4715. And he sent him out of the valley of Hebron. That this signifies from the natural and sensuous Divine, is evident from the signification of “to be sent,” as being to proceed and to teach (see n. 4710); and from the signification of a “valley” as being those things which are below (n. 1723, 3417); and from the signification of “Hebron” as being the Lord’s church as to good (n. 2909). Thus by these words is signified that it taught the lower things of the church, and this because they did not comprehend higher things. For he who teaches faith, and not charity, is unable to notice the higher or interior things of the church; because he has nothing to guide him, and to dictate whether this or that is of faith, or is true. But if he teaches charity, he then has good, and this is to him a dictate and guides him; for all truth is from good and treats of good, or what is the same, everything of faith is from charity and treats of charity. Everyone, from mere natural light, can know that everything of doctrine has regard to life.

[2] That by these words is signified from the natural and sensuous Divine, is the higher sense; for the lower things of the church are said to be from the Lord’s natural and sensuous Divine; not that in the Lord these things are lower, because in the Lord and in His Divine Human all is infinite, inasmuch as He is Jehovah as to each essence (n. 2156, 2329, 2921, 3023), but because it is so in man. For those who are sensuous men apprehend sensuously the things which are in the Lord and from Him, and those who are natural apprehend them naturally. It is so said because of the quality of those who receive. But those who are celestial men, and thence truly rational, perceive interior things, and it is said of them that they are taught from the Lord’s rational Divine. This as before said is the higher sense signified by the words.

[3] That a “valley” is the lower things of the church, is evident from other passages in the Word, as in Isaiah:

The prophecy of the valley of vision. What hast thou here, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? It is a day of tumult, and of treading down, and of perplexity, to the Lord Jehovih Zebaoth, in the valley of vision (Isaiah 22:1, 5).

The “valley of vision” denotes phantasies concerning spiritual things from sensuous, thus from lower things. Again:

The choice of thy valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen placing placed themselves at the gate (Isaiah 22:7).

The “choice of the valleys” denotes good and true things in the natural or external man. Again:

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make level in the solitude a pathway for our God; every valley shall be exalted (Isaiah 40:3-4);

a “valley” denotes low things.

[4] In Jeremiah:

How sayest thou, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baalim? See thy way in the valley, acknowledge what thou hast done (Jeremiah 2:23); where “valley” denotes things of the memory and of the senses, which are lower things by which they perverted truths. Again:

I am against thee O inhabitress of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith Jehovah; who say, Who will come down against us? (Jeremiah 21:13).

The “inhabitress of the valley and rock of the plain” denote faith in which there is no charity. Again:

The waster shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape; but the valley shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed (Jeremiah 48:8);

with a similar meaning. Again:

Thou shalt not glory in the valleys; thy valley hath flowed away, O perverse daughter (Jeremiah 49:4);

“valley” denotes external things in worship, which are also the lowest.

[5] In Ezekiel:

I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of them that pass through, and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude; whence they shall call it, The valley of the multitude of Gog (Ezekiel 39:11, 15);

“Gog” denotes those who are in external worship without internal (n. 1151), whence his burial place is called “the valley of them that pass through,” and “the valley of the multitude of Gog.”

In David:

Yea, when I walk through the valley of shadow I will fear no evil (Psalms 23:4); where the “valley of shadow” denotes lower things, which are relatively in shade.

[6] As valleys were between mountains and hills, and below them, therefore by “valleys” are signified the lower or exterior things of the church, because by hills and mountains are signified its higher or interior things, by “hills” things which are of charity, and by “mountains” those which are of love to the the Lord, (n. 795, 1430, 2722, 4210); and as by the land of Canaan is signified the Lord’s kingdom and His church, therefore it is called “a land of mountains and valleys, that drinketh water of the rain of heaven” (Deuteronomy 11:11). That Joseph is here said to have been sent out of the valley of Hebron is because the mission was to those who taught concerning faith (see n. 4705); for those who are in faith, and not in charity, are in lower things; because with them faith is only in the memory and thence in the mouth, but not in the heart and thence in the work.