620. The symbolism of the land as the tribe of people mentioned earlier is established by places above that show the symbolism of the land (or earth) and the ground [§§268, 566].
Land is a term that surfaces repeatedly in the Word, where it means an area — such as the land of Canaan — in which the Lord's true church exists. It also means an area — such as the land of Egypt or another non-Jewish nation — in which the church does not exist. Accordingly it stands for the race of people living there; and since it stands for the race, it also stands for every member of the race there.
An expression such as the land of Canaan uses the term land for a heavenly love. The lands of non-Jewish nations are so called on account of foul loves. But ground is used in reference to faith, which is planted as a seed. As I showed [§566:2], the land means the area surrounding the ground and the ground means the area surrounding a field, just as love is what contains faith and faith is what contains the religious knowledge that is planted.
The use of land in the current verse implies a race or tribe in which every element of heavenly love and of the church died away. (How a term applies [in a given context] can be determined from the subject under discussion.)
