7555. Verses 19-21 And now send, assemble your livestock and all that you have in the field; every man and beast that will be found in the field and will not be gathered home, ¹ the hail will come down on them and they will die. And he that feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh caused his servants and his livestock to flee to the houses. And he that did not take the word of Jehovah to heart left his servants and his livestock in the field.

'And now send, assemble your livestock' means that the truth of good should be gathered. 'And all that you have in the field' means what belongs to the Church. 'Every man and beast' means interior and exterior good. 'That is found in the field' means which belongs to the Church. 'And will not be gathered home' means which is not in safe keeping. 'The hail will come down on them and they will die' means that it will be completely destroyed by falsity. 'And he that feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh' means those things in the natural mind which were the Lord's. 'Caused his servants and his livestock to flee to the houses' means that they were stored away and placed in safe keeping interiorly. 'And he that did not take the word of Jehovah to heart' means the things which were not from the Lord. 'Left his servants and his livestock in the field' means that they were not stored away and placed in safekeeping.

V:

1738. 'And he gave him a tenth of everything' means remnants gained from victory. This is clear from the meaning of 'tenths' as remnants, dealt with already in 576. For what remnants are however, see 468, 530, 560, 561, 661, 1050, where it is shown that they are all the states of love and charity, and all the states of innocence and peace, with which a person is endowed. He is endowed with these states from earliest childhood, though that endowment gradually diminishes as he advances into adult life. But while a person is being regenerated he receives, in addition to those he has already, new remnants, and thus new life; for it is from, or by means of, remnants that a person is enabled to be human. In fact, if devoid of the state of love and charity, and if devoid of the state of innocence - states that instill themselves into all the other states of his life-a person is no longer human, but worse than any wild animal. It is remnants acquired during the conflicts brought about by temptations that are meant in the present verse. These remnants are what the tenths given to Melchizedek by Abram mean. They are also all the celestial things of love which the Lord gathered to Himself through the constant conflicts and victories by means of which He was constantly being united to the Divine Essence until the point was reached when His Human Essence as well had become Love, or the Being (Esse) of life, that is, Jehovah.