2427. Verse 20 Behold now, this city is near to flee to it, and it is small. Let me, I beg you, escape to it (is it not small?) and let my soul live.

'Behold now, this city is near to flee to it' means he would be allowed [to think and act] from the truth of faith. 'And it is small' means from the small amount of it which he had. 'Let me, I beg you, escape to it' means that from that small amount of truth it is permitted to regard good. 'Is it not small?' means, Would he not have some small amount of it? 'And let my soul live' means that he would thus perhaps be saved.

'Land' in the Word, denotes the church, for the things which signify the church also signify the things relating to the church, for these constitute the church. The reason why 'land' denotes the church in the Word is because the land of Canaan was the land in which the church had been since the most ancient times. Hence, when 'land' is named in the Word, it means the land of Canaan, which then means the church. For when the expression 'the land' appears there, people in the spiritual world do not concern themselves with the idea of a land, only with the idea of the nation inhabiting it. And yet not with an idea of that nation but with an idea of the essential nature of it.

'Land' or 'earth,' as in Genesis 20:15, signifies the doctrine of love and charity.

'Land' signifies the celestial principle of love in Genesis 24:4.

In Genesis 26:12, 'land' signifies rational things.

In Genesis 28:13, this signifies the good of the natural.

The 'land' represents the divine of the rational principle in Genesis 30:25.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 5577)