9035. 'And [the slave] dies under his hand' means so that it is wiped out under his contemplation. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' as being wiped out, as above in 9026; and from the meaning of 'under his hand' as under his contemplation, for 'the hand' means the power which spiritual truth possesses, 5327, 5328, 7011, thus the power of contemplation, for such power comes from truth and is discernment. Truths as stated in the literal sense of the Word which have been stored away in the natural man's memory form so to speak a field there for the contemplation of the internal man into whom light from heaven flows. From this field the internal man chooses such things as are in agreement with the good in him, as stated above, just as a person's eye selects from a cultivated field such things growing there as will help him to perform his duties in life.