10489. 'Go to and fro from gate to gate in the camp' means wherever anything lies open from what is internal into what is external. This is clear from the meaning of 'going to and fro' as considering and looking around from one end to the other; from the meaning of 'gate' as an opening, dealt with above in 10483, so that 'from gate to gate' means wherever anything lies open; and from the meaning of 'the camp' as hell, also dealt with above in 10483, thus also what is external, for what is external separated from what is internal constitutes hell in a person. From these meanings it is evident that 'going to and fro from gate to gate in the camp' means considering and looking around wherever that which lies open from what is internal into what is external exists. The implications of this will be stated in the next paragraph. The reason why what is external separated from what is internal constitutes hell in a person is that heaven resides in what is internal in him, as shown above in 10472; consequently what is external when separated from that heaven constitutes hell. All this is made clearer still by the consideration that those who are interested only in external things separated from internal ones are ruled by hellish kinds of love, namely self-love and love of the world. Also the person whose external has been separated from his internal is in actual fact in hell, though he is not aware of it while he lives in the world.

6304. 'And will bring you back to the land of your fathers' means to the state of both Ancient Churches. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as the Church, dealt with in 566, 661, 1066, 1067, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4575, 4447, 5577; and from the meaning of 'fathers' as those who belonged to the Ancient Church and the Most Ancient Church, dealt with in 6075. To the state of both Ancient Churches is said to be meant because the sons of Israel and their descendants, like members of the Ancient Churches, were to represent in specific detail the Lord's celestial and spiritual kingdom. That representation was actually established - among the Jewish nation a representation of the celestial kingdom, and among the Israelite people a representation of the spiritual kingdom. But with that generation nothing of the Church or of the Lord's kingdom could be established, only what was a mere representation, for they wished to see and acknowledge in representatives only what was external, and nothing at all internal.

[2] However, so that the overall representation might be effected, and through it some communication with heaven might exist, and through heaven with the Lord, they were restricted to externals; and at that time the Lord saw to it that communication might take place through external representation alone devoid of any internal. This was the state to which Jacob's descendants could be 'brought back'. Yet inwardly, external representatives among those descendants concealed Divine matters, in the highest sense those which had regard to the Lord's Divine Human, and in the relative sense those which had regard to the Lord's kingdom in heaven and to the Church. This state of both Ancient Churches is what is meant by the promise that God will bring them back to the land of their fathers.