'She shall go out for nothing, for no silver' means alienation from that [spiritual truth], without truth joined to it. This is clear from the meaning of 'going out' - out of servitude and from concubinage - as abandonment by the man, her master, and so alienation; and from the meaning of 'for nothing, for no silver' as without truth joined to it, 'silver' meaning truth, see 1551, 2954, 5658, 6112, 6914, 6917, 8932. The nature of all this is clear from what has been shown just above in 9003 namely this: A natural affection joined to a spiritual truth, meant by 'a female slave betrothed to a son', cannot survive at all unless it is sustained by the spiritual. Therefore if the affection is not sustained by this, the connection between them is broken and it is consequently alienated. The reason why this happens without the truth from the spiritual joined to that natural affection is that this affection goes on to be linked to another [truth]; but this cannot happen while truth from elsewhere is the source of its life. All this is meant by the words under consideration here because the situation with relationships in the spiritual world is such.


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