2328. Verse 2 And he said, Behold now, my Lords, turn aside now to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet. And in the morning you may rise up and go your way. And they said, No, for we will spend the night in the street.

'And he said, Behold now, my Lords' means interior acknowledgement and confession of the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding. 'Turn aside now to your servant's house and spend the night' means an invitation to stay with him - 'to your servant's house' means abiding in the good of charity. 'And wash your feet' means accommodation to his natural. 'And in the morning you may rise up and go your way' means being strengthened in this way in good and truth. 'And they said, No' means the doubting which is usually present during temptation. 'For we will spend the night in the street' means that He was willing, so to speak, to judge from truth.

278. 'Returning to the ground from which he was taken' means that the Church would revert to the external man, such as it had been before regeneration took place. This is clear from the fact that 'the ground' means the external man, as stated already; and 'dust' means condemned and hellish. This too is clear from what has been stated about the serpent, which, being cursed, would have to 'eat dust', as said. In addition to what has been shown about the meaning of dust, let the following in David be added,

All who go down to the dust will bow down before Jehovah, whose soul He has not made alive. Psalms 22:29.

And elsewhere in David,

You hidest Your face, ¹ they are dismayed; You gatherest up their spirit, they breathe their last and return to their dust. Psalms 104:29.

That is, when they turn away from the face of the Lord, they 'breathe their last', or die, and in so doing 'return to the dust', that is, become condemned and hellish.

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