7556. 'And now send, assemble your livestock' means that the truth of good should be gathered. This is clear from the meaning of 'assembling' as gathering; and from the meaning of 'livestock' as the good of truth, and also the truth of good, dealt with in 6016, 6045. What the truth of good and the good of truth are, see 2063, 3295, 3332, 3669, 3688, 3882, 4337, 4353, 4390, 5526, 5733. The subject in this and the next two verses is the goodness and truth which the Lord places in safe keeping even within the evil. For goodness and truth which have not been linked to evils and falsities are not laid waste but are stored away interiorly by the Lord and at a later time brought out for use. The goodness and truth placed in safe keeping within a person by the Lord are meant in the Word by 'the remnant', regarding which, see 468, 530, 560, 561, 576, 661, 798, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5342, 5344, 5897-5899, 6156.

5344. 'Which was round about it he laid up in the midst of it' means that what existed first in the exterior natural was stored away by it in the interior parts of the interior natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'round about' as things on the outside and so in the exterior natural; and from the meaning of 'the midst' as things on the inside, dealt with in 1074, 2940, 2973, and so in the interior natural. The reason 'in the midst of it (the city)' means in the interior parts of the interior natural is that 'a city' means the interior parts, 5297, 5342. The interior parts of the interior natural are those parts in it which are called spiritual ones, and the spiritual parts in it are those parts which belong to the light of heaven and are therefore able to shed light on the parts there which belong to the light of the world, which strictly speaking are called natural ones. It is in the spiritual parts of the interior natural that the truths linked to good have been stored away.

[2] Those spiritual parts there are what correspond to the angelic communities in the second heaven, and a person is in communication with this heaven through his remnants. This heaven is the one that is opened when a person is being regenerated, and it is the one that is shut when a person does not allow himself to be regenerated. For remnants - that is, truths and forms of good stored away in interior parts - are nothing else than correspondences with the communities belonging to that heaven.