6415. From the things stated by Israel in these prophetic utterances concerning Dan, Gad, Asher, and Naphtali the existence of an internal sense is plainly evident, as is the fact that without that sense one can scarcely understand anything or know what is really meant. How does one understand for example the statements 'Dan will be a serpent on the road, a darting serpent on the path, biting the horse's heels; and its rider will fall backwards', 'a troop will ravage Gad, and he will ravage the heel', 'fat will be Asher's bread, and he will yield a king's delights', or 'Naphtali is a hind let loose, making elegant utterances'? Who can know what these statements mean without the key provided by the internal sense? They are not really things said about the sons of Jacob, or about the tribes, as becomes clear from the fact that nothing like those things happened to them 'at the end of days', even though Israel says in verse 1 that he will tell them what is going to happen to them at that time. And since what he said was not really about them it follows that he spoke about things such as were represented by them. The nature of those things has been explained above in what has gone before.