6012. 'And the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father' means that truths which were spiritual ones caused natural truth to move ahead. This is clear from the representation of 'the sons of Israel' as spiritual truths, dealt with in 5414, 5879; and from the representation of 'Jacob' as natural truth, dealt with in 3305, 3509, 3525, 3546, 3599, 3775, 4009, 4234, 4520, 4538. The reason 'they carried' means that they caused it to move ahead is that the expression is used of spiritual truths in relation to natural truth. Nor can anything else than what is spiritual cause natural truth to move ahead, for what is spiritual is the source of its life and power of action. This now explains why Jacob's sons here are called 'the sons of Israel' but Jacob himself 'Jacob'.

5415. 'For the famine was in the land of Canaan' means that a desolation existed so far as things of the Church in the natural were concerned. This is clear from the meaning of 'the famine' as an absence of cognitions and consequently as a desolation, dealt with in 3364, 5277, 5279, 5281, 5300, 5349, 5360, 5376; and from the meaning of 'the land of Canaan' as the Church, dealt with in 3686, 3705, 4447. And as the Church is meant, what belongs to the Church is meant also. So it is that 'the famine was in the land of Canaan' means a desolation so far as things of the Church are concerned. The reason the desolation exists in the natural is that the words used here have reference to the sons of Jacob, by whom aspects of the external Church are meant, 5409, and consequently such things as belong to the Church within the natural.