1673、“在亚特律加宁击杀了利乏音人，在哈麦击杀了苏西人，在沙微基列亭击杀了以米人”表示虚假的说服或这类说服的地狱，主彻底击败了它们。这从“利乏音人”、“苏西人”和“以米人”的含义清楚可知，他们和前面（创世记6:4）提到的拿非利人（译注：Nephilim，经上或译为伟人、巨人）是同类；在解释那段经文（参看581节）时，已经足以并充分说明，“拿非利人”表示虚假的说服，或那些因确信自己的崇高和优越而视一切神圣而真实之物为毫无价值，将虚假注入恶欲的人；这一含义从那里引用的经文明显看出来（民数记13:33；申命记2:10；以赛亚书14:9；26:14，19；诗篇88:10）。此处这三个民族和西珥山上的何利人表示虚假说服的不同种类，因为虚假的说服有许多种类，每一种都不同，这不仅取决于虚假，还取决于与虚假结合，或有虚假注入其中，或流出并产生虚假的恶欲。凡几乎不知道有诸如虚假的说服和邪恶的欲望这类事物存在的人，都不可能清楚明白这些虚假的说服是何性质；但在来世，这类事物却按照极其清晰的线条被排列成它们不同的属和种。
最可怕的虚假说服就存在于生活在大洪水之前的人，尤其被称为“拿非利人”的人当中。拿非利人如此之坏，以至于在来世，他们利用自己的说服夺走他们所遇到的其他灵人的全部思考能力。结果，这些灵人觉得自己似乎几乎活不下去，更不用说能思考任何真实事物了。因为如前所示（315，549，969，1390-1391节），在来世，所有人的思维都被共享、交流；因此，当这样的说服流入时，可以说它不可避免地扼杀其他人所拥有的全部思考能力。这些就是主在童年初期所争战并击败的难以形容的可怕民族；除非主通过降世战胜他们，否则今天没有一个人活在这个地球上，因为每个人都由主通过灵人掌管。如今这些拿非利人因其幻觉而被看似一块雾石的东西四面包围着，他们不断努力从这雾石中上来，但均未得逞（参看1265-1272节，以及前面其它许多章节）。以赛亚所指的就是他们和他们的同类：
死人必不能再活，利乏音人必不能再起。因为你已察罚他们，毁灭他们，抹除对他们的所有记忆。（以赛亚书26:14）
诗篇：
你为死人行奇事吗？难道利乏音人还能起来称赞你吗？（诗篇88:10）
“死人”不是指死人，而是指被诅咒的人。
如今有些人，尤其来自基督教界的人，同样有说服，只是这些说服不如大洪水之前的人所拥有的那样可怕。有些虚假说服既占据人心智的意愿部分，也占据理解力部分，如大洪水之前的人的说服和此处由利乏音人、苏西人、以米人来表示的人的说服，它们属于一个种类。而有些虚假说服仅占据理解力部分，它们来源于在人的自我里面所确认的虚假原则或假设，属于另一种。后一种没有前一种那么强大，也没有那么致命；但在来世，它们仍给其他灵人带来很多烦恼，并在某种程度上夺走他们的思考能力。这类灵人只在一个人里面激起对虚假的确认，从而使人不可避免地视虚假为真理，视邪恶为良善。他们的气场就具有这种性质。一旦有真理被天使召唤出来，这些灵人就窒息并扑灭它。
一个人只需思考一下，他是否认为圣言的真理是虚假，并确认这一点，以至于看不到别的，就能发现这类灵人是否支配他。在这种情况下，他能十分确定这类灵人与他同在，并掌权。那些说服自己相信一切私人利益都是公共利益，认为没有什么东西有助于公共利益，除非它也有助于自己的私人利益之人也一样。在这种情况下，与这种人同在的恶灵会提供如此多的确认，以至于他看不到别的。这种视一切私人利益为公共利益，或伪装私人利益，使它看似公共利益的人在来世以同样的方式对待那里的公共利益。这就是与人同在的灵人的流注的性质，我从不间断的、活生生的经历中得以知道这一点。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]1673. And they struck the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim symbolizes persuasive lies, or rather the hells that do the persuading, which the Lord defeated thoroughly. This can be seen from the symbolism of the Rephaim, Zuzim, and Emim. They are the same type of being as the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6:4, who symbolize false persuasions, or delusions. Or rather they symbolize those whose delusions about their own importance and superiority caused them not to value anything holy or true, and who infused false thinking with perverse cravings. This symbolism was more than amply demonstrated at that verse (see 搂581 and the verses quoted there: Numbers 13:33; Deuteronomy 2:10; Isaiah 14:9; 26:14, 19; Psalms 88:10).
The three nations here, along with the Horites on Mount Seir, symbolize various types of persuasive lies. There are many kinds, differentiated not only by the falsity involved but also by the appetite linked with or permeating them, or the appetite from which they spring and flow. People cannot possibly grasp what the different types of persuasive lie are like, when they only barely know that such a thing exists, or that such a thing as an evil craving exists. In the other life, though, such things are arranged into their different categories and subcategories along very clearly drawn lines.
[2] The people who lived before the Flood 钬?particularly the ones called Nephilim 钬?adopted the most dreadful lies as their convictions. These people were so bad that now in the other world, by the force of their persuasions, they rob the spirits they come across of any ability to think. The victims hardly feel as though they are still alive, let alone capable of thinking a valid thought. There is, as I have shown, a sharing of all thoughts in that world [搂搂315, 549, 969, 1390-1391], so when a force as persuasive as this exerts an influence, it inevitably kills off all power of thought in others.
This was the type of unspeakable nations the Lord fought and defeated in his early youth. Had he not done so through his coming into the world, no one would be left on the planet today, because the Lord governs all of us by means of spirits.
At the present time, these people's fantasies create around them a kind of foggy crag that they are always trying to break free from, without success. (For more information, see 搂搂1265-1272 and many earlier sections.){*1} They and others like them are meant by Isaiah:
The dead will not live, the Rephaim will not rise, because you inflicted punishment on them and destroyed them and wiped out all memory of them. (Isaiah 26:14)
And in David:
Will you do a miracle for the dead? Will the Rephaim arise, will they acclaim you? (Psalms 88:10)
The dead here mean not the dead but the damned.
[3] Some people today (especially those from the Christian world) also have delusions, but their delusions are not as horrendous as those of the pre-Flood people. A convinced belief in falsity can involve both our voluntary and our intellectual sides, as it did in the people who lived before the Flood and in those meant here by the Rephaim, Zuzim, and Emim. When it involves only our intellectual side, however, and rises out of false premises that we confirm in our own mind, it is a very different thing. This kind of conviction is not as strong or as lethal as that of the former people, but in the next life it still troubles other spirits a great deal and in some measure deprives them of the ability to think.
In people on earth, spirits who hold this kind of conviction stimulate only those ideas that tend to support falsity. They leave us incapable of seeing falsity as anything but true, and evil as anything but good. Their aura is what does it. As soon as angels call up any hint of truth, these spirits choke and smother it.
[4] We can tell whether such spirits control us simply by this: If we consider the truth of the Word to be false, if we have proved this to ourselves so firmly that we are blind to any other way of thinking, we can be fairly certain such spirits are present with us and dictating to us. Again, when we convince ourselves that our own personal advantage is good for everyone, when we feel that nothing contributes to the larger good unless it also contributes to our own profit, the evil spirits with us offer so many confirmations that we cannot see otherwise. People who identify all self-interest with the common good (or disguise it as the common good) do the same in the other life with the common good there.{*2} Constant, living experience has taught me to recognize that this is what spirits' influence on us is like.
Footnotes:
{*1} The selections alluded to may be 搂搂581-583, 927:2, and sections describing the final generation of the earliest church, such as 搂搂276:2, 279, 307, 310-311, 562-563, 586a, 659-662, 792-813, 920:3, 1124. [LHC]
{*2} During the Enlightenment a significant social theory was on the rise that held that the self-interest of individuals is, in the aggregate, the most effective means of achieving the common good. In this passage, Swedenborg may be offering a corrective to an extreme form of this theory. It is important to note, however, that he is not opposed to the individual gaining wealth in legitimate ways (True Christianity 403:3, 661; Heaven and Hell 528, 535; Divine Providence 217-218, 220:8-11), and that he holds that love of oneself, of wealth, and of personal honor actually perfect people when properly prioritized (True Christianity 394-405). He even conjectures that self-centeredness is capable of being as strong and effective a motivation for being useful to others as a true love of the neighbor and of God (True Christianity 661:15). His main point here seems to be that the love of worldly and self-centered pursuits is utterly hellish when it is dominant and combined with an aggressive and intransigent identification of the common good with one's own personal benefit. Perhaps the most influential of Enlightenment works espousing the theory of self-interest was The Fable of the Bees; or Private Vices, Publick Benefits by Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733), which stirred both great interest and great outrage when it was published in 1714-1728 (Mandeville [1732] 1988). The theory was explicitly condemned by one of Swedenborg's major philosophic sources, the German writer Christian Wolff (1679-1754; see Wolff [1733] 1990, 337). Utilitarianism, as the fully developed theory came to be called, truly flowered only after Swedenborg's death, in the economic works of Adam Smith (1723-1790), and in the philosophies of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). [JSR, SS]
Potts(1905-1910) 1673
1673. And smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim. That this signifies the persuasions of falsity, or the hells of such, which the Lord conquered, is evident from the signification of "the Rephaim," "the Zuzim," and "the Emim," as being of similar kind with "the Nephilim," who are mentioned in Genesis 6:4; and in the exposition of that passage (see n. 581) it was sufficiently and abundantly shown that by "the Nephilim" are signified persuasions of falsity, or those who from a persuasion of their own exaltation and preeminence have made nothing of all holy and true things, and who have infused falsities into their cupidities; as is also plain from the passages there adduced (Num. 13:33; Deut. 2:10-11; Isa. 14:9; 26:14, 19; Ps. 88:10). The different kinds of persuasions of falsity are what are here signified by these three and by "the Horites in Mount Seir;" for there are many kinds of persuasions of falsity, not only according to the falsities, but also according to the cupidities to which they are adjoined, or into which they are infused, or from which they flow forth and are produced. The nature of these persuasions of falsity can never appear to any man, who scarcely knows more than that there is such a thing as persuasion of falsity and cupidity of evil; but in the other life they are most distinctly arranged into their genera and into their species. [2] The most direful persuasions of falsity existed with those who lived before the flood, especially with those who were called "Nephilim." These Nephilim are of such a character that in the other life they by their persuasions take away from the spirits to whom they come all faculty of thinking, so that these spirits seem to themselves scarcely to live, much less to be able to think anything true. For, as before shown, there is in the other life a communication of the thoughts of all, and therefore when such a persuasiveness flows in, it cannot do otherwise than as it were murder all power of thought in others. Such were the wicked tribes against whom the Lord combated in His earliest childhood, and whom He conquered; and unless the Lord had conquered them by His coming into the world, not a man would have been left at this day upon the earth; for every man is governed by the Lord through spirits. These same Nephilim are at this day enclosed by their phantasies by what seems like a misty rock, out of which they are continually striving, but in vain, to rise up (concerning whom see n. 1265- 1272, and in many other places above). These, and others like them, were also meant in Isaiah:
The dead shall not live, the Rephaim shall not rise, because Thou hast visited and hast destroyed them, and hast made all their memory to perish (Isa. 26:14). [3] Also in David:
Wilt Thou show a wonder to the dead? shall the Rephaim arise and praise Thee? (Ps. 88:10), where by "the dead" are not meant the dead, but the damned. There are also those at this day, especially from the Christian world, who likewise have persuasions, but not so direful as the antediluvians had. There are certain persuasions of falsity which take possession of both the will part and the intellectual part of man; such were those of the antediluvians, and of those who are here signified by the Rephaim, the Zuzim, and the Emim. But there are other persuasions of falsity which take possession of the intellectual part only, and which arise from the principles of falsity that are confirmed in one's self. These are not so powerful, nor so deadly, as the former; but still they cause much annoyance to spirits in the other life, and take away in part their ability to think. Spirits of this kind excite in a man nothing but confirmations of what is false, so that the man sees no otherwise than that falsity is truth, and evil good. It is their sphere which is of such a character. As soon as anything of truth is called forth by angels, they suffocate and extinguish it. [4] A man can perceive whether he is governed by such as these simply by observing whether he thinks the truths of the Word to be false, and confirms himself so that he cannot see otherwise; if such be the case, he may be pretty sure that such spirits are with him, and that they have the dominion. In like manner they who persuade themselves that their private advantage is the common good, and who regard nothing as being for the common good but what is also to their own advantage; in this case also the evil spirits who are present suggest so many things in confirmation that they see no otherwise. They who are such that they regard every advantage to themselves as the common good, or who veil it over with the appearance of being the common good, do much the same in the other life in regard to the common good there. That such is the nature of the influx of spirits with man, it has been given me to know by continual experience to the life.
Elliott(1983-1999) 1673
1673. 'And they smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim' means false persuasions or the hells of such persuasions which the Lord overcame. This is clear from the meaning of the Rephaim, the Zuzim, and the Emim, as those of a similar kind to the Nephilim mentioned in Gen 6:4 - the Nephilim, as was shown more than adequately at that verse, meaning false persuasions or those people who because they were persuaded of their own superiority and pre-eminence regarded all things that were holy and true as worthless, and who plunged falsities into evil desires, see 581 - and from the following places quoted in that paragraph, Num 13:33; Deut 2:10; Isa 14:9; 26:14, 19; Ps 88:10. Here it is the different kinds of false persuasions that are meant by these three, and also by 'the Horites in Mount Seir', for there are many kinds of false persuasions, each kind varying not only according to the falsities but also according to the evil desires to which those falsities are allied or into which they are plunged, or from which they stem and are produced. The nature of such false persuasions cannot possibly become clear to anyone who knows scarcely anything more about false persuasion or evil desire than that such things exist; but in the next life they are arranged quite distinctly and separately into their own genera and their own species.
[2] Among those who lived before the Flood, especially among those called the Nephilim, most dreadful false persuasions existed. The Nephilim were such that in the next life by their persuasions they deprive other spirits they encounter of their whole ability to think. As a result it seems to those spirits as though they are scarcely alive, let alone capable of thinking anything true. For in the next life, as has been shown, there is a communication of the thoughts of all; and therefore when persuasiveness such as this flows in, it inevitably kills so to speak all power to think that the others have. Such were the unspeakably horrible nations against whom the Lord fought in earliest childhood and whom He overcame. And unless the Lord by His Coming into the world had overcome them, nobody at all would be alive today on this planet, for everyone is governed by the Lord through spirits. Today those same people, on account of their delusions, are hemmed in all round by what looks like a misty rock, out of which they are constantly endeavouring to rise up, though to no avail - see 1265-1272, and in many places before that. They and their like are also the people meant by Isaiah,
The dead will not live, the Rephaim will not rise. To the end that You have visited and destroyed them, and wiped out all remembrance of them. Isa 26:14.
[3] And in David,
Will you work a wonder for the dead? Will the Rephaim rise up and confess You? Ps 88:10.
'The dead' here is not used to mean the dead but the condemned. At the present day too, especially from the Christian world, there are people who in a similar way have persuasions, but not of so dreadful a nature as those possessed by people before the Flood. False persuasions which occupy both the will and the understanding parts of man's mind - as did the persuasions of those before the Flood, and of those meant by the Rephaim, Zuzim, and Emim - are of one kind. But false persuasions that occupy only the understanding part, having their origin in false assumptions confirmed within oneself, are of another kind. The latter kind are not so powerful as the former, nor so deadly, but they nevertheless cause much annoyance to the other spirits in the next life, partially taking away from them their capacity to think. Spirits such as these arouse in man outright confirmations of falsity, so that a person inevitably sees falsity as truth, and evil as good. It is their sphere which is of such a nature. As soon as any truth is called forth by angels those spirits smother and extinguish it.
[4] A person can discover whether such spirits govern him by merely considering whether he thinks the truths of the Word to be falsities and confirms himself in this so that he is not able to see otherwise. He can in that case be quite sure that such spirits reside with him and have dominion. It is similar with those who persuade themselves that all private gain is the common good, and who imagine that nothing contributes to the common good if it is not to their own private gain. Evil spirits residing with such a person supply so many confirmations that he does not see otherwise. Such people as regard all private gain as the common good, or who disguise it with the appearance of its being the common good, in the next life act in much the same way with regard to the common good there. That this is the nature of the influx of the spirits residing with man I have been given to know to the life from uninterrupted experience.
Latin(1748-1756) 1673
1673. 'Et percusserunt Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, et Zuzimos in Ham, et Emim in Shave Kiriathaim': quod significent persuasiones falsi seu inferna talium quae Dominus evicit, constat ex significatione Rephaim, Zuzimorum, et Emim quod sint similis generis ac Nephilim qui memorantur Gen. vi 4, qui quod significent persuasiones falsi, seu illos qui ex persuasione suae altitudinis et praeeminentiae nihili fecerunt omnia sancta et vera, et qui falsitates infuderunt cupiditatibus, ostensum satis superque est ibi, videatur n. 581, et ex locis ibi adductis, Num. xiii 33; Deut. ii 10; Esai. xiv 9; xxvi 14, 19; Ps. (x)lxxxviii 11 [A.V. 10] Sunt hic genera persuasionum falsi quae per hos tres, tum per 'Horitas in monte Seir' significantur; nam plura genera persuasionum falsi sunt, non modo secundum falsitates sed etiam secundum cupiditates quibus adjunguntur aut infunduntur aut a quibus profluunt et producuntur; quales persuasiones falsi sunt nusquam constare potest alicui homini, qui vix plus novit quam quod persuasio falsi et cupiditas mali detur, at in altera vita in sua genera et in suas species distinctissime dispositae sunt: [2] dirissimae persuasiones falsi fuerunt apud eos qui ante diluvium vixerunt, imprimis apud eos qui Nephilim dicti; hi tales fuerunt ut persuasionibus suis in altera vita omnem facultatem cogitandi adimant spiritibus ad quos alluunt, ut hi videantur sibi vix vivere, minus aliquid verum posse cogitare est enim, ut ostensum, communicatio omnium cogitationum in alter; vita, quare cum persuasivum tale influit, non potest aliter quam quasi necare omnem cogitationis aliorum potentiam: tales nefandae gente fuerunt contra quas Dominus in prima pueritia pugnavit et quas evicit; quas nisi Dominus per Adventum Suum in mundum evicisset, nusquam aliquis homo hodie in tellure hac superesset, nam omnis homo regitur per spiritus a Domino: hodie iidem ex phantasiis sui circumdati sunt quasi nimbosa petra, e qua jugiter exsurgere conantur sed incassum, de quibus videatur n. 1265-1272, et prius multoties; qui quoque, et tales, intellecti sunt per Esaiam, Mortui non vivent, Rephaim non surgent, eo quod visitasti, et delevisti eos, et perdidisti omnem memoriam eorum, xxvi 14:[3] et apud Davidem, Num mortuis facies miraculum, num Rephaim surgent, confitebuntur Tibi, Ps. (x)lxxxviii 11 [A.V. 10];
ubi per 'mortuos' non intelliguntur mortui sed damnati. Sunt quoque hodie ex orbe imprimis Christiano quibus quoque persuasiones sunt sed non tam dirae quales fuerunt antediluvianis; persuasiones falsi sunt aliae quae partem et voluntariam et intellectualem hominis occupant; tales fuerunt antediluvianorum, et horum quae significantur per 'Rephaim, Zuzimos et Emim'; at sunt persuasiones falsi aliae quae solum partem intellectualem occupant, ex principiis falsi apud se confirmatis oriundae; hae non ita fortes sunt, nec necativae sicut illorum sed usque in altera vita spiritibus multum incommodi inferunt, et quoad partem, eorum cogitandi facultatem auferunt; spiritus qui tales sunt, apud hominem excitant mera confirmantia falsi, sic ut homo non aliter videat quam quod falsum sit verum, et malum sit bonum; est sphaera eorum quae talis; ut primum aliquid veri evocatur ab angelis, illi suffocant et exstinguunt; [4] homo potest appercipere num a talibus regitur per id solum, si vera Verbi putat falsa esse, et se confirmat ut non aliter possit videre; tunc satis certis esse potest quod tales spiritus apud illum sint et quod dominentur; similiter illi qui sibi persuadent omne emolumentum proprium esse bonum commune, et non aliud pro communi bono reputant quam quod etiam proprium (x)est; spiritus mali apud eum tot confirmantia suggerunt ut non aliter videat; qui tales sunt, ut omne proprium spectant ut commune bonum, aut obvelant specie quod sit commune bonum, in altera vita similiter faciunt quoad commune bonum ibi: quod talis sit influxus spirituum apud hominem, ex continua experientia ad vivum datum est nosse.