5649. And they said, Over the word of the silver that was returned in our bags in the beginning are we brought. That this signifies that because truth in the exterior natural appears to be given gratuitously, they were therefore to be in subjection, is evident from the signification of the “silver being returned,” as being truth bestowed gratuitously, (see n. 5530, 5624); from the signification of a “bag,” as being the threshold of the exterior natural (n. 5497); and from the signification of “being brought,” as being to be adjoined or subjected (a s shown just above, n. 5648).

[2] The case herein is this. As it was perceived that the truths of memory-knowledge in the exterior natural were given gratuitously, and would therefore be enticed to conjoin themselves with the internal, and thereby be in subjection to it, they would as just said be deprived of their freedom, and thereby of all the delight of life. That this is the case, namely, that it is perceived that truths of memory-knowledge are bestowed gratuitously, and this in the natural mind whether exterior or interior, is quite unknown to man. The reason is that he is in no such perception; for he does not at all know what is bestowed on him gratuitously, still less what is stored up in the exterior natural, and what in the interior. The reason why he has not this perception is usually because worldly and earthly things are dear to him, and not celestial and spiritual things; and therefore he does not believe in any influx through heaven from the Lord, thus not at all that anything is given him; when yet all the truth that he rationally infers from memory-knowledges, and supposes to be of his own ability, is such as is given him. Still less can man perceive whether it is placed in the exterior natural or in the interior, because he is ignorant that the natural is twofold, namely the outer which draws near to the external senses, and the inner which draws back from them and turns to the rational.

[3] As man knows nothing about either the one or the other, he can therefore have no perception about such things; for the knowledge of a thing must come first in order that there may be a perception of it. Yet the angelic societies know and perceive these things well and clearly, not only what is bestowed on them gratuitously, but also where it is, as may be seen from the following experience. When any spirit who is in good, and hence in ability, comes into an angelic society, he comes at the same time into all the memory-knowledge and intelligence the society has, and in which he had not been before; and he then knows no otherwise than that he had known and understood it so before, and from himself. But when he reflects, he perceives that it is gratuitously bestowed on him through that angelic society by the Lord; and he also knows from the angelic society where it is, whether in the exterior or in the interior natural. For there are angelic societies that are in the exterior natural, and there are others that are in the interior natural. Yet the natural which belongs to them is not such a natural as man has; but it is a spiritual natural, which has become spiritual by having been conjoined and subjected to the spiritual.

[4] From all this it is evident that the things here related in the internal sense take place actually so in the other life, namely, that they perceive what is given them gratuitously, as well as where it is stored up, although man at this day knows nothing of such things. But in ancient times they who were of the church knew such things, being taught them by their memory-knowledges and by their doctrinals. They were interior men; but since those times men have become successively more external, insomuch that at this day they are in the body, thus in the outermost. A sign of this is that they do not even know what the spiritual and the internal are, nor believe in their existence. Nay, to such an outermost in the body have they gone away from interior things, that they do not even believe that there is a life after death, nor that there is a heaven or a hell. Nay, by receding from interior things they have gone to such an outermost, and have become so stupid in spiritual things, as to believe that man’s life is like that of beasts, and therefore that man will die in like manner; and strange to say the learned believe so more than the simple, and anyone who believes differently is accounted by them a simpleton.

5648. Because they were brought to Joseph’s house. That this signifies because the truths that belong to the natural were to be adjoined and subjected to the internal, is evident from the signification of “being brought to Joseph’s house,” as being to be conjoined and subjected to the internal; for by Joseph is represented the internal, because he represents truth from the Divine, or the celestial of the spiritual (see n. 5307, 5331, 5332, 5417, 5469); and by a “house” is signified man’s internal as well as his external (n. 3128, 3538, 4973, 5023), here the internal, as it is called “Joseph’s house;” and by “being brought” (namely, to the internal) is signified to be adjoined, and therefore to be subjected. The reason is that when the natural is adjoined to the internal, it is then subjected to it; for the command which had before belonged to the natural man, then becomes the spiritual man’s; of which command, of the Lord’s Divine mercy more will be said in the following pages.

[2] A few words must here be added in regard to the internal sense. The internal sense of the Word is especially for those who are in the other life. When those who are there are with a man who is reading the Word, they perceive it according to the internal sense, and not according to the external; for they understand no human words, but only the sense of the words, and this not according to the man’s natural thoughts, but according to their thoughts which are spiritual. Into this spiritual sense the natural sense that is with the man is at once transmuted, just as one turns the language of another into his own which is different, doing it in an instant. So is the sense of natural human thought turned into spiritual, for spiritual language or speech is proper to the angels, and natural language or speech to men. That there is so sudden a change of as it were one language into the other, is because there is a correspondence of each and all things in the natural world with those in the spiritual world.

[3] Now as the internal sense of the Word is chiefly for those who are in the spiritual world, therefore such things are here mentioned in the internal sense as are for them, and as are pleasant and delightful to them. Yet the more interior such things are, the more remote are they from the apprehension of men to whom only those things which are of the world and the body are pleasant and delightful; and when this is the case, they hold in contempt the spiritual things that belong to the internal sense, and also loathe them. Let everyone explore within himself whether the things contained in the internal sense of the verses that now follow are worthless and distasteful to him, when yet they are what the angelic societies take the greatest delight in. From this it may be plain to one who reflects what a difference there is between the delights of men and the delights of angels, and also in what things the angels vest wisdom, and in what men vest it—that the angels vest wisdom in such things as man thinks worthless and holds in aversion, and that man vests wisdom in such things as the angels care nothing about, and many in such things as the angels reject and shun.