5206. 'And the cows bad in appearance and thin-fleshed devoured.....' means that falsities which were not expressions of faith and were not embodiments of charity would banish..... This is clear from the meaning of 'devouring' as consuming, dealt with in 5149, 5157, here as banishing because truths present in the natural, before they have received life through the celestial of the spiritual and so have been regenerated, have been so to speak banished by falsities; from the meaning of 'cows bad in appearance' as things which are not expressions of faith, dealt with just above in 5203; and from the meaning of 'thin-fleshed' as things which are not embodiments of charity, also dealt with above, in 5204.

5204. 'And thin-fleshed' means which are not embodiments of charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'fat-fleshed' as things which are matters of charity, also dealt with above, in 5200, and therefore 'thin-fleshed' here means things which are not matters of charity, for the two are contraries.