4069. 'Return to the land of your fathers' means that He had now to bring Himself closer to Divine good. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land of your fathers' as Divine good in this case because it has reference to the Lord, for 'the land', which is Canaan, means the Lord's kingdom, 1607, 3481, and in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Human since this Human flows in and makes His kingdom, 3038, 3705; and 'father' means good, 3703. And since the goods and truths by means of which the Lord was to make the Natural Divine had now been acquired - those goods and truths being represented by Jacob's stay with Laban and by the cattle he acquired there - 'returning to the land of your fathers' consequently means bringing Himself closer to Divine good.

636. 'I will destroy them together with the earth' means that the human race would perish together with the Church. This is clear from the fact that here the phrase 'together with the earth' is used. In fact, as previously stated, 'earth' in a broad sense means love and so the celestial things of the Church. Here because no love, nor anything celestial, was left it means self-love and that which is contrary to the celestial aspect of the Church. Despite this the member of the Church still existed because he possessed doctrinal matters concerning faith. For as has been stated, love includes faith within itself, and faith includes cognitions of faith, just as the earth includes the ground, and the ground includes the field.