6305. 'And I give you one portion above your brothers' means that the truth belonging to the understanding and the good belonging to the will were to have more there. This is clear from the representation of Ephraim and Manasseh - who are meant here by Joseph, as they are above in 6275 - as the truth belonging to the understanding and the good belonging to the will, dealt with many times before; and from the meaning of 'giving one portion above their brothers' as having more there, that is to say, in the Church, meant by 'the land', 6304. The reason why the good belonging to the will and the truth belonging to the understanding were to have more there is that these two are the essential constituents of the Church. This also explains why the birthright passed to Joseph's sons, 1 Chronicles 5:1.

4499. 'Each took his sword' means falsity and evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sword' as truth engaged in conflict and consequently the defence of truth, and in the contrary sense falsity engaged in conflict, and consequently the vastation of truth, dealt with in 2799. The reason why 'a sword' at this point also means evil is that Levi was implicated, who represented charity, and so good. When good is turned into evil it uses falsity from evil to fight with, in which case anything it does is evil.