6103. 'And gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land' means in the inmost part of the natural mind where factual knowledge resides. This is clear from the meaning of 'a possession' as the position spiritual life occupies, dealt with in 2658; from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as the natural mind where factual knowledge resides, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301; and from the meaning of 'the best of the land' as the inmost part, dealt with above in 6084. From this it is evident that 'gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land' means the position occupied by spiritual life in the inmost part of the natural mind where factual knowledge resides.

5141. 'That he had interpreted what was good' means what was going to take place. This is clear from the meaning of 'interpreting' as what it held within itself, or what lay within it, dealt with above in 5093, 5105, 5107, 5121, and thus also what was going to take place. The discernment that what was good was going to take place was a sensory discernment which, compared with other kinds of discernment, is an obscure one. To be exact, there is the power of discernment exercised by the senses or the exterior natural; the power of discernment exercised by the interior natural; and the power of discernment exercised by the rational. When a person is led by affection to think on a more interior level and to divorce his mind from what his senses and his body tell him, his discernment is of the rational kind. For in his case lower ideas, that is, those conceived by his external man, become dormant, and that person is virtually in his spirit. But when, for reasons that arise in the world, his thought exists on a more exterior level his power of discernment is that exercised by the interior natural. The rational is, it is true, exerting an influence, but not with any living affection. When however a person is engrossed in mere pleasures and the delights engendered by a love of the world, and also by self-love, his power of discernment is that exercised by the senses. His life in this case is focused on external interests or the body, and he has no room for anything internal apart from what will prevent him from breaking out into shameful and unseemly kinds of behaviour. But the more external his discernment is, the more obscure it is; for in relation to interior things exterior ones are general. Countless details that are interior manifest themselves in that which is exterior as one simple whole.