10288. 'Shall be cut off from his people' means separation and spiritual death. This is clear from the meaning of 'being cut off', and of being put to death, as separation from those governed by good and by truths springing from it, and destruction of spiritual life, dealt with in 6767, 8902; and from the meaning of 'people' as those belonging to the Church in whom the truths and forms of the good of faith are present, dealt with in 3581, 4619, 6451, 6465, 7207. Thus 'being cut off from one's people' means being separated from them and being destroyed. In the Word those who belong to the Church are sometimes called a people, sometimes a nation, as in the expressions Israelite people and Jewish nation. The word 'people' there means those who belong to the spiritual Church, and 'nation' those who belong to the celestial Church; and this is the reason why 'peoples' means truths and forms of the good of faith, while 'nations' means forms of the good of love, see in the places referred to immediately above.

7207. 'And I will take you to Myself as a people' means that they will be added to those in heaven who serve the Lord there. This is clear from the meaning of 'taking as a people', when said by Jehovah or the Lord, as receiving among those who are in heaven. For those in heaven are called the Lord's people, which they are also called when they are in the world because so far as their souls are concerned they are at that time too in heaven, see 687, 697, 3255, 4067, 4073, 4077. The reason why the words under consideration here mean that those who belong to the spiritual Church will be added to those in heaven who serve the Lord there is that before the Lord's Coming those people were held back on the lower earth, and were raised into heaven when the Lord rose again, at which point they were added to those there who serve the Lord, see 6854, 6914, 7090 (end).