6236. 'They are mine' means that they are within me. This is clear from the representation of 'Jacob', who says this regarding himself, as the truth of the natural, dealt with below; and from the representation of Manasseh and Ephraim, to whom he is referring, as the Church's will and the Church's understanding within the natural, dealt with in 5354, 6222. The reason 'they are mine' means within me is that in representing the truth of the natural 'Jacob' also represents the natural in relation to truth, and within the natural there exist an understanding part and a will part, which are represented by 'Ephraim and Manasseh'. And as they exist in the natural 'they are mine' therefore means within me.

[2] 'Jacob' represents the natural - in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Natural, see 3305, 3509, 3525, 3576, 4009, 4538, 4570, 6098, and in the relative sense truth in the natural, thus also the natural in relation to truth, 3509, 3525, 3546. And since 'Jacob' in general is truth in the natural, his ten sons are the Church's truths there in particular, 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5511; and so now are Joseph's sons too. 'Pharaoh' likewise represents the natural, though not as regards truths but as regards factual knowledge, which is of a lower order than truths but is that into which they can be introduced and instilled, represented by the coming of Jacob and his sons to Egypt.

5458. 'And Joseph said to them on the third day' means the perception of the celestial of the spiritual regarding those truths separated from itself, when completion is reached. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perception, dealt with in 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2619, 3509; from the representation of 'the sons of Jacob' as the truths known to the Church in general, dealt with already, here those truths when separated from the celestial of the spiritual, 5436; from the representation of 'Joseph' as the celestial of the spiritual, also dealt with already; and from the meaning of 'on the third day' as the last phase when another state begins, dealt with in 5159, 5457, and so when completion is reached. From all this it is evident that 'Joseph said to them on the third day' means the perception of the celestial of the spiritual regarding those truths separated from itself, when completion is reached.