6503. 'To embalm his father' means to prevent it from being ruined by any corruption. This is clear from the meaning of 'embalming' as a means of preservation from corruption; and from the representation of Israel, as the good of the spiritual Church, dealt with above in 6499. From this it is evident that 'to embalm his father' means a means of preservation to prevent the good of the spiritual Church from being ruined by any corruption. The reason why 'embalming' means a means of preservation from corruption is that embalmings took place so that the body might be preserved from putrefaction. Reference is also made in what follows immediately below to the means by which spiritual good is preserved from corruption.

In general, digging in the Bible means applying your own mind, your own faculties to find or create spiritual things. This is reflected in our everyday language; we often speak of investigators “digging for the truth.” In most cases, the idea of digging is connected with wells, and to dig a well means to investigate the Lord’s Word and draw ideas from it. In a more negative sense, a pit – which is like a well but with no water – represents falsity, so to dig a pit represents using your intellect to fabricate falsities. Finally, there is the idea of digging through walls in order to steal from others, which represents doing evil in a cunning and concealed way, invading someone’s life and attacking their desires for good and concepts of truth.

In Genesis 26:18, to dig signifies to open.