387. And with death, signifies the consequent extinction of spiritual life. This is evident from the signification of "death," as being the extinction of spiritual life (See above, n. 78, 186). That this is what "death" here signifies is evident from the series of things in the internal sense; for it is said that "there was given unto them power to kill with sword, with famine, and with death;" and "sword" signifies falsity destroying truth, "famine" the deprivation of the knowledges of truth and good; thence "death" signifies the extinction of spiritual life; for where falsity reigns, and where there are no knowledges of truth and good, there is no spiritual life, for spiritual life is acquired by means of the knowledges of truth and good applied to the uses of life. For man is born into all evil and falsity from evil; he is therefore born also into an entire ignorance of all spiritual knowledges; therefore in order that he may be led away from the evils and consequent falsities into which he is born, and be led into the life of heaven and be saved, he must needs acquire the knowledges of truth and good, by means of which he can be led into spiritual life and become spiritual. From this series of things in the internal sense it is evident that "death" here signifies the extinction of spiritual life; this is meant, too, by spiritual death.

6234. 'And now your two sons born to you in the land of Egypt' means goodness and truth within the natural that come from the internal. This is clear from the representation of Manasseh and Ephraim, to whom 'two sons' refers here, as the Church's will and the Church's understanding within the natural, which are born from the internal, dealt with above in 6222 (and since good belongs to the will and truth to the understanding, the Church's goodness and truth are meant by those same sons); from the meaning of 'born to you' - to Joseph - as that come from the internal; and from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as the natural mind where the Church's factual knowledge resides, dealt with in 5176, 5178, 5280, 5288, 5301, and as the natural, 6147.