5038. 'A place where the king's bound ones were bound' means the state of those governed by falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'a place' as a state, dealt with in 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882; and from the meaning of 'the king's bound ones' as those who are governed by falsities and who, being governed by falsities, undergo vastation, and those who, while being regenerated in the world, undergo temptation. For temptation involves the laying waste of falsity and at the same time the consolidation of truth. The expression 'the king's bound ones' is used because 'a king' in the internal sense means truth, 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4789, 4966, and therefore 'his bound ones' means those governed by falsity. The places where the king's bound ones were kept were also called 'pits', which was why Joseph said, in verse 15 of the next chapter,

By theft I have been taken out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have not done anything for which they should have put me in the pit.

As regards 'a pit' meaning a place of vastation, see 4728, 4744.