In a general sense, being "born" in the Bible represents one spiritual state producing another, usually some form of love or affection producing or "giving birth" to truth or to desires for good. This is not hard to see: If you love someone, that love naturally gives birth to ideas on how to be good to that person and make him or her happy. This is why sons and daughters in the Bible represent true ideas and desires for good. On a higher level, though, being born represents what the Writings call "regeneration," or the life-long process of putting off our natural thoughts and desires and embracing spiritual life from the Lord. This is what the Bible means when it talks about being "born again" – if we live our lives from the Lord, He will eventually take away our evil desires so that we can be "born" as angels in heaven, free of evil desires and dark thoughts. Of course, these two levels of meaning are really one: The Lord is love itself, and if we align with Him we become forms of love and truth ourselves, expressions of His love just as the desire to do something good might be the expression of your love for a friend.

8315. 'The powerful ones of Moab' means those leading a life of falsity resulting from that love. This is clear from the meaning of 'the powerful ones' as ruling and predominant elements; and from the representation of 'Moab' as people who are governed by natural good yet easily allow themselves to be led into error, dealt with in 2468, thus who lead a life of falsity as a result. For people governed by natural good and not by good that springs from the truth of faith, thus who are not governed by spiritual good, allow themselves to be carried away into believing any falsities whatever, and so into living in accordance with them. They are carried away from truths to falsities, in particular by ones that accord with the kinds of love they have. These are the people that 'Moab' serves to mean. Those governed by natural and not by spiritual good cannot at all be led by any influx from heaven, see 3470, 3471, 3518, 4988, 4992, 5032, 6208, 7197, 8002. The word used in the original language to express 'powerful ones' refers to those strong in truth that is grounded in good, and in the contrary sense to those strong in falsity that is rooted in evil. The word is used in the latter sense in Ezekiel 31:11; 2 Kings 24:15.