4
但、拿弗他利、迦得、亚设。
6654. Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are many and numerous more than we. That this signifies that the truths of the church prevail over alienated memory-knowledges, is evident from the representation of the sons of Israel, as being the truths and goods of the church (see n. 6647); from the signification of “many” and “numerous,” as being to prevail (that “to be multiplied,” or “to become many and numerous,” is said of truth, see also above, n. 6648); and from the representation of the king of Egypt and his people, who are here meant by “more than we,” as being alienated memory-knowledges (as above, n. 6652). Hence it is plain that by “Behold the people of Israel are many and numerous more than we” is signified that truths prevail over alienated memory-knowledges.
913. That they may spread themselves over the earth. That this signifies the operation of the internal man on the external, and that “being fruitful” signifies increasings of good, “multiplying” increasings of truth, and “upon the earth” in the external man, is evident from the connection of the things, and also from what has been before said and shown about the signification of “being fruitful” which in the Word is predicated of goods, and about that of “multiplying” which is predicated of truths. That “earth” signifies the external man has likewise been shown before; so that we need not dwell longer on these significations in order to confirm them. Here the subject is the operation of the internal man on the external after the man has been regenerated, showing that good is for the first time made fruitful, and truth multiplied, when the external man has been reduced to correspondence or obedience. This can never be so before, because what is corporeal opposes what is good, and what is sensuous opposes what is true, the one extinguishing the love of good, and the other extinguishing the love of truth. The fructification of good and the multiplication of truth take place in the external man; the fructification of good in his affections, and the multiplication of truth in his memory. The external man is here called “the earth” over which they spread themselves, and upon which they become fruitful and multiply.