354. * idolaters, and that they had so often sinned. This they can in no way deny, because they say it has been written down by Moses. But still they do not leave off thinking that the whole Heaven belongs to them, in fact, they do not want to let hardly anyone in but their own. They worship Abraham, and Jacob, and also Moses, unaware that it is the gods they had kept in their hearts that control them and goad them on. In a word, they are constantly in revolt. [Jews]
7187. [Num. 14:] verse 43: "but the Amalekite and the Canaanite are there in front of you," that is, they are in them. As for what is meant by the Amalekite and the Canaanite, see above [349a, WE 7120-22, 7122, 7166]. They bear that enemy in themselves, thus "in front of them"; for they had been in the highest light of miracles, see verse 11. They are the enemy spoken of in verse 42 just before this. Thus they shall "fall by iron," iron being a weapon, but also called iron is anything which pertains to the body, and which fights them, and kills them. For copper is the earthly mind, while iron is the body. So they fall by their own arms. Their state of mind is such that when their reins are let go the slightest bit, or when they are given the freedom, they at once rush
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