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.

'Land' in the Word, denotes the church, for the things which signify the church also signify the things relating to the church, for these constitute the church. The reason why 'land' denotes the church in the Word is because the land of Canaan was the land in which the church had been since the most ancient times. Hence, when 'land' is named in the Word, it means the land of Canaan, which then means the church. For when the expression 'the land' appears there, people in the spiritual world do not concern themselves with the idea of a land, only with the idea of the nation inhabiting it. And yet not with an idea of that nation but with an idea of the essential nature of it.

'Land' or 'earth,' as in Genesis 20:15, signifies the doctrine of love and charity.

'Land' signifies the celestial principle of love in Genesis 24:4.

In Genesis 26:12, 'land' signifies rational things.

In Genesis 28:13, this signifies the good of the natural.

The 'land' represents the divine of the rational principle in Genesis 30:25.

(Verweise: Arcana Coelestia 5577)