7556. 'And now send, assemble your livestock' means that the truth of good should be gathered. This is clear from the meaning of 'assembling' as gathering; and from the meaning of 'livestock' as the good of truth, and also the truth of good, dealt with in 6016, 6045. What the truth of good and the good of truth are, see 2063, 3295, 3332, 3669, 3688, 3882, 4337, 4353, 4390, 5526, 5733. The subject in this and the next two verses is the goodness and truth which the Lord places in safe keeping even within the evil. For goodness and truth which have not been linked to evils and falsities are not laid waste but are stored away interiorly by the Lord and at a later time brought out for use. The goodness and truth placed in safe keeping within a person by the Lord are meant in the Word by 'the remnant', regarding which, see 468, 530, 560, 561, 576, 661, 798, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5342, 5344, 5897-5899, 6156.

6156. 'That you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh' means that remnants are to be assigned to the general whole, which is under the control of the internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'five' or 'a fifth' as remnants, dealt with in 5291, 5894; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the general whole within the natural, as above in 6153, the expression 'under the control of the internal' being used for the reason dealt with above in 6145. For what remnants are, see 1050, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5897, 5898, where it is shown that they are goods and truths stored away by the Lord in the interior man. They are brought out into the exterior or natural man when a person is in a state of goodness; but they are withdrawn and stored away again the moment he passes into a state of evil. They are withdrawn and stored away again to prevent them from being mixed up with evils and thereby destroyed.

[2] During the time that a person is unable to be regenerated his remnants are held in safe keeping within him interiorly; but when he is being regenerated they are brought from his interiors - as many as are appropriate to the stage reached in his regeneration - into his exteriors, for the reason that through regeneration his interiors become joined to his exteriors and act in unison with them. Those remnants are assigned first to general wholes, then gradually to specific parts. From this one may see, since the subject here in the internal sense is the regeneration of the natural, what is meant by the assignment of those remnants to the general whole in the natural.