624. It is clear that a state which is not a state of the Church is the subject here from the fact that in this verse and those that follow in chapter the name God is used, whereas in previous verses it was Jehovah. When the Church does not exist the name God is used, but when it does exist, it is Jehovah; for example in Genesis 1, when the Church did not exist, He was called God, but in the next chapter when it did, He was called Jehovah God. 'Jehovah' is the holiest of names, and belongs to the Church alone. Not so 'God', for no nation was without gods. Consequently the same holiness was not attached to the name God. Nobody was allowed to utter the name Jehovah except him who had knowledge of the true faith; but anyone was allowed to utter the name God.

6277. 'The God feeding me' means that same Divine bestowing life on the good of spiritual truth from the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'feeding' as bestowing life on ('feeding' or 'pasturing' is instructing, see 6044, and 'pasture' is that which sustains a person's spiritual life, 6078. But 'feeding' and 'pasture' dealt with in those paragraphs have reference to a flock, whereas 'feeding' here is used in reference to Jacob, to his being sustained with food and the necessities of life, by which much the same is meant in the internal sense since what sustains and revitalizes bodily life means in the internal sense that which sustains spiritual life and revitalizes it); and from the representation of Israel, [to whom 'me' refers here,] as spiritual good from the natural, dealt with in 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833. And as this good represented by 'Israel' is the good of truth, the expression 'the good of spiritual truth' is used here. In the genuine sense 'Israel' is the spiritual Church; and the good associated with that Church is the good of truth. For truth is used to teach its members what good is; and when they act in accordance with the truth they have been taught, that truth is called good. Such good is what is called the good of truth and is represented by 'Israel' .