Generally in the Bible a "country" means a political subdivision ruled by a king, or sometimes a tribe with a territory ruled by a king or chieftain. Others are what we now call city-states, with surrounding farm areas. In almost all cases these countries were far smaller than our modern idea of countries, though Egypt and Assyria would be exceptions. Sometimes the word is used to refer to countryside, a wide area with no consideration of boundaries as when the twelve Israelites were sent to spy out the country.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 3816 [3], 6818, 6820, 6821; Charity 83, 85; True Christian Religion 305)

6820. The community is the neighbour over the individual person because it consists of a group of people; therefore the same charity ought to be exercised towards it as towards the individual person, that is to say, in keeping with the kind of good that resides there. Thus it should be exercised towards a community of upright people in a way altogether different from that in which it should be towards a community of people who are not upright.