5820. 'Return, buy us a little food' means that the good of truth should be made their own. This is clear from the meaning of 'buying' as making one's own, dealt with in 5397, 5406, 5410, 5426; and from the meaning of 'food' as the good of truth, dealt with in 5410, 5426, 5487, 5582, 5588, 5655. In general spiritual food includes all good, but specifically it is good acquired by means of truth, that is, truth existing in will and action. For by virtue of being willed and acted out that truth becomes good and is called the good of truth. Unless truth becomes good in this manner it is of no use whatever to a person in the next life; for when he enters that life it goes away from him because it does not fit in with what he wills or consequently with what he loves and takes delight in. In the world a person may have learned the truths of faith not so that he may will them and act them out, and in so doing may make them forms of good, but merely so that he may know and teach them with a view to acquiring position and gain. Even though as a result of this he may be reputed in the world to be very learned, those truths are taken away from him in the next life, and he is left with what he really wills, that is, with the life really his own. What he had been like so far as that life was concerned he continues to be; and, surprising though it may be, he turns away from all the truths of faith and refuses to accept them, no matter how firmly he had embraced them previously. The conversion of truths therefore into forms of good through willing them and acting them out, that is, through living according to them, is what making the good of truth their own implies, meant by 'buy us a little food'.

5406. 'Go down there, and buy for us from there' means making them its own through that knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'going down' as an expression used to describe movement towards things that are more external, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'buying' as making one's own, dealt with in 4397, 5374. The accomplishment of this through that knowledge, factual knowledge, is meant by 'from there', that is to say, from Egypt; for 'Egypt' means factual knowledge, as shown above. Various places in the Word contain the expression to go up or to go down when a movement from one place to another is described. The reason for this usage is not that one place was higher than another but that going up describes a movement towards things that are more internal or superior, while going down describes a movement towards things that are more external or inferior. That is, 'going up' refers to movement towards things that are spiritual and heavenly since these are more internal and are believed to be superior, whereas 'going down' refers to a movement towards natural and earthly things as these are more external and also to outward appearance inferior. This explains why not only here but also everywhere else in the Word one is said to go down from the land of Canaan to Egypt and to come up from Egypt to the land of Canaan. 'The land of Canaan' means that which is heavenly, and 'Egypt' that which is natural; for in the representative sense the land of Canaan is the heavenly kingdom, and consequently celestial and spiritual forms of good and truth, which also reside more internally in a person who is the Lord's kingdom, whereas 'Egypt' in the representative sense is the natural kingdom, and consequently the forms of good and truth which belong to the external Church and exist for the most part as factual knowledge. For the use of 'going up' to describe a movement towards things that are more internal, see 4539.