1362. That Terah was the son of Nahor, and also a nation named from him as its father, and that by him is signified idolatrous worship, has been shown before. That Terah was a nation, may be seen from the fact that the nations which originated from his sons acknowledged him as their father, just as the sons of Jacob, or the Jews and Israelites, and also the Ishmaelites, Midianites, and others, acknowledged Abraham; and the Moabites and Ammonites acknowledged Lot. Although these nations were not named from them, but from their sons, yet when all acknowledge a common father and call themselves his sons-as the sons of Terah, the sons of Abraham, or the sons of Lot-in a general sense a nation is signified by each one of these, as here by Terah, by Abram, by Nahor, and by Lot; for they are the stocks or roots of the nations. So with the descendants of Jacob, who were all named from his twelve sons, and yet were called Jacob and Israel, as also the seed and the sons of Abraham (John 8:33, 39).

7996. No son of an alien shall eat of it. That this signifies that those who are not in truth and good are to be separated from them, is evident from the signification of “an alien,” as being those out of the church who do not acknowledge anything of the truth and good of faith, as was the case with the nations in the land of Canaan (see n. 2049, 2115), thus who are not in truth and good; and from the signification of “not eating of it,” as being to communicate and be conjoined with them, thus to be separated from them. In what now follows those are treated of who should eat the passover together, and those who should not. The supper of the passover represented the consociations of the good in heaven; and in the statutes which follow, it is declared who could be consociated and who could not. In general, feasts, both dinners and suppers, in ancient times were made within the church in order that they might be consociated and conjoined as to love, and that they might instruct one another in those things which are of love and faith, thus in the things of heaven (see n. 3596, 3832, 5161). Such at that time were the delights attending their banquets, and such was the end for the sake of which were their dinners and suppers. Thus the mind and the body also were nourished unanimously and correspondently; and from this they had health and long life, and from it they had intelligence and wisdom; and also from this they had communication with heaven, and some had open communication with angels. But as in course of time all internal things vanish away and pass into external ones, so also did the purposes of the feasts and banquets, which at this day are not for the sake of any spiritual conjunction, but for the sake of worldly conjunctions, namely, for the sake of gain, for the sake of the pursuit of honors, and for the sake of pleasures, from which there is nourishment of the body, but none of the mind.