4378. 'And the flocks and herds with me are suckling' means goods, interior ones and natural ones, which have not yet acquired Divine life. This is clear from the meaning of 'flocks' as interior goods, dealt with in 2566, 3783; from the meaning of 'herds' as exterior or natural goods, in 2566, and in addition in 2180, 2781; and from the meaning of 'sucklings' as goods which also are recent, and are in this case spiritual ones that am being born within the natural.

[2] In the state of infancy that a person passes through when being regenerated spiritual things are present in potentiality, for spiritual life emerges, as if from an egg, out of each consecutive age. The phase of infancy is so to speak the egg for that of childhood; the phase of childhood is so to speak the egg for that of adolescence and youth; and this phase is as it were the egg for that of adult years. Thus the person is so to speak repeatedly experiencing birth. This shows what is implied by goods, interior ones and natural ones, which have not yet acquired Divine life, meant here by 'flocks and herds that are suckling'. See also what has been stated immediately above in 4377 about the state of infancy.

'The tent,' as in Exodus 26:14, represented the three heavens, and so the celestial and spiritual parts of the Lord's kingdom.

A 'Tent' signifies the celestial and holy aspects of love, because in ancient times people performed holy worship in their tents.

When they began to profane tents with profane worship, the tabernacle was built, and later the temple. This is why the tabernacle and the temple signify the same as 'tent.'

A holy man was therefore called a tent, a tabernacle, and a temple of the Lord. In the highest sense, the Lord regarding His human essence, is a tent, a tabernacle, and a temple. Every celestial person is called these things, and so every thing celestial and holy has acquired these names.

This is why the feast of tabernacles was instituted, when they gathered in the produce of the earth, as a remembrance of those earlier holy times, and it was ordained, that at this feast they should live in tabernacles, like the most ancient people, as in Leviticus 23:39-44, Deuteronomy 16:13, and Hosea 12:9.

(Verweise: Arcana Coelestia 414)