5031. 'And it happened' means a new state. This is clear from the meaning of 'it happened' or 'so it was' as that which implies something new or a new state, dealt with in 4979, 4987, 4999, in this case the state of spiritual natural good, represented by 'Joseph' after the outermost covering of truth has been removed from it, and so after it has ceased to be joined any longer to unspiritual natural truth and good.

4987. 'And it happened after these events' means a third state. This is clear from the meaning of 'it happened' or 'so it was' as that which implies something new, as above in 4979, and therefore at this point a third state; and from the meaning of 'after these events' as after those things were completed. In the original language one line of thought is not separated from another by punctuation marks, ¹ as in other languages, but the text seems to run so to speak from start to finish without any breaks in it. Ideas in the internal sense follow one another in a similar way without breaks, moving on from one state of a thing into another state of it. But when one state comes to an end and another major one takes its place, this is indicated by the expression 'so it was' or 'it happened', while a minor change of state is indicated by the word 'and'. This is the reason why these expressions occur so frequently. This third state described now is more internal than the previous one.

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