Arcana Coelestia #5344
5344. 'Which was round about it he laid up in the midst of it' means that what existed first in the exterior natural was stored away by it in the interior parts of the interior natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'round about' as things on the outside and so in the exterior natural; and from the meaning of 'the midst' as things on the inside, dealt with in 1074, 2940, 2973, and so in the interior natural. The reason 'in the midst of it (the city)' means in the interior parts of the interior natural is that 'a city' means the interior parts, 5297, 5342. The interior parts of the interior natural are those parts in it which are called spiritual ones, and the spiritual parts in it are those parts which belong to the light of heaven and are therefore able to shed light on the parts there which belong to the light of the world, which strictly speaking are called natural ones. It is in the spiritual parts of the interior natural that the truths linked to good have been stored away.
[2] Those spiritual parts there are what correspond to the angelic communities in the second heaven, and a person is in communication with this heaven through his remnants. This heaven is the one that is opened when a person is being regenerated, and it is the one that is shut when a person does not allow himself to be regenerated. For remnants - that is, truths and forms of good stored away in interior parts - are nothing else than correspondences with the communities belonging to that heaven.
Genesis 23
1
Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years. This was the length of Sarah's life.
2
Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
3
Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke to the children of Heth, saying,
4
"I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight."
5
The children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,
6
"Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb. Bury your dead."
7
Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.
8
He talked with them, saying, "If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar,
9
that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me among you for a possession of a burying-place."
10
Now Ephron was sitting in the middle of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,
11
"No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead."
12
Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land.
13
He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, "But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there."
14
Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,
15
"My lord, listen to me. What is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Therefore bury your dead."
16
Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current merchants' standard.
17
So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded
18
to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.
19
After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan.
20
The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the children of Heth.
