5536. Me have ye bereaved. That this signifies that thus the church was no more, is evident from the representation of Jacob, who says this of himself, as being the good of truth (see n. 3659, 3669, 3677, 3775, 4234, 4273, 4538); and because it is the good of truth, it is also the church, for good is the essential of the church; and therefore it is the same whether we say the good of truth, or the church, for with the man with whom is the good of truth, there is the church (that “Jacob” is the church may be seen above, n. 4286, 4520; and hence also that his sons represent the truths of the church, n. 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512); and from the signification of “bereaving,” as being to deprive the church of its truths and goods, as here of those which are represented by Joseph, Benjamin, and Simeon (of which in what follows).

[2] That “to bereave” denotes to deprive the church of its truths, is because the church is compared to a marriage, its good to the husband, and its truth to the wife, and the truths born of this marriage to sons, and the goods to daughters, and so on. When therefore “bereavement,” or “bereaving” is spoken of, it signifies that the church is deprived of its truths, and that thereby it becomes no church. In this sense the terms “bereavement,” or “bereaving,” are occasionally used elsewhere in the Word, as in Ezekiel:

I will send upon you famine and evil beast, and will make thee bereaved (Ezekiel 5:17).

And again:

When I make the evil beast to pass through the land, and it shall bereave it, so that it become a desolation, that no man may pass through because of the wild beast (Ezekiel 14:15).

In Leviticus:

I will send against you the wild beast of the field, which shall bereave you, and cut off your beast, and lessen you, that your ways shall be laid waste (Leviticus 26:22).

[3] In these passages “famine” denotes a lack of the knowledges of good and truth, and hence desolation; an “evil beast,” falsities from evils; the “land,” the church; “sending a famine and an evil beast to bereave the land” denotes to destroy the church by falsities from evils, thus to completely deprive it of truths.

In Jeremiah:

I will winnow them with a fan in the gates of the land, I will bereave, I will destroy My people (Jeremiah 15:7); where also “bereaving” denotes to deprive of truths. In the same:

Give their sons to the famine, and make them flow away by the hand of the sword; that their wives may become bereaved and widows (Jeremiah 18:21); where “their wives becoming bereaved and widows” denotes being without truths and good.

[4] In Hosea:

Of Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the belly, and from conception; because if they have brought up their sons, then will I make them bereaved of man (Hos. 9:11-12);

with a similar meaning.

In Ezekiel:

I will make man, My people, walk over you, who shall possess thee by inheritance, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more add to bereave them. Thus hath said the Lord Jehovih, Because they say to you, Thou art a consumer of man, and hast been a bereaver of thy peoples (Ezekiel 36:12-13); where also “bereaving” is to deprive of truths.

[5] In Isaiah:

Now hear this, O delicate one, sitting securely, saying in thine heart, I and none besides like me, I shall not sit a widow, neither shall I know bereavement; surely these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, bereavement and widowhood (Isaiah 47:8-9);

said of the daughter of Babylon and of Chaldea, that is, of those who are in a holy external and a profane internal, and by virtue of this holy external call themselves the church. “Bereavement and widowhood” denote the deprivation of good and truth. Again:

Lift up thine eyes round about, and see; all they gather themselves together, they come to thee. The sons of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is strait for me; go from me that I may dwell. But thou shalt say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I am bereaved and lonely, banished and far away? Who therefore hath brought up these? I was left alone; these, where were they? (Isaiah 49:18, 20-21);

said of Zion or the celestial church, and of its fruitfulness after vastation; the “sons of bereavement” denoting the truths of which she had been deprived in vastation, restored and vastly increased.

3373. And unto thy seed. That this signifies truth, is evident from the signification of “seed,” as being truth (see n. 29, 255, 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3310); thus it signifies the truth which is from the Lord’s Divine, which is “thy seed.” They who apprehend the Word only according to the sense of the letter cannot know but that “seed” denotes posterity, consequently here the posterity of Isaac from Esau and Jacob, and chiefly from Jacob, because the Word was in that nation and it contains so many historical facts concerning them. But in the internal sense by “seed” there is not meant any posterity from Isaac, but all those who are sons of the Lord, thus the sons of His kingdom, or what is the same, who are in good and truth from the Lord; and because these are “seed,” it follows that the very good and truth from the Lord are “seed,” for hence come the sons; wherefore also the very truths from the Lord are called the “sons of the kingdom,” in Matthew:

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the sons of the kingdom (Matthew 13:37-38);

hence also by “sons” in general are signified truths (n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623).

[2] Everyone who thinks somewhat more deeply or interiorly may know that in the Divine Word by the “seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,” so often mentioned, and concerning which it is so frequently said that it should be blessed, and this above all nations and people in the world, cannot be signified their posterity; for above all nations they were least of all in the good of love to the Lord and of charity toward the neighbor, and were not even in any truth of faith; for they were utterly ignorant of what the Lord is, what His kingdom, thus what heaven is, and what the life after death, both because they did not want to know, and because if they had learned about these things, they would at heart have totally denied them, and would thus have profaned interior goods and truths, just as they so frequently profaned exterior ones by becoming open idolaters; which is the reason why in the sense of the letter of the Word of the Old Testament any interior things so rarely stand forth to view. Being of this nature, the Lord has said concerning them, quoting Isaiah:

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them (John 12:40);

and again when they said:

We are Abraham’s seed; Abraham is our father; Jesus said unto them, If ye were Abraham’s sons, ye would do the works of Abraham; ye are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do (John 8:33, 39, 44);

by “Abraham” here is meant the Lord, as everywhere in the Word; and that the Jews were not his seed, or sons, but the seed of the devil, is plainly stated. All this shows very plainly that by the “seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” as mentioned in the historical and prophetical Word, are by no means meant their posterity-for the Word throughout is Divine-but all those who are the Lord’s “seed,” that is, who are in the good and truth of faith in Him. (That from the Lord alone comes heavenly seed, that is, all good and truth, may be seen above n. 1438, 1614, 2016, 2803, 2882-2883, 2891, 2892, 2904, 3195)