450. Amongst these twelve tribes, from each of which twelve thousand are said to be sealed, the tribe of Dan is not mentioned, but in its stead the tribe of Manasseh. The reason of this is, that the tribe of Dan represented and signified such as are now treated of in this chapter of whom John thus speaks:

"After this I saw, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, out of every nation, and [of all] tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands" (verse 9).

For these are they who were not in the very (ipsis) truths of heaven and of the church, but in the good of life according to the doctrinals of their religion, which, for the most part, were not genuine truths, but falsities, and yet were accepted by the Lord as truths, because they were in the good of life, in consequence of which the falsities of their religion were not tinctured with evil, but inclined to good. The reason why they were taken instead of the tribe of Dan, is, that the tribe of Dan was the last of the tribes, and therefore in the kingdom of the Lord, signifies the ultimates, in which those are who are in the good of life and of faith according to their religion, in which there are no genuine truths. Concerning the tribe of Dan, see the Arcana Coelestia 1710, 3920, 3923, 6396, 10335).

8510. 'That some of the people went out to gather, and did not find' means that they wished to acquire it, but none was given. This is clear from the explanation above in 8505. The explanation there shows what actions springing from the truth of faith are and what those springing from the good of charity are. That is to say, it shows that a person whose actions spring from the truth of faith does not as yet have the order of heaven present in himself, whereas one whose actions spring from the good of charity does have it. For, according to order, when the Lord leads a person He does so through his will, consequently through good since this belongs properly to the will. In that case his understanding is subservient, and so is truth since this belongs properly to the understanding. When this state exists it is the sabbath, for then there is rest for the Lord; and the state comes into being once good has been joined to truth. That this state is the Lord's rest may be recognized from the statement that after six days of creation and labour Jehovah or the Lord rested on the seventh day from all His work, Genesis 2:2. This state is heaven's state, which explains why heaven itself is called the sabbath, and that in heaven the sabbath is perpetual. For the creation story in Genesis 1 serves to mean the new creation, which is regeneration, and the six days in the story serves to mean temptations and conflicts, see the explanations at Genesis 1, 2.