Generally in the Bible a "country" means a political subdivision ruled by a king, or sometimes a tribe with a territory ruled by a king or chieftain. Others are what we now call city-states, with surrounding farm areas. In almost all cases these countries were far smaller than our modern idea of countries, though Egypt and Assyria would be exceptions. Sometimes the word is used to refer to countryside, a wide area with no consideration of boundaries as when the twelve Israelites were sent to spy out the country.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 3816 [3], 6818, 6820, 6821; Charity 83, 85; True Christian Religion 305)

5906. 'Make haste and go up to my father' means to spiritual good. This is clear from the representation of Israel, to whom 'father' refers here, as spiritual good from the natural, dealt with in 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833. The reason why spiritual good is the father of the internal celestial - even though spiritual good, because it comes from the natural, is external when considered in relation to the internal celestial - is that a person must be external before his internal man can develop. For progress is made in order, from exterior things to interior ones, for example, from factual knowledge to intellectual concepts, after which the exterior things must serve as the foundation on which the interior ones rest. This progression, or birth of one from another, is the reason for calling the external 'the father' of the internal, consequently the reason why spiritual good from the natural, which is 'Israel', should be the father of the internal celestial, which is 'Joseph'.