5134. 'And bring me out of this house' means a release from evils. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing out' as a release, and from the meaning of 'house' as good, dealt with in 710, 1708, 2048, 2233, 3128, 3652, 3720, 4982, and therefore, in the contrary sense, as evil. From this it is evident that 'bring me out of this house' means a release from evils, a meaning that also follows the preceding train of thought, which is this: When faith is received within the exterior natural, which is the subject here, 5130, a correspondence is effected, 5131, and when charity is received, 5132, and a communication is thereby effected with the interior natural, 5133, the exterior natural is at that point released from the evils which had caused the celestial represented by 'Joseph', 5086, 5087, 5106, to become alienated - that alienation being meant by the words which follow next, stating that he was taken away by theft. Furthermore, when the natural is regenerated by means of charity and faith it is released from evils; for when it is regenerated the evils are set apart and cast away from the centre, where they were previously, to the fringes, which the light of truth from good does not reach. In man's case evils are set apart in this manner; yet they still remain, for they cannot be completely destroyed. But with the Lord, who made the natural within Himself Divine, evils and falsities were cast out and completely destroyed. For the Divine cannot have anything at all in common with evils and falsities, or be encompassed by them, as is the case with man; for the Divine is the Essential Being (Esse) of good and truth, and that Being exists an infinite distance away from everything evil and false.

4121. 'And he took his brothers with him' means forms of good replacing those which it had lost. This is clear from the meaning of 'brothers' as forms of good, dealt with in 2360, 3160, 3303, 3459, 3803, 3815. In the internal sense 'brothers' means people who are governed by the same kind of goodness and truth, that is, they share the same affection for these. Indeed all in the next life are grouped together in different communities on the basis of their affections; and those so grouped together in any community constitute a brotherhood. They do so not because they call themselves brothers but because they are such through their being joined to one another. In the next life it is goodness and truth that lie behind that which on earth is called a blood-relationship and a relationship by marriage, and for this reason the latter correspond to that goodness and truth. Indeed regarded in themselves forms of goodness and truth acknowledge no other father than the Lord, for they exist from Him alone, and therefore all who are governed by forms of goodness and truth exist in a brotherly relationship with one another. Yet degrees of affinity exist, determined by the particular nature of each form of goodness or truth. In the Word these degrees are meant by brothers, sisters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandsons, granddaughters, and many other names for relatives in a family.

[2] On earth however these names are given to people because they have the same parents, no matter how much these people differ from one another in affection. But that kind of brotherly relationship and affinity is dissolved in the next life, and unless on earth they have been governed by the same affection they all enter different brotherly relationships. Such people, it is true, do as a general rule come together initially, but in a short while they are parted. For in the next life it is not money that holds people together but, as has been stated, affections, the nature of which are plain to see as if in clear daylight, as also is the nature of the affection which one person has had for another. Since affections are so plain to see there, and since everyone's affection attracts him towards the community that is his, the association with one another of people whose mental dispositions have not been in agreement is therefore broken. In that case all ties of brotherly relationship and of friendship possessed by the external man are eliminated in both parties, while those which had existed with the internal man remain. The reason why 'he took his brothers with him' means forms of good replacing those which it had lost is that when one community is being separated from another, as stated above in 4077, 4110, 4111, it moves towards another and so towards other forms of good which replace the former.