'Land' in the Word, denotes the church, for the things which signify the church also signify the things relating to the church, for these constitute the church. The reason why 'land' denotes the church in the Word is because the land of Canaan was the land in which the church had been since the most ancient times. Hence, when 'land' is named in the Word, it means the land of Canaan, which then means the church. For when the expression 'the land' appears there, people in the spiritual world do not concern themselves with the idea of a land, only with the idea of the nation inhabiting it. And yet not with an idea of that nation but with an idea of the essential nature of it.

'Land' or 'earth,' as in Genesis 20:15, signifies the doctrine of love and charity.

'Land' signifies the celestial principle of love in Genesis 24:4.

In Genesis 26:12, 'land' signifies rational things.

In Genesis 28:13, this signifies the good of the natural.

The 'land' represents the divine of the rational principle in Genesis 30:25.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 5577)

1330. That 'these are the generations of Shem' means the derivatives of the second Ancient Church is clear from the meaning of 'generations' as the origin and derivation of forms of doctrine and of worship, as stated already in 1145. Here and elsewhere in the Word 'generations' are nothing other than the things that constitute the Church, thus forms of doctrine and of worship. The internal sense of the Word encompasses nothing else. Consequently when any Church is born the generations of it are mentioned, as with the Most Ancient Church in Genesis 2:4, 'These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth'; and likewise with the other Churches that succeeded it before the Flood, 'This is the book of the generations', Genesis 5:1. The same is true of the Churches after the Flood which were three in number - the first called Noah, the second taking its name from Eber, the third from Jacob and subsequently from Judah and Israel. Verse 1 of the previous chapter, where the first Church is described, starts in similar fashion, 'These are the generations of the sons of Noah', as does the present verse in reference to this second Church taking its name from Eber, 'These are the generations of Shem', and in reference to the third as well, in verse 27 below, 'These are the generations of Terah'. Consequently 'generations' means nothing other than the origins and derivatives of forms of doctrine and of worship in the Church that is being described. The reason why the generations of this second Ancient Church are traced back to Shem, that is, why its beginning is described from Shem onwards, is that 'Shem' means internal worship, here the internal worship of this Church. Not that the nature of the internal worship of this Church was the same as that meant by 'Shem' in the previous chapter, but only that it is the internal worship of this Church.