142. Verses 19-20 And Jehovah God formed out of the ground every beast of the field, and every bird of the air, ¹ and He brought it to the man to see what he would call it; and whatever the man called it, the living creature, ² that was its name. And the man gave names to every beast, and to the birds of the air, ¹ and to every wild animal of the field; but for man there was not found a help suitable for him.

'Beasts' means celestial affections, 'birds of the air' ³ spiritual ones; that is, 'beasts' means things that belong to the will, and 'birds' those that belong to the understanding. 'Bringing them to the man to see what he would call them' means enabling him to know their nature. 'He gave them names means that he did recognize their nature. But even though he knew the nature of the affections for good and the cognitions of truth which the Lord had granted him, he still set his heart on the proprium, which is expressed in the same way as before - 'there was not found a help suitable for him'.

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3019. 'Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house' means the ordering and influx of the Lord into His Natural, meant by 'the servant, the oldest of the house'. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' here as commanding since it is a servant to whom Abraham's words are addressed; and since the subject is the re-arranging by the Divine of the things that exist in the natural man, ordering and influx are meant. For everything that is done in the natural or external man is an ordering by the rational or internal, and is effected by means of influx. The use of the expression 'the servant, the oldest of the house' to mean the natural, or the natural man, may be seen from the meaning of 'a servant' as that which is lower and serves what is higher, or what amounts to the same, that which is exterior and serves what is interior, see 2541, 2567. All things that belong to the natural man, as facts of every kind do, are nothing else than a body of servants, for they serve the rational by enabling it to be thoroughly fair in what it thinks and righteous in what it wills. That 'the oldest of the house' is the natural man becomes clear from what follows below.