7647. 'And will devour every tree growing up for you out of the field' means thus the consumption of all the religious knowledge that they get from the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'devouring' as consumption, as immediately above in 7646; from the meaning of 'tree' as perceptions, and also cognitions or knowledge of truth and good, dealt with in 2722 (end), 2972; and from the meaning of 'the field' as the Church, dealt with in 2971, 3317, 3766, 4440, 7502, 7571.

7646. 'And they will devour the residue of what escaped and was left to you from the hail' means the consumption of all things that have any element of truth in them. This is clear from the meaning of 'devouring' being consumed; and from the meaning of 'the residue of what escaped and was left from the hail' as truth that was not consumed or destroyed by the previous kind of falsity that is meant by 'the hail'. For the meaning of 'the hail' as falsity, see 7553, 7574. The falsities meant by 'the hail' are falsities in the exterior natural, but the falsities meant by 'the locusts' are falsities in the outermost parts of it. The latter falsities are what consume the most general truths and forms of good; for comparatively external things are also comparatively general, and the most external ones are the most general. When general things have been destroyed particular ones are scattered, for the former are the containers, and the latter are their contents.