5277. En er zullen opstaan zeven jaren des hongers na dezelve; dat dit de volgende staten betekent, wanneer er gebrek is aan het ware, staat vast uit de betekenis van de jaren, namelijk de staten, waarover de nrs. 482, 487, 488, 493, 893;

uit de betekenis van de honger, namelijk het gebrek aan erkentenissen, nrs. 1460, 3364;

en uit de betekenis van ‘na dezelve’, namelijk de volgende.

5462. 'And you, go, take corn for the famine of your houses' means that in the meantime they will be left in freedom to consider their own interests. This is clear from the meaning of 'you, go', after they had been held in bonds and one was then kept back in place of them, as their being left in freedom in the meantime; from the meaning of 'corn' as truth, dealt with in 5276, 5280, 5292; from the meaning of 'the famine' as an absence of cognitions and a desolation, dealt with in 5360, 5376; and from the meaning of 'your houses' as the dwelling-places where specifically truths of every kind reside, namely the natural mind. For 'a house' is the natural mind, see 4973, 5023, and the truths represented by 'the sons of Jacob' here, are those known to the external Church, and so are truths in the natural, 5401, 5415, 5428. From all these meanings taken together one may see that 'take corn for the famine of your houses' means so as to consider their own interests amid the desolation of truth in which they find themselves.