1937、“服在她手下”表示它应强迫自己服在内层真理的掌控权之下。这是显而易见的，无需解释。在原文，“服”（humblingoneself，直译为使自己谦卑）是用一个表示“苦待”的词来表达的。“苦待自己”在内义上是指强迫自己，这一点从圣言中的众多经文清楚看出来，并且下文（1947节）将论述这个词的含义。人应当强迫自己行善，服从主的命令，并说真理；如此行就是使自己“服在主的手下”，也就是使自己服在神性良善和真理的掌控权之下。这一事实包含的奥秘比用几句话所能解释的还要多。
有些灵人活在世上时听说一切良善皆来自主，人凭自己不能行任何良善，于是就采取这样一个原则：不在任何事上强迫自己，完全保持被动。他们以为自己所听到的是真的，他们所做的一切努力都是徒劳无功。因此，他们就等候直接进入其意愿的努力的流注，不强迫自己行任何良善。事实上，他们如此彻底地坚持这一原则，以至于当有邪恶悄悄溜进来时，他们因从里面感受不到对它的任何抵抗，所以就对它逆来顺受，以为这样做是可以的。但这些灵人具有这种特点：他们可以说没有任何自我，完全缺乏自主权，因而在更没有用的灵人当中，因为他们容许自己被邪恶引领，就像容许被良善引领一样，并且在邪恶的手中多受痛苦。
但那些强迫自己反对邪恶和虚假的人则不然。尽管一开始他们以为他们凭自己，或凭自己的能力如此行，但后来他们获得足够光照，便看到他们的努力，甚至就连该努力的一切最小细节，都来源于主。在来世，这些人不能被恶灵引领，而是在蒙福者当中。由此可见，一个人应该强迫自己行良善，说真理。此处包含的奥秘是：如此行的人会被主赐予天堂的自我，因为人的这种天堂自我是在其思维的努力里面形成的；他若不通过（表面上的）自我强迫去维持这种努力，必定通过不自我强迫而不去维持它。
为把这个问题解释得更清楚，让我们观察一下：一切朝向良善的自我强迫里面都有某种自由，或说每当一个人感到被迫行善时，他都享有某种自由；当一个人自我强迫时，他没有意识到这种自由，或说这种自由没有被视为自由，但它仍存在于里面。以一个为了某个目的而甘愿冒死亡危险的人，或一个为了健康而甘愿忍受身体疼痛的人为例。他的行为中就有一种意愿，因而有某种自由，尽管当他冒险或忍受疼痛时，这些危险或疼痛夺走了他对这种意愿或自由的感知。那些强迫自己行善的人也是这种情况；有一种意愿，因而有一种自由存在于他们里面，这就是他们自我强迫的源头和原因；也就是说，他们强迫自己是为了他们可以服从主的命令，并且死后他们的灵魂可以得救；还有一个更大的原因存在于这些行为里面，尽管此人没有意识到它，那就是为了主的国度，事实上为了主自己。
这尤其适用于试探的时候，因为在这些时候，如果一个人强迫自己抵制恶灵所灌输和暗示的邪恶和虚假，那么他所拥有的自由比在没有试探的任何状态下所拥有的都更多，尽管他当时不能理解这个事实。这是一种内在自由，它会赋予人征服邪恶的意愿，并且如此强大，足以敌得过攻击他的邪恶的力量和权势；否则，他根本不能作战。这自由来自主，主将它注入人的良心，并通过它使这人貌似凭他的自我战胜邪恶。人通过这自由获得这样一个自我：主能作用于这自我，以产生某种良善。若没有获得一个自我，也就是没有通过自由被赋予一个自我，没有人能被改造，因为他不能接受新的意愿，也就是良心。被如此赋予的自由才是来自主的良善和真理的流注进入的实际层面。这就是为何那些在试探期间没有利用自己的自由意志进行抵制、反抗的人会屈服。
一切自由都有人的生命在里面，因为它有人的爱在里面。凡一个人出于爱所做的一切事，在他看来似乎都是自由的。但当这个人强迫自己抵制邪恶和虚假，并行善时，天堂之爱才存在于这自由里面。在这种时候，主把天堂之爱灌输给人，并通过这爱创造这个人的自我。因此，主愿意这自我在此人看来就是他自己的，尽管事实上不是他的。在来世，一个人活在肉身期间貌似通过自我强迫以这种方式所获得的这个自我会被主充满无限快乐和幸福。这种人也会获得越来越大的光照，以看到，事实上确信这一真理：他们凭自己根本没有一丁点自我强迫，他们意愿的一切努力，哪怕最小的努力，都来自主。他们还被引导看到，他们的自我强迫之所以看似始于他们自己，是为了主可以赋予他们一个如同他们自己的新意愿，并且以这种方式属于天堂之爱的生命可以被赋予他们，如同他们自己的。因为主愿意与每个人分享祂的东西，因而愿意分享天上的东西，以至于这种东西看似那个人的，就在他里面，尽管事实上不是他的。天使就拥有这种自我；他们越接受一切良善和真理皆来自主这一真理，就越从这自我中获得更多快乐和幸福。
而另一方面，一些人鄙视并弃绝一切良善和真理，拒绝相信凡与其恶欲和推理相冲突的东西。这些人不能强迫自己，因而不能接受这良心的自我，或新意愿。上述讨论也清楚表明，自我强迫并不等于被强迫，因为良善从来不出自强迫，如当一个人被另一个人强迫行善时的情形。但显然，此处正在讨论的自我强迫来自此人所不知的某种自由，因为主从来不是任何强迫的源头，或说主从来不强迫任何人。由此便有了这样一条普遍律法：一切良善和真理都是在自由中被植入的。否则，土壤永远不会接受并养育良善；事实上没有种子能在其中生长的土壤。
Potts(1905-1910) 1937
1937. Humble thyself under her hands. That this signifies that it ought to compel itself to be under its sovereign power, is evident without explication. "To humble oneself" is expressed in the original tongue by a word which signifies "to afflict." That "to afflict oneself" is, in the internal sense, to compel oneself, may be seen from very many passages in the Word, and will be treated of in what follows. That man ought to compel himself to do what is good, to obey the things commanded by the Lord, and to speak truths, which is to "humble himself under" the Lord's hands, or to submit himself to the sovereign power of the Divine good and truth, involves more arcana than can be explained in a few words. [2] There are certain spirits who during their life in the world, because they had been told that all good is from the Lord, and that a man can do nothing of himself, had held it as a principle not to compel themselves in anything, but to cease from all effort, thinking that as the case was so, all effort would be in vain; and therefore they had waited for immediate influx into the effort of their will, and did not compel themselves to do anything good, going so far that when anything evil crept in, as they felt no resistance from within, they resigned themselves to it also, supposing that it was permissible to do so. But these spirits are as it were devoid of what is their own, so that they have no determination to anything, and are therefore among the more useless, for they suffer themselves to be led alike by the evil and by the good, and suffer much from the evil. [3] But they who have compelled themselves to resist what is evil and false-although at first they supposed that this was from themselves or from their own power, but were afterwards enlightened to see that their effort was from the Lord, even to the least of all the particulars of the effort-these in the other life cannot be led by evil spirits, but are among the happy. Thus we may see that a man ought to compel himself to do what is good and to speak what is true. The arcanum herein contained is that a man is thus gifted by the Lord with a heavenly Own, for this heavenly Own of man is formed in the effort of his thought; and if he does not maintain this effort by compelling himself (as the appearance is), he certainly does not maintain it by not compelling himself. [4] That we may see how this is, let it be observed that in all self-compulsion to what is good there is a certain freedom, which is not discerned as such while the man is engaged in this self-compulsion, but still it is within. For instance, in one who is willing to undergo the risk of death for the sake of a certain end, or in one who is willing to suffer bodily pain for the sake of health, there is a willingness and thus a certain freedom from which the man acts, although the dangers and the pains, while he is in them, take away his perception of this willingness or freedom; and such is the case also with those who compel themselves to do what is good: there is a willingness within, and thus a freedom, from which and for the sake of which they compel themselves, that is to say, they do so for the sake of obedience to what the Lord has commanded, and for the sake of the salvation of their souls after death, within which although the man is not aware of it, there is still more interiorly a regard for the Lord's kingdom, and even for the Lord Himself. [5] This is the case most of all during temptations, for in these-when the man compels himself to resist the evil and falsity which are infused and suggested by evil spirits, there is more of freedom than is possible in any state out of temptations-although at the time the man cannot comprehend this-for there is an interior freedom, from which he wills to subjugate evil, and which is so great as to equal the force and strength of the evil that is assailing him, for otherwise he could not possibly wage the combat. This freedom is from the Lord, who insinuates it into the man's conscience, and by means of it causes him to overcome the evil as from what is his own. Through this freedom man acquires an Own in which the Lord can work what is good. Without an Own acquired, that is, given, through freedom, no man can possibly be reformed, because he cannot receive the new will, which is conscience. The freedom thus given is the very plane into which there is an influx of good and truth from the Lord. Hence it is that they who in temptations do not resist from their own will, or in freedom, give way. [6] In all freedom there is man's life, because there is his love. Whatever a man does from love appears to him free. But in this freedom, when the man is compelling himself to resist what is evil and false, and to do what is good, there is heavenly love, which the Lord then insinuates, and through which He creates the man's Own; and therefore the Lord wills that it should appear to the man as his, although it is not his. This Own which man during his bodily life thus receives through what is apparently compulsory, is filled by the Lord in the other life with illimitable delights and happinesses. Such persons are also by degrees enlightened to see and even to be confirmed in the truth, that of themselves they have not compelled themselves one atom, but that all things of the effort of their will, even the smallest, had been from the Lord; and that the reason why it had appeared as if it was of themselves was in order that a new will might be given them by the Lord as their own, and that in this way the life of heavenly love might be appropriated to them. For the Lord wills to communicate to everyone what is His, and therefore He wills to communicate what is heavenly, so that it may appear as the man's, and in him, although it is not his. The angels are in such an Own; and in proportion as they are in the truth that all good and truth are from the Lord, they are in the delight and happiness of this Own. [7] But they who despise and reject all good and truth, and who are willing to believe nothing that is repugnant to their cupidities and reasonings, cannot compel themselves; and thus cannot receive this Own of conscience, or new will. From what has been said above it is also evident that to compel oneself is not to be compelled; for no good ever comes from compulsion, as when a man is compelled by another man to do what is good; but it is evident that in the case we are now considering the self-compulsion comes from a certain freedom that is unknown to the man, since from the Lord there is never any compulsion. Hence it is a universal law that all that which is good and true is inseminated in freedom, for otherwise the ground cannot possibly receive and cherish that which is good, and in fact there is no ground in which the seed can grow.
Elliott(1983-1999) 1937
1937. That 'humble yourself beneath her hands' means that it ought by self-compulsion to place itself under the controlling power of that interior truth is clear without explanation. In the original language 'humbling oneself' is expressed by means of a word which means to fling down. That 'flinging oneself down' in the internal sense is compelling oneself becomes clear from very many places in the Word, the meaning of which will be dealt with later on. The need for the individual to compel himself to do good, to obey what the Lord has commanded, and to utter truths, meant by 'humbling herself beneath her mistress's hands', that is, submitting oneself beneath the controlling power of Divine good and truth, comprehends more arcana within itself than can be explained briefly.
[2] There are certain spirits who during their lifetime, having heard that all good originated in the Lord and that man was unable from himself to perform any good at all, had for these reasons held to a principle of not compelling themselves in anything and of remaining utterly passive; for they had supposed that, what they had heard being true, any effort at all made by them was totally ineffectual. They had therefore waited for immediate influx into the effort of their will and had not compelled themselves to do anything good. Indeed when anything evil had crept in, since they did not feel from within any resistance to it, they had gone so far as to abandon themselves to it, imagining that it was permissible to do so. But those spirits are such that they do not possess so to speak any selfhood, and so do not possess any mind of their own, and are therefore among the more useless; for they suffer themselves to be led just as much by the evil as by the good, and suffer much from the evil.
[3] But those who have practiced self-compulsion and set themselves against evil and falsity - even though at first they had imagined that they did so of themselves, or by their own power, but had after that been enlightened to the effect that their effort originated in the Lord, even the smallest of all the impulses of that effort - in the next life cannot be led by evil spirits, but are among the blessed. This shows that a person ought to compel himself to do what is good and to speak what is true. The arcanum Lying within this is that in so doing a person has a heavenly proprium bestowed on him from the Lord. This heavenly proprium is formed within the effort of his thought; but if he does not maintain that effort through self-compulsion - as this appears to be the way it is maintained - he does not by any means do so by abstaining from self-compulsion.
[4] To make this matter clearer let it be said that within all compulsion towards what is good a certain freedom exists, which is not recognized as freedom while a person is exercising self-compulsion, but is nevertheless inwardly present. Take for example one who is willing to risk death for the sake of some particular end, or one who is willing to endure physical pain for the sake of his health. There is a willingness and so a certain freedom in those actions, though while he is taking risks or suffering pain these remove any feeling of willingness or freedom. So also with those who compel themselves to do what is good. Present within them there is a willingness and thus freedom, which is the source of and the reason for their self-compulsion. That is to say, they compel themselves for the reason that they may obey the things which the Lord has commanded and that their souls may become saved after death; and within these a still greater reason is present, though the person himself is not aware of it, namely the Lord's kingdom, and indeed the Lord Himself.
[5] This applies most of all in times of temptation. In these, when a person practices self-compulsion and sets himself against the evil and falsity that are implanted and prompted by' evil spirits, more freedom is present than there would ever be in any state outside those times of temptation, though the person cannot comprehend it then. It is an interior freedom, which produces in him the will to subdue evil and which is great enough to match the power and might of the evil assailing him; otherwise he would not be able to fight at all. This freedom comes from the Lord who implants it in his conscience and by means of it causes him to overcome evil as though he did so from his own proprium. By means of that freedom the person receives a proprium into which the Lord is able to exert good. Without a proprium acquired, that is, conferred, by means of freedom, no one can possibly be reformed, since he is unable to receive a new will, which is conscience. The freedom so conferred is the actual plane into which the influx of good and truth from the Lord passes. Consequently people who in times of temptation do not put up any resistance from that will or freedom conferred on them go under.
[6] Present in all freedom is a person's life, because present there is his love. Whatever a person does from love appears to him as freedom. But within that freedom, when the person practices self- compulsion, setting himself against evil and falsity and doing what is good, heavenly love is present which the Lord instills at that time and by means of which He creates that person's proprium. It is the Lord's will therefore that this proprium should appear to the person to be his own, though in fact it is not. This proprium which a person receives in this manner during his lifetime by means, as it seems, of compulsion, the Lord replenishes in the next life with limitless forms of delight and happiness. Such people are also by degrees enlightened, or rather are confirmed, in the truth that their self-compulsion has not commenced at all in themselves but that even the smallest of all the impulses of their will has been received from the Lord. They are also led to see that the reason why their compulsion had appeared to commence in themselves was that the Lord might give them a new will as their own, and in this way the life belonging to heavenly love might be imparted to them as their own. Indeed the Lord's will is to share with everyone that which is His, thus that which is heavenly, so that it may appear to be that person's and to be within him, though in fact it is not his. A proprium such as this exists with angels, and insofar as they accept the truth that everything good and true comes from the Lord the delight and happiness belonging to such a proprium exist with them.
[7] People however who despise and reject everything good and true and who are unwilling to believe anything that conflicts with their evil desires and their reasonings are unable to compel themselves and so are unable to receive this proprium imparted to conscience, that is, to receive a new will. From what has been stated above it is also evident that self-compulsion is not the same as being compelled, for no good ever results from being compelled, as when one person is being compelled by another to do good. What is being discussed here is self-compulsion which is the product of a certain freedom unknown to the individual, for the Lord is never the source of any compulsion. From this comes the universal law that everything good and true is implanted in freedom. Otherwise the ground never becomes receptive and able to foster what is good; indeed there is no ground for the seed to grow in.
Latin(1748-1756) 1937
1937. Quod `humilia te sub manibus illius' significet quod se cogere debeat ut sit sub illius potestate, constat absque explicatione: `humiliare se' exprimitur in lingua originali per vocem quae significat affligere; {1}quod (t)se affligere in sensu interno sit (t)se cogere, ex plurimis in Verbo locis constare potest, de qua ejus significatione in sequentibus. Quod homo se cogere debeat ad faciendum bonum, ad oboediendum illis quae a Domino mandata sunt, et ad loquendum vera, quod est ad (t)humiliandum se sub manibus dominae, seu ad se submittendum sub potestate boni et veri Divini, plura arcana involvit quam ut paucis possit explicari; [2] sunt quidam spiritus qui pro principio habuerunt dum vixerunt in mundo, quod quia audiverunt omne bonum esse a Domino, et hominem nihil boni a se facere posse, se nihil coegerint, sed {2}se remiserint, irritum fore omnem conatum putantes, quia ita est, et ideo exspectaverint immediatum influxum in voluntatis eorum conatum, nec se ad faciendum aliquod bonum coegerint; immo usque adeo ut dum aliquod malum irrepserit, quod quia non senserunt aliquem renisum ab interiore, se quoque ei reliquerint, putando sic permissum fore; sed ii tales sunt ut sint quasi absque proprio, sic ut sint nullius determinationis, quare inter inutiliores, duci enim se patiuntur aeque a {3}malis ac a bonis, et a malis multum patiuntur; [3] at qui se coegerunt contra malum et falsum, tametsi primum putarunt quod hoc esset a se seu a propria potentia, at postea illustrati quod conatus eorum fuerit a Domino, immo omnium minima conatus, ii in altera vita non possunt duci a (t)malis spiritibus, sed inter felices sunt: exinde constare potest quod homo se cogere ad faciendum bonum et loquendum verum debeat; arcanum quod in eo latet, est quod sic donetur homo proprio caelesti a Domino; proprium caeleste hominis formatur in ejus cogitationis conatu, quem si non per se cogere, sicut apparet, nusquam per se non cogere, obtinet; [4] ut hoc pateat quomodo se habet, in omni coactione ad bonum est liberum quoddam, quod non ita appercipitur cum in coactione est, sed usque inest; sicut qui vult subire discrimina mortis propter finem {4}quendam, aut sicut qui vult pati dolores corporis propter sanitatem, est voluntarium, et sic liberum quoddam in illis, ex quo id facit, tametsi discrimina et dolores dum in illis est, auferant apperceptionem voluntarii seu liberi; ita se habet cum illis qui se ad bonum cogunt, est intus voluntarium, ita liberum, ex quo et propter quod se cogunt, nempe propter oboedientiam illorum quae Dominus mandavit, et propter salutem animae suae post mortem, in quibus adhuc interius est, quod homo non novit, propter regnum {5}Domini, immo propter Ipsum Dominum; [5] hoc fit quam maxime in tentationibus, in quibus cum se cogit homo contra malum et falsum quod infunditur et suggeritur a malis spiritibus, plus liberi est quam usquam in aliquo statu {6}extra tentationes, quamvis homo id non tunc capere potest; est liberum interius, ex quo vult subjugare malum,(m) et in tantum ut aequivaleat vi et fortitudini mali quod impugnat,(n) alioquin nusquam pugnaret: hoc liberum est a Domino, Qui illud ejus conscientiae insinuat et per illud facit ut vincat malum, sicut ex proprio; per hoc liberum accipit homo proprium, in quod Dominus operari potest bonum; absque proprio per liberum acquisito, hoc est, donato, nusquam aliquis homo reformari potest, quia non novam voluntatem quae est conscientia, accipere potest; liberum sic donatum est ipsum planum in quod influxus boni et veri a Domino; inde est, qui non ex illo voluntario seu libero in tentationibus resistunt, quod succumbant; in omni libero est vita hominis, quia est amor ejus; quicquid homo ex [6] amore facit, hoc liberum ei apparet; {7}at in libero illo, cum homo se cogit contra malum et falsum et ad faciendum bonum, est amor caelestis quem Dominus tunc insinuat et per quem ejus proprium creat, quare vult Dominus ut illud appareat homini sicut ejus tametsi non sit ejus; hoc proprium quod ita accipit per apparens coactum in vita corporis, Dominus in altera vita implet indefinitis jucundis et felicibus, ii quoque illustrantur per gradus, immo confirmantur in illa veritate quod ne hilum se a semet coegerint, sed quod omnium minima conatus voluntatis eorum fuerint a Domino; (m)et quod apparuerit sicut (c)a semet, quod causa fuerit ut daretur illis a Domino novum voluntarium sicut eorum et sic appropriaretur illis vita amoris caelestis; Dominus enim vult unicuique communicare quod Ipsius est, ita caeleste, ut appareat sicut ejus ac in eo tametsi non ejus sit; angeli in tali proprio sunt, et quantum in illo vero quod a Domino omne bonum et verum, tantum in proprii illius jucundo et felici.(n) [7] Qui autem omne bonum et verum contemnunt et rejiciunt, et qui volunt nihil credere quod repugnat eorum cupiditatibus {8}et ratiociniis, ii non possunt se cogere,{9} ac ita non possunt proprium hoc conscientiae {10}seu novum voluntarium accipere. (m)Ex supradictis etiam patet quod se cogere non sit cogi, nam ex cogi nusquam aliquod bonum, ut fit cum homo ab alio homine ad bonum agendum cogitur, sed quod hic se cogere sit ex libero quodam ei ignoto, nam a Domino nusquam aliquod coactum; inde {11}est lex universalis, quod omne bonum et verum inseminetur in libero, alioquin humus nusquam fit recipiens et fovens boni, immo non aliqua humus in qua semen crescere possit.(n) @1 i et.$ @2 manus.$ @3 i spiritibus.$ @4 aliquem.$ @5 caeleste.$ @6 i foret.$ @7 et.$ @8 aut eorum.$ @9 i hoc est, a Domino cogi.$ @10 hoc est.$ @11 est after universalis.$