5435. 'And your servants come to buy food' means that they are present to enable the natural to make them - these truths - its own by means of good. This is clear from the meaning of 'servants' as lower things and natural ones when considered in relation to others, dealt with in 2541, 3019, 30201 5161, 5164, 5305, and consequently as truths too, 3409, since truths are subordinate to good and in the Word subordinates are called 'servants' (as is therefore the case here where, in relation to the celestial of the spiritual, truths in the natural are such); from the meaning of 'buying' as being made one's own, dealt with in 4397, 5374, 5406, 5410; and from the meaning of 'food' as celestial and spiritual good, dealt with in 5147, as well as truth linked to good, 5340, 5342, in this place truth that has to be linked to the natural by means of good and so made its own.

[2] There is no other means than good by which truth can be made a person's own. But once it has been made his own by means of good, truth becomes good, for it now acts in unison with it. At the same time the two make so to speak one body, the soul of which is the good. The truths are present within that good like spiritual fibres forming the body. For this reason also the inmost forms going forth from good are meant by the fibres of the body, and truths by the sinews there, 4303, 5189 (end).

5374. 'To buy [grain]' means a making one's own. This is clear from the meaning of 'buying' as acquiring to oneself and so making one's own. Spiritually, acquiring and making one's own is effected by means of good and truth, to which the acquisition and ownership that are achieved in the world by the payment of silver and gold correspond; for in the spiritual sense 'silver' is truth, and 'gold' is good. Consequently 'buying' means a making one's own, as it also does in the following places in the Word: In Isaiah,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat! And come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1

Also in Jeremiah 13:1-2, 11. In Matthew,

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man (homo) finds and hides, and in his joy he goes and sells whatever he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a trader seeking fine pearls, who, having found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:44-46.

And in the same gospel,

The wise virgins said to the foolish ones, Go to those who sell and buy oil for yourselves. While they were going to buy, the Bridegroom came. Matthew 25:9-10.

[2] Because 'buying' meant a making one's own, a clear distinction is made in the Word between things bought with silver and those acquired in some other way. Slaves bought with silver were so to speak the buyer's own, and were like 'those born in the house, but in a lower degree. This also explains why the two are mentioned together in various places, as in the command in Genesis 17:3, 'He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your silver must be circumcised', or as in Leviticus 22:11, 'If a priest buys a person ¹ - a buying with silver - [this person] and one who is born in his house shall eat of his bread'. From this one may see what is meant in the Word by 'the redeemed of Jehovah', ² namely those who have acquired good and truth, thus those to whom things that are the Lord's have been made over as their own.

Poznámky pod čarou: