5680. 'And they said, Your servant our father has peace' means a perception gained from there by the natural that all is well with the good from which it springs. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perceiving, dealt with in 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509; from the meaning of 'peace' as all being well, dealt with in 5662, 5677; and from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good, dealt with just above in 5678. This good is called their 'father' because the truths and forms of good present in the natural, which are represented by Israel's ten sons, spring from it as their father. And as the truths and forms of good in the natural are represented by those sons, the natural is also meant by them; for the natural is the container, while the truths and forms of good there are its contents which make one with it. From all this it is evident that 'they said, Your servant our father has peace' means a perception gained from there by the natural that all is well with the good from which it springs.

[2] The perception is said to be gained from there - from the internal represented by 'Joseph', 5648 - because every perception gained by the natural comes from the spiritual; and because it comes from the spiritual it comes from the internal, that is, from the Lord through the internal. The natural cannot possibly have any perception, nor even any life present within thought and affection, other than that which comes from the spiritual. For all things within the natural that are essentially its own are dead; but they receive life through what flows in from the spiritual world, that is, from the Lord by way Of the spiritual world. In the spiritual world everything receives life from the light flowing from the Lord, for that light holds wisdom and intelligence within. The meaning here - that the perception is gained from there, from the internal, in the natural - also follows from what has gone before in 5677.

3508. 'And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, to bring it [home]' means the effort of the affection for good to acquire the truth that was to be allied to the Divine Rational. This is clear from the representation of 'Esau' as the good of the natural, dealt with already, and therefore the affection for the good of the rational within the natural is meant, for the good that is within the natural does not belong to the natural but to the rational within the natural, see 3498; from the meaning of 'going to the field to hunt for venison, to bring it [home]' as the effort to acquire truth to itself, for 'the field' is where good ground exists, 3500, 'venison' truth acquired from good, 3501, 'to bring it [home]' to acquire it, and so to ally it to the Divine Rational.

[2] Here, as stated above, the subject in the highest sense is the glorification of the Lord's Natural, and in the representative sense the regeneration of the natural with man, 3490. It is according to order that this is effected by means of truth, that is, by means of cognitions of good and truth, for without these the natural cannot receive light from the rational, that is, by way of the rational, and so be regenerated. Cognitions are vessels for receiving good and truth entering in from the rational. The way in which the vessels receive and the amount they receive determine the nature of their enlightenment and how far they are enlightened. Vessels which receive good and truth from the rational are the truths themselves belonging to the natural, which are no more than facts, cognitions, and matters of doctrine. From the order according to which they flow in and from the order which exists among them there they become goods. This is the origin of the good of the natural.