1216. 'According to their families' means according to their habits and customs, 'according to their tongues' means according to their individual beliefs, 'in their lands' means in general as regards such beliefs, and 'in their nations' in general as regards such habits and customs. This becomes clear from the meaning in the Word of each of these, namely family, tongue, land, and nation, for which see what has been stated above at verse 5.

In general, things that are “elder” in the Bible represent spiritual states that come before others. For example, of the two sisters Jacob married, Leah was the elder, and represents the affection for true ideas about external life. Rachael, the younger, represents the affection for true ideas about internal life, the life of the mind and spirit. Together they represent the Lord’s advance, while he was growing up as the human Jesus, from the affection for external ideas to the affection for internal ones.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 1222, 3819)