8019. 'By their hosts' means those people made distinct from one another by the specific character of their good, which is derived from truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'hosts' as forms of good and truths, dealt with above in 7988. 'By hosts' means that those people, those who are represented by 'the children of Israel', were made distinct from one another by the specific character of their good, which is derived from truth; for all in the next life are made distinct from, yet are linked to one another by their varieties of good, see 7833-7836, 8003. The expression 'by the specific character of their good, which is derived from truth' is used because all good derives its specific character from truth, and is for that reason varied, 3804, 4149, 5345, 5355, 6916.

5345. 'And Joseph stored up grain like the sand of the sea, very much' means a multiplication of truth derived from good. This is clear from the meaning here of 'storing up' as multiplying; from the meaning of 'grain' as truth present in will and action, dealt with in 5295, the multiplication of which, when likened to 'the sand of the sea', means that it is derived from good, in this case from the good of the celestial of the spiritual through the influx of this. For truth in the interior parts is multiplied from no other source than good. A multiplication of truth that does not spring from good is not a multiplication of truth, because it is not truth, no matter how much it looks in outward appearance like truth. It is like a lifeless statue; and because such truth is dead it comes nowhere near being truth. For if a person's truth is to be truth it must receive life from good, that is, through good from the Lord; and when it does receive life in that manner, that truth can be said in a spiritual sense to be multiplied. The fact that good is the only source which enables truth to be multiplied may be seen from the consideration that nothing can be multiplied except from something marriage-like. Truth cannot enter into marriage with anything else than good. If it does do so with anything else, that is not marriage but adultery. That which is a multiplication resulting from marriage is legitimate, and thus is truth; but that which is the result of adultery is not legitimate. It is spurious and thus is not truth.