4378. 'And the flocks and herds with me are suckling' means goods, interior ones and natural ones, which have not yet acquired Divine life. This is clear from the meaning of 'flocks' as interior goods, dealt with in 2566, 3783; from the meaning of 'herds' as exterior or natural goods, in 2566, and in addition in 2180, 2781; and from the meaning of 'sucklings' as goods which also are recent, and are in this case spiritual ones that am being born within the natural.

[2] In the state of infancy that a person passes through when being regenerated spiritual things are present in potentiality, for spiritual life emerges, as if from an egg, out of each consecutive age. The phase of infancy is so to speak the egg for that of childhood; the phase of childhood is so to speak the egg for that of adolescence and youth; and this phase is as it were the egg for that of adult years. Thus the person is so to speak repeatedly experiencing birth. This shows what is implied by goods, interior ones and natural ones, which have not yet acquired Divine life, meant here by 'flocks and herds that are suckling'. See also what has been stated immediately above in 4377 about the state of infancy.

1565. That 'flocks and herds' are the possessions of the external man becomes clear from the meaning of 'flocks and herds' as goods, dealt with in 343, 415. Here however since it is said they belonged to Lot, who was being separated from Abram, they mean those things that were to be separated, thus things that were not good are meant. That 'flocks and herds' also means things that are not good becomes clear from the following places in the Word: In Zephaniah,

I will cause destruction in you, that you will be without inhabitant; and the region of the sea will be dwellings dug out [for shepherds] and folds for the flock. Zephaniah 2:5-6.

In Jeremiah,

I will disperse in you the shepherd and the flock, and I will disperse in you the farmer and his team. Jeremiah 51:23.

In the same prophet,

Go up to Arabia, and lay waste the sons of the east. Their tents and their flocks shall they take. Jeremiah 49:28-29.