6033. 'And fell on his neck' means a joining together. This is clear from the meaning of 'falling on the neck' as a close and intimate joining together, dealt with in 5926. The reason 'falling on the neck' means a joining together is that the neck joins together the head and the body; and since 'the head' means interior things, and 'the body' exterior ones, 'the neck' means a joining together of interior and exterior things, see 3542, 5320, 5328. From this arises a communication of interior things with exterior ones, as well as of celestial things with spiritual ones, see those same paragraphs. A communication such as this resulting from a joining together is meant in addition by the same words, for 'Joseph' is the internal, and 'Israel' considered in relation to it is the external.

Shepherds represent people who lead and teach others, using knowledge and true ideas to help people reach the goodness of life. This makes sense if you think about what a shepherd does. He makes sure the flock has good grass to eat; plants in the Bible represent facts and knowledge. The shepherd makes sure the flock has good water to drink; water represents true thinking about the spiritual aspect of day-to-day life. He carries weapons (a true understanding of spiritual things) to ward off predators (desires for evil) and keeps the flock safe. And the ultimate goal of the shepherd is for the flock to be useful, to do good, to provide good things, representing the good of life. There are, of course, a few cases in which shepherds are the bad guys (for instance, a group of them in Midian would chase Jethro's daughters away so they could water their sheep first; Moses found favor by helping the daughters and ended up marrying one of them). In these cases shepherds represent people who lead and teach without the good of life as the goal. When goodness is not the goal, ideas and knowledge are twisted into falsity and the teaching and leading trend toward evil. See also Sheep.