9069. 'And the owner of the ox shall be guiltless' means that the evil is not attributable to the internal man, because it has come from the will but not from the understanding. This is clear from the meaning of 'the owner of the ox' as the internal or spiritual man, for 'the ox' means an affection for evil in the natural or external man, 9065, and therefore 'the owner of the ox' is the internal man (here the owner or master of the external or natural man is meant, for the internal man has the power to be master over affections for evil in the natural man, and also is the master when the natural has been made subject to it, as it is with those who have been regenerated); and from the meaning of 'guiltless' as free from blame. The reason is said to be that the evil has come from the will but not from the understanding; for evil coming from the will but not at the same time from the understanding does not damn a person. The person does not see it, or for that reason stop to consider whether it is evil, and is not therefore aware of it. Such evil is evil due to heredity, present before the person has been taught that it is evil, and also after he has been taught, but present only in outward life or that of the body, and not at the same time in inward life, which is that of the understanding. For seeing and understanding that it is evil and continuing to do it makes a person guilty, as the Lord teaches in John,
The Pharisees said, Are we also blind? Jesus said to them. If you were blind you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see', therefore your sin remains. John 9:40, 41.
[2] No one is punished for hereditary evils, only for those properly his own, see 966, 1667, 2307, 2308, 8806. Such is the nature of the evil meant by an ox striking a man or a woman with its horn before its owner knows that it is accustomed to gore. The next verse refers to evil that a person is aware of. This is meant by an ox accustomed to gore, whose owner knows what it is like but does not keep it in, the consequent punishment for which is that the ox shall be stoned and the owner shall die, unless expiation is imposed on him.
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