8809. 'Do not go near a woman' means purification of the good of faith. This is clear from the consideration that marriages among the Israelite nation were impure because their interiors were foul. Conjugial love descends from the marriage of goodness and truth; consequently pure marriage does not exist with those whose interiors have no goodness or truth in them, and impure marriage exists with those whose interiors have evil and falsity in them, as that nation's did. This is why 'not going near a woman' means abstaining from impurity. Regarding the descent of conjugial love from the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of goodness and truth, see 2727-2759, 2803, 3132, 4434, 4835; and regarding the absence of anything of true marriage among the people descended from Jacob, who were therefore allowed to take a number of wives, 3246. But so far as those who belong to the spiritual Church are concerned, and who are represented here by the children of Israel, they do not have anything of true marriage in them until they have had truth implanted in their good. Before this happens a marriage does, it is true, exist, but it is not pure because up to then no marriage of goodness and truth exists in their interiors. So it is that 'not going near a woman' in the internal sense means being purified in respect of the good of faith. For the subject in the present chapter is good which has not as yet had truth implanted in it, and in subsequent chapters the actual implanting.
