7772. 'Also the man Moses was exceedingly great in the land of Egypt' means respect for God's truth now. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as God's truth, dealt with often; from the meaning of 'exceedingly great as respect, at this point respect as a result of fear since the evil in hell have no respect for the Divine apart from that due to fear (the words 'in the eyes of the servants and in the eyes of the people' show that respect is meant by 'exceedingly great'); and from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301, 6147, 6152. From this it is evident that 'the man Moses was exceedingly great in the land of Egypt' means respect for God's truth in the mind - in the mind of the molesting ones.

5276. 'A great abundance of corn in all the land of Egypt' means the multiplication of truth in both parts of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'an abundance of corn' as a multiplication of truth, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as both parts of the natural. For knowledge is meant by 'Egypt', see 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 4749, 4964, 4966; and since knowledge is meant by that land, so also is the natural meant by it, for the reason that as the expression 'factual knowledge' is used to describe what is stored in the natural, 'the land of Egypt' therefore means the natural mind in which factual knowledge is stored. This being so, 'all the land of Egypt' means both parts of the natural - the interior natural and the exterior natural, regarding which, see 5118, 5126. The reason 'an abundance of corn' means a multiplication of truth is that the expression describes the opposite of 'famine', by which an absence of truth is meant. The word used in the original language to express an abundance of corn - an antonym to 'famine' - means in the internal sense a vast wealth and sufficiency of religious knowledge; for 'famine' means an absence of it. Religious knowledge consists in nothing else than the truths present in a person's natural man which have not yet been made his own by him. The multiplication of such truths is what is meant here. Religious knowledge does not come to be truths residing with a person until that knowledge finds acceptance in his understanding, which happens when he firmly embraces it; and what are then truths residing with him are not made his own until he lives in conformity with them. For nothing is made a person's own other than that which is made part of his life; thus because those truths form his life, his true self is invested in them.