6449. Verses 29-33 And he commanded them and said to them, I am being gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers, at the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave which is in the field of Machpelah, which faces Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a grave. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. The buying of the field and of the cave that was in it was from the sons of Heth. And Jacob finished commanding his sons, and he gathered up his feet towards the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his peoples.

'And he commanded them and said to them' means an introduction. 'I am being gathered to my people' means that [spiritual good] will come to exist within the forms of good and the truths of the natural which spring from that good. 'Bury me with my fathers' means that interior things and what is inmost will exist there too. 'At the cave' means where obscurity exists. 'Which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite' means which however can be made into clear light. 'In the cave which is in the field of Machpelah' means in that obscurity. 'Which faces Mamre' means the extent and nature of it. 'In the land of Canaan' means where the Church is. 'Which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite' means redemption. 'As a possession for a grave' means regeneration. 'There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah' means that all the interior things are present in order within good and truth in the natural. 'The buying of the field and of the cave that was in it was from the sons of Heth' means the redemption of those who receive truth, and through truth receive good. 'And Jacob finished commanding his sons' means the accomplishment of the introduction. 'And he gathered up his feet towards the bed' means that [spiritual good] turned itself - its lower things in which interior ones are present - towards the good and truth of the lower natural. 'And expired' means new life there. 'And was gathered to his peoples' means that [spiritual good] was within the forms of good and the truths of the natural that sprang from itself.

6337. 'And I will show you what will happen to you at the end of days' means the nature of the Church's state within the order in which they were arranged at that time. This is clear from the meaning of 'showing what will happen' as communicating and foretelling; and from the meaning of 'the end of days' as the final phase of the state in which they exist together - 'days' being states, 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, and 'the end' the final phase, so that 'the end of days' is the final phase of a state, that is to say, of the state in which truths and forms of good in general exist together when arranged in their proper order. The reason why it is the Church's state which is meant is that the truths and forms of good represented by 'Jacob and his sons' are what constitute the Church, on account of which 'Jacob' represents the Church, 4286, 4439, 4514, 4520, 4680, 4772, 5536, 5540, and so also 'his sons', 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512. And the reason why the nature of that state is meant is that the way the Church's truths and forms of good are represented depends on the order in which Jacob's sons or the tribes are mentioned in the Word, see 3862, 3926, 3939. For its nature is different if Reuben's name comes first from what it is if Judah's comes first. When Reuben is first the nature of the state is such that it starts with faith; but when Judah is first it is such that it starts with love; and the nature of it is different again when it starts with something other than faith or love. For variation in the nature of the state is also indicated by the order in which the rest are named after those two.

[2] The variations that are produced in this way are incalculable, indeed infinite, especially so when the truths and forms of good in general that are meant by 'the twelve tribes' also take on specific variations, countless ones for each - for then each truth and form of good in general assumes a different appearance - and even more especially so when those specific truths or forms of good take on countless individual variations, and so on. The infinite variations produced in this way may be illustrated by very many things that exist in the natural world. From all this one may now see that the twelve tribes have a different meaning when their names occur in the Word in one order from when they do so in another. Thus in this chapter they carry a meaning different from that seen elsewhere.