Arcana Coelestia #7710
7710. 'Stretch out your hand towards heaven' means exercising the power of God's truth in heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'stretching out the hand' as an exercising of power, dealt with above in 7673; from the representation of Moses, the one who was told to 'stretch out his hand', as God's truth, dealt with in 6723, 6752, 7010, 7014, 7382; and from the meaning of 'heaven' as the angelic heaven. How it is that exercising the power of God's truth in heaven could bring about the new state among the molesting ones that is meant by 'thick darkness' is clear from what has been shown in 7643, 7679. There it has been shown that the Lord is continually rearranging heaven, and that He endows those in heaven, and newcomers, with celestial and spiritual good. This continual rearranging causes the vastation which the evil undergo in stages; for after rearrangement that good flows from a more immediate position towards the evil who are governed by the opposite of such good. (The inflow from God continues onwards right into what is opposed to it and in so doing keeps the hells bound and chained.) And since the evil turn all good into evil, they turn into greater evil the good that flows in from a more immediate position. The more they do so, the stronger is their resistance to what is good and true, that is, the fiercer is their molestation of it. So it is that the vastation they undergo proceeds in stages, till at length they are cast into hell, which is the final stage of it. From all this one may see that what emanates from the Lord is nothing but good, and that He does not lay waste the evil, still less cast them into hell, but that they themselves cause it to happen.
Arcana Coelestia #5544
5544. 'Give him into my hand' means insofar as it was in its power. This is clear from the meaning of 'hand' as power, dealt with in 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328. Correctly understood 'giving him into his hand' means entrusting him [Benjamin] to himself [Reuben]. But since faith in the understanding, represented by 'Reuben', possesses little power in which trust can be placed - for the truth of faith receives its power from the good of charity, 3563 - 'give him into my hand' therefore means insofar as it was in its power.