2571. 'Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you' means the Lord's perception regarding the doctrine of love and charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as thinking, dealt with in 2506, and from the meaning of 'land' here as the doctrine of love and charity. 'Land' or 'earth' has various meanings in the internal sense, 620, 636, 1066, but what is meant in a specific instance is clear from the train of thought. For 'land' or 'earth' means the external member of the Church when 'the sky' or 'heaven' means the internal, 82, 913, 1411, 1733; it also means the region where the Church is, 662, 1066; it means the Church itself, and also in the universal sense the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, since 'the land of Canaan' or 'the holy land' was representative of that kingdom, 1437, 1585, 1607. The same was also meant by 'a new heaven and a new earth', 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118. And because 'land' or 'earth' means the member of the Church, the Church, and the Lord's kingdom, it also means that which is the essential component of these, namely love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, for it is on these that they all depend, 537, 540, 547, 553, 2130. Consequently 'land' or 'earth' means the doctrine of love and charity which belongs to the Church, and to which here 'the land of Abimelech' refers. For 'Abimelech as a king' means the doctrine of faith, as has been shown, while his land, from which he sprang and in which he dwelt, means the doctrine of love and charity, from which faith springs and in which faith dwells.

[2] The reason why up to this point the Lord's thought had been concerned with the doctrine of faith but was now concerned with the doctrine of love and charity is that the Lord joined the Human to the Divine by means of truths which are matters of faith, yet at the same time by means of Divine Goods which are matters of love that were present within those truths. This He did according to the order by which also man becomes spiritual and celestial but not Divine so as to have life in himself, in the way that the Lord became so. But when the marriage had taken place in the Lord of Divine Truth to Good, and of Good to Truth, which is meant by the words 'Abimelech restored to Abraham Sarah his wife', 2569, His thought was now concerned with the doctrine of love and charity, and this also was according to order; for once man has become spiritual and celestial he no longer thinks from truth but from good, yet not as the Lord did - from Divine Good united to Divine Truth. This is the reason why the doctrine of love and charity is only now mentioned for the first time, even though the doctrine of faith regarded in itself is the same, and the Lord's perception and thought always sprang from Divine love within every thing of faith. Hence it is that the doctrine of love and charity is Divine doctrine itself, and was the doctrine which was cultivated in the Most Ancient Churches. And because that doctrine made one with the doctrine of faith, they rejected people who separated these; see 2417.

120. Like Egypt, the Euphrates too means knowledge or facts, and also sensory evidence from which facts are obtained. This is clear from the Word in the Prophets, as in Micah, She, my enemy, said, Where is Jehovah your God? A day on which He will build your walls. On that day what has been determined will be absent afar off. That day also He will come to you from Asshur, and to the cities of Egypt and to the River (the Euphrates) Micah 7:10-12.

The Prophets spoke in this way when referring to the coming of the Lord, who was going to regenerate man so that he would become as a celestial man. In Jeremiah,

What have you to do with the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of Shihor? And what have you to do with the way to Asshur, to drink the waters of the River (the Euphrates)? Jeremiah 2:18.

Here similarly 'Egypt' and 'the Euphrates' stand for facts, and 'Asshur' for reasonings based on them. In David,

You did cause a vine to journey out of Egypt. You did cast out the nations, You did plant it. You did send out its shoots even to the sea, and its little branches to the River (the Euphrates) Psalms 80:8, 11.

Here too 'the river Euphrates' stands for sensory evidence and factual knowledge. Indeed the Euphrates was the boundary to Israel's territories in the direction of Asshur, just as factual knowledge in the memory is the boundary of intelligence and wisdom of the spiritual and celestial man. The same is meant by these words addressed to Abraham,

To your seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river, the river Euphrates. Genesis 15:18.

Both of these two boundaries have the same meaning.