4804. There are very many communities in the next life which are called friendship-communities. They consist of those who during their lifetime preferred the delight of association with others to any other delight and who loved those with whom they associated, without any interest at all in whether these were good or evil people, provided they gave them delight. Thus they were not ones who befriended what was good and true. Those who have been like this during their lifetime remain the same in the next life; they attach themselves to one another solely because of their delight of association with others. Many such communities have been present with me, though kept at a distance, visible for the most part overhead, slightly to the right. I was made aware of their presence by a dull and sluggish feeling, and by a loss of my own feeling of delight; for the presence of communities such as these leads to this. Indeed when they arrive on the scene they remove others' feeling of delight, and what is remarkable they make it their own. For they turn away the spirits present with others and direct them towards themselves, thereby transferring another's delight to themselves. And because such communities are for this reason dangerous and harmful to those governed by good, the Lord therefore holds them back to prevent them going near heavenly communities. From this I was enabled to know how much harm friendship does to someone's spiritual life if he pays attention to the person but not to what is good. Anyone can indeed befriend another; but most of all he ought to befriend what is good.

9516. 'And their faces of a man towards his brother' means truth and good joined together. This is clear from the meaning of 'the face' as the interiors, at this point looking towards and being joined to, for when two are looking each towards the other they join themselves together on the level of interiors (interiors being meant by 'the face', 1999, 2434, 3527, 3573, 4066, 4796-4805, 5102, 5165, 5168, 5695, 9306); and from the meaning of 'man towards brother' as mutually, dealt with in 4725, so that truth joined to good is meant. For 'man' means truth, 3134, 3309, 3459, 4725, 7716, 9007, and 'brother' good, 367, 2360, 3303, 3803, 3815, 4121, 4191, 5409, 5686, 5692, 6756.

3309. 'And Esau was a man skilled in hunting' means the good of life that has its origin in sensory truths and factual truths. This is clear from the representation of 'Esau' as the good of life, dealt with above, and from the meaning of 'a man skilled in hunting' as those who have the affection for truth, dealt with in what follows - for 'a skilled man' has reference to the affection for truth, that is, to those who have that affection for truth, whereas 'hunting' means truths themselves, though truths which belong to the natural man and in which goods have their origin. Now because the truths of the natural man are called factual, 3293, and factual truths are primarily of two kinds or two degrees - sensory and factual proper - 'hunting' here means both of these. Sensory truths occur with children, factual with those same children when they are growing up, for factual truths cannot exist with anyone before he has received sensory truths because the ideas that make up factual truths are acquired from sensory truths. Then, from those factual truths, other truths even more interior can be learned and grasped, which are called matters of doctrine, meant by 'a man of the field', dealt with below in the next paragraph.

[2] The reason why 'hunting' means the sensory truths and factual truths that are taught to those in whom the good of life is present and who have the affection for those truths is that the word 'hunting' in a broad sense refers to creatures caught through hunting, such as rams, he-goats, she-goats, and the like, by which are meant spiritual goods, see 2180, 2830; and also because the weapons used in hunting, which were the quiver, the bow, and darts, mean matters of doctrine upholding what is true, 2685, 2686, 2709. These are the things meant by 'hunting', as may be seen from what Isaac his father told Esau, in Chapter 27 below,

Take now your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt venison for me, and make me savoury food such as I love. Genesis 27:3-4; and, in the same chapter, from what he told Jacob, who was posing as Esau,

Bring it to me that I may eat from my son's venison, so that my soul may bless you. Genesis 27:25.

These quotations show what 'hunting' or 'venison' means.

[3] Consequently 'hunting' is teaching [what is true] or else inducing a belief in what is false, and in both senses, that is to say, acting from an affection for truth or from an affection for falsity. Acting from an affection for truth is described in Jeremiah,

I will bring them back over their land which I gave to their fathers. Behold, I am sending to many fishermen, and they will fish them; and after that I will send to many hunters and they will hunt them from upon every mountain, and from upon every hill, and from the holes in the rocks. Jeremiah 16:15-16.

'Fishermen' stands for those whose teaching is drawn from sensory truths, 40, 991, 'hunters' those whose teaching is drawn from factual truths, and also from matters of doctrine. 'Upon every mountain, and upon every hill' stands for teaching people who are stirred by the affection for good and by the affection for truth - 'mountain' and 'hill' carrying such meanings, see 795, 796, 1430. 'Hunting in the field', as in Genesis 27:3, implies the same. Inducing others to believe what is false and doing so from the affection for falsity is described in Ezekiel,

Behold, I am against your little pillows with which you there hunt the souls to make them fly away, and I will tear them from on your arms, and I will let the souls go that you hunt, souls to fly away; and I will tear off your veils and deliver My people out of your hand, and they will be no more in your hand to be hunted. Ezekiel 13:18-21.

For the meaning of 'hunting' in this sense, see 1178, though nets are normally associated with this type of hunting.