5551. 'In sorrow to the grave' means without hope of a restoration to life. This is clear from the meaning of 'sorrow' here as without hope, for sorrow comes when no hope exists any longer; and from the meaning of 'the grave' as resurrection and regeneration, dealt with in 2916, 2917, 3256, 4621, and so a restoration - a restoration of the Church - to life. For if neither the internal represented by 'Joseph' is present within the Church, nor the intermediary represented by 'Benjamin', nor faith in the will, which is charity, represented by 'Simeon', no hope of its restoration to life exists any longer.

[2] It does indeed seem strange that 'the grave' means a restoration to life; but that strangeness is due to man's idea about the grave. He makes no distinction between the grave and death, nor even between the grave and the corpse lying in it. But angels in heaven cannot have any such idea about the grave; theirs is an entirely different one from man's, namely the idea of resurrection and restoration to life. For when a person's corpse is committed to the grave he himself is raised into the next life. When thinking about the grave therefore the angels have no idea of death, only of life and consequently of a restoration to life.

3256. 'And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him' means that the representation of the Lord was now taken over by Isaac and Ishmael. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'burying', namely being raised up and rising again, as shown in 2916, 2917. The subject being that state where the representation of the Lord portrayed by means of Abraham came to an end, and the representation portrayed by Isaac and Ishmael now begins, 'burying' therefore means here the rise of that state. Phrases that carry a spiritual meaning depend for their exact meaning on the things to which they refer. With regard to representatives in the Word, they are continuous even though they seem to be broken off by the deaths of those who have played representative roles. Their deaths however do not mean any breaking off but a continuation, and therefore even their burial means that the representation was raised up again and continued in someone else.