387. And with death. That this signifies the consequent extinction of spiritual life, is plain from the signification of death, as denoting the extinction of spiritual life (concerning which see above, n. 78, 186). That this is here signified by death is plain from the series of things in the internal sense; for it is said that power was given unto them to kill with the sword, with famine, and with death: and by the sword is signified falsity destroying truth; by famine, the deprivation of the knowledges of truth and good; whence by death is signified the extinction of spiritual life, for where falsity reigns, and where there are no knowledges of truth and good, there is no spiritual life; for it is acquired by the knowledges of truth and good applied to the uses of life. For man is born into all evil and the falsity thence, therefore he is also born entirely ignorant of all spiritual knowledges; in order, therefore, that he may be led from the evils and the falsities thence, into which he is born, and be led into the life of heaven, and be saved, it is necessary that he should learn the knowledges of truth and good, by which he can be introduced [into spiritual life] and become spiritual. From this series of things in the internal sense it is evident, that by death is here signified the extinction of spiritual life; this also is signified by spiritual death.

5947. 'And bring your father, and come' means their service and their drawing nearer. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing their father' as service, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'coming' as drawing nearer, as above in 5941. What is implied by the service meant by 'bringing their father' is this: Lower things ought to serve more internal ones. Lower things are the truths known to the Church in the natural, which are represented by 'the sons of Jacob', whereas what is more internal is spiritual good, represented by 'Israel their father'; and since this good is more internal, or what amounts to the same, is higher, it ought to be served by those things that are more external or lower. For lower things are fashioned to be nothing other than servants. Indeed they are fashioned in such a way that what is more internal may live and act within them and by means of them, so much so in fact that if what is more internal is taken away from them they are nothing but vessels devoid of life and activity, and so are completely dead. It is like the relationship of the body to its spirit, in that when the spirit departs from it the body immediately drops down dead. It is in addition like the relationship of the external man to the internal, and like that of the internal man to the Lord. The internal man has been fashioned to receive life from the Lord and is nothing else than an organ for the Lord's life. Consequently it has been fashioned to be of service to the Lord, for every useful purpose that love to Him and charity towards the neighbour demand, first in the natural world and after that in the spiritual world.