Like other common verbs, the meaning of "give" in the Bible is affected by context: who is giving what to whom? In general, though, giving relates to the fact that the Lord provides us all with true teachings for our minds and desires for good in our hearts, and for the fact that we need to accept those gifts while acknowledging that they come from the Lord, and not from ourselves. One of the most common and significant uses of "give" in the Bible is the repeated statement that the Lord had given the land of Canaan to the people of Israel. This springs from the fact that Canaan represents heaven, and illustrates that the Lord created us all for heaven and will give us heaven if we will accept the gift.

4761. 'And Reuben returned to the pit' means the Church's faith in general. This is clear from the representation of 'Reuben' as the Church's confession of faith in general, dealt with in 4731, 4734, and from the meaning of 'the pit' as falsities, dealt with in 4728. Consequently the statement that 'Reuben returned to the pit' means that the Church's faith in general came to behold the falsities that belong to faith separated from charity.