330. Out of every tribe and tongue, signifies by all who are in truths in respect to doctrine and in respect to life. This is evident from the signification of "tribe," as being all truths and goods in the complex (of which see above, n. 39; for these are meant by the twelve tribes, and therefore each tribe signifies something of truth and good, therefore "out of every tribe" signifies out of all who are in any kind of truth and good. It is evident also from the signification of "tongue," as being the doctrine of life and faith. That "tribes" signify all truths and goods in the complex will be shown more fully below in its own paragraph; likewise that "tongue" signifies the doctrine of life and faith, thus religion. (Here will be presented only what is shown in Arcana Coelestia respecting the signification of "tribes," namely, that the twelve tribes of Israel represented and thence signified all truths and goods in the complex, n. 3858, 3926, 4060, 6335; that the twelve apostles of the Lord have a like signification, n. 2129, 3354, 3488, 6397; that there were twelve because "twelve" signifies all, n. 577, 2089, 2129, 2130, 3272, 3858, 3913. Because the twelve tribes represented and thus signified all the truths and goods in the complex they therefore represented heaven and the church, n. 6337, 6637, 7836, 7891, 7996. That the twelve tribes signify various things according to the order in which they are named, thus in different ways all things of heaven and the church, n. 3862, 3926, 3939, 4603 seq., 6337, 6640, 10335; therefore responses could be given and were given by the Urim and Thummim, where the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were engraven on precious stones, n. 3858, 6335, 6640, 9863, 9865, 9873, 9874, 9905)

6337. 'And I will show you what will happen to you at the end of days' means the nature of the Church's state within the order in which they were arranged at that time. This is clear from the meaning of 'showing what will happen' as communicating and foretelling; and from the meaning of 'the end of days' as the final phase of the state in which they exist together - 'days' being states, 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, and 'the end' the final phase, so that 'the end of days' is the final phase of a state, that is to say, of the state in which truths and forms of good in general exist together when arranged in their proper order. The reason why it is the Church's state which is meant is that the truths and forms of good represented by 'Jacob and his sons' are what constitute the Church, on account of which 'Jacob' represents the Church, 4286, 4439, 4514, 4520, 4680, 4772, 5536, 5540, and so also 'his sons', 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512. And the reason why the nature of that state is meant is that the way the Church's truths and forms of good are represented depends on the order in which Jacob's sons or the tribes are mentioned in the Word, see 3862, 3926, 3939. For its nature is different if Reuben's name comes first from what it is if Judah's comes first. When Reuben is first the nature of the state is such that it starts with faith; but when Judah is first it is such that it starts with love; and the nature of it is different again when it starts with something other than faith or love. For variation in the nature of the state is also indicated by the order in which the rest are named after those two.

[2] The variations that are produced in this way are incalculable, indeed infinite, especially so when the truths and forms of good in general that are meant by 'the twelve tribes' also take on specific variations, countless ones for each - for then each truth and form of good in general assumes a different appearance - and even more especially so when those specific truths or forms of good take on countless individual variations, and so on. The infinite variations produced in this way may be illustrated by very many things that exist in the natural world. From all this one may now see that the twelve tribes have a different meaning when their names occur in the Word in one order from when they do so in another. Thus in this chapter they carry a meaning different from that seen elsewhere.