3797. 'And the flock of Laban his mother's brother' means the Church and doctrine from that origin. This is clear from the meaning of 'the flock' as the Church and doctrine, dealt with in 3767, 3768, 3783. The reason why Laban is also called 'his mother's brother' here is that this phrase again means acknowledgement of the origin, as in the previous paragraph.

62. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA

Love is the esse of man's life (n. 5002). Man, spirit, and angel, are altogether as their love is (n. 6872, 10177, 10284). Man has for an end what he loves (n. 3796). What man loves and has for an end reigns universally with him, that is, in each and all things (n. 3796, 5130, 5949). Love is spiritual heat, and the very vital principle of man (n. 1589, 2146, 3338, 4906, 7081-7086, 9954, 10740). All the interiors with man, which are of his understanding and will, are disposed in a form according to his ruling love (n. 2023, 3189, 6690). Love is spiritual conjunction (n. 1594, 2057, 3939, 4018, 5807, 6195-6196, 7081-7086, 7501, 10130). Hence all in the spiritual world are consociated according to their loves (ibid.). Affection is continuation of love (n. 3938). All delight, pleasure, happiness, and joy of heart, are of love; and their quality is according to the quality of the love (n. 994-995, 2204). There are as many genera and species of delights and pleasures as there are of the affections which are of the love (n. 994-995, 2204). The delight of the love is more vile in proportion as it is more external (n. 996). Man after death has such a life as is the quality of his love (n. 2363).

5820. 'Return, buy us a little food' means that the good of truth should be made their own. This is clear from the meaning of 'buying' as making one's own, dealt with in 5397, 5406, 5410, 5426; and from the meaning of 'food' as the good of truth, dealt with in 5410, 5426, 5487, 5582, 5588, 5655. In general spiritual food includes all good, but specifically it is good acquired by means of truth, that is, truth existing in will and action. For by virtue of being willed and acted out that truth becomes good and is called the good of truth. Unless truth becomes good in this manner it is of no use whatever to a person in the next life; for when he enters that life it goes away from him because it does not fit in with what he wills or consequently with what he loves and takes delight in. In the world a person may have learned the truths of faith not so that he may will them and act them out, and in so doing may make them forms of good, but merely so that he may know and teach them with a view to acquiring position and gain. Even though as a result of this he may be reputed in the world to be very learned, those truths are taken away from him in the next life, and he is left with what he really wills, that is, with the life really his own. What he had been like so far as that life was concerned he continues to be; and, surprising though it may be, he turns away from all the truths of faith and refuses to accept them, no matter how firmly he had embraced them previously. The conversion of truths therefore into forms of good through willing them and acting them out, that is, through living according to them, is what making the good of truth their own implies, meant by 'buy us a little food'.