10107. And the bread that is in the basket. That this signifies the appropriation of celestial good from the Lord, is evident from the signification of “eating,” here bread, as being appropriation (as just above, n. 10106); from the signification of “bread,” as being the good of love and charity (n. 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915, 6118, 9323, 9545); and from the signification of a “basket,” as being the external sensuous (n. 9996). From this it is plain that by “eating the bread that was in the basket” is signified the appropriation of good from the Lord in externals. The breads which were in the basket were unleavened breads, unleavened cakes, and unleavened wafers, and by these are signified goods purified, both internal and external (n. 9992-9994). When therefore “bread in the basket” is spoken of, there are signified all these goods in the external sensuous, and the external sensuous is the ultimate of man’s life, containing all the interior things together in itself. (That the external sensuous is the ultimate of man’s life, see n. 5077, 5081, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5767, 6183, 6311, 6313, 6318, 6564, 7645, 9212, 9216, 9730, 9996; and that, being the ultimate, it contains all the interior things, see n. 6451, 6465, 9216, 9828, 9836, 10044)

6564. Because they requited evil to thee. That this signifies because they had turned away from the good and truth which flow in, is evident from the signification of “evil,” as being a turning away (see n. 5746). That it denotes from the good and truth which flow in, is signified by “they requited to thee,” for “Joseph” is the celestial, and internal good (see n. 5805, 5826, 5827, 5869, 5877), through which good and truth flow in from the Lord. As regards the influx through the internal, the case is this. The Lord continually flows in through man’s internal with good and truth, good giving life and its heat, which is love, and truth giving enlightenment and its light, which is faith. But when this influx advances further, namely, into the exteriors, with the evil it is resisted and rejected, or is perverted or stifled; and then according to the rejection, perversion, or stifling, the interiors are closed, an entrance only remaining open here and there as through chinks round about; and from this there remains to the man the capacity to think and will, but against truth and good. This closing penetrates toward the exteriors more and more, according to the life of evil, and the consequent persuasion of falsity, and this down to the sensuous degree, from which then comes the thought. Pleasures and cravings then carry everything off. In such a state are those who are in the hells; for all considerations of what is honorable and good for the sake of gain, honor, and reputation, are taken away from the evil who come into the other life, and then they are in what is sensuous.