1606. Genesis 13:15. "Because all the land that you see — to you I will give it, and to your seed forever."

Because all the land that you see — to you I will give it symbolizes the kingdom of heaven and the fact that it would be the Lord's. And to your seed forever symbolizes the people who would believe in him.

620. The symbolism of the land as the tribe of people mentioned earlier is established by places above that show the symbolism of the land (or earth) and the ground [§§268, 566].

Land is a term that surfaces repeatedly in the Word, where it means an area — such as the land of Canaan — in which the Lord's true church exists. It also means an area — such as the land of Egypt or another non-Jewish nation — in which the church does not exist. Accordingly it stands for the race of people living there; and since it stands for the race, it also stands for every member of the race there.

An expression such as the land of Canaan uses the term land for a heavenly love. The lands of non-Jewish nations are so called on account of foul loves. But ground is used in reference to faith, which is planted as a seed. As I showed [§566:2], the land means the area surrounding the ground and the ground means the area surrounding a field, just as love is what contains faith and faith is what contains the religious knowledge that is planted.

The use of land in the current verse implies a race or tribe in which every element of heavenly love and of the church died away. (How a term applies [in a given context] can be determined from the subject under discussion.)