6564. Because they requited evil to thee. That this signifies because they had turned away from the good and truth which flow in, is evident from the signification of “evil,” as being a turning away (see n. 5746). That it denotes from the good and truth which flow in, is signified by “they requited to thee,” for “Joseph” is the celestial, and internal good (see n. 5805, 5826, 5827, 5869, 5877), through which good and truth flow in from the Lord. As regards the influx through the internal, the case is this. The Lord continually flows in through man’s internal with good and truth, good giving life and its heat, which is love, and truth giving enlightenment and its light, which is faith. But when this influx advances further, namely, into the exteriors, with the evil it is resisted and rejected, or is perverted or stifled; and then according to the rejection, perversion, or stifling, the interiors are closed, an entrance only remaining open here and there as through chinks round about; and from this there remains to the man the capacity to think and will, but against truth and good. This closing penetrates toward the exteriors more and more, according to the life of evil, and the consequent persuasion of falsity, and this down to the sensuous degree, from which then comes the thought. Pleasures and cravings then carry everything off. In such a state are those who are in the hells; for all considerations of what is honorable and good for the sake of gain, honor, and reputation, are taken away from the evil who come into the other life, and then they are in what is sensuous.

5877. And Joseph said unto his brethren. That this signifies that the internal celestial gave the faculty of perception to truths in the natural, is evident from the signification of “saying,” in the historicals of the Word, as being perception (see n. 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509, 5687, 5743), here to give the faculty of perception (of which in what follows); from the representation of Joseph, as being the internal celestial (of which just above, n. 5869); and from the representation of the ten sons of Jacob, who are here the “brethren,” as being truths in the natural (n. 5403, 5419, 5458, 5512). Thus the internal sense is that the internal celestial gave the faculty of perception to truths in the natural. By “saying” is here signified to give the faculty of perception, because in what now follows the subject treated of is the conjunction of the internal celestial, which is “Joseph,” with truths in the natural, which are the “sons of Jacob,” and when there is conjunction there is given the faculty of perceiving, namely, through the affection of truth, and thus of good.