7353. 'And they will rise up and come into your house, and into your bedchamber' means that they will fill the mind, all the way through to its more internal parts. This is clear from the meaning of 'house' as a person's mind, dealt with in 3538, 4973, 5023; and from the meaning of 'bedchamber' as the more internal parts of the mind. The reason why 'bedchamber' means the more internal parts of the mind is that it is a more internal part of the house. The more internal parts are meant by 'chambers', and those that are even more internal by 'bedchambers', in the following places: In Isaiah,

Go away, O people, enter your bedchambers, and shut your door behind you. Hide yourself, so to speak, for a little moment, until the anger passes over. Isaiah 26:20.

In Ezekiel,

He said to me, Have you not seen, son of man, what the elders of the house ¹ of Israel do in the dark, each in the chambers of his own idol? Ezekiel 8:12.

In Moses,

Outside the sword will bereave and out of the chambers terror. Deuteronomy 31:25.

In the second Book of Kings,

Elisha the prophet, who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bed chamber. 2 Kings 6:12.

The ancients compared a person's mind to a house, and the inward parts of a person to chambers. The human mind is indeed like a house, for the things it contains are virtually as distinct from one another as the chambers within a house. Those at the centre are the inmost parts of the mind, while those to the sides are the more external parts there. The ancients compared the latter to forecourts, and the parts which were outside but adjoining parts more internal they compared to porticos.

Mga talababa:

3761. 'Jacob lifted up his feet' means a raising up of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'lifting up' as a raising up, and from the meaning of 'the feet' as the natural, dealt with below. The raising up meant here is the subject of the chapter itself, namely a raising up from external truth towards internal good. In the highest sense the subject is how the Lord according to order raised His Natural even up to the Divine, rising up step by step from external truth towards internal good. In the representative sense it is how the Lord according to a similar order makes man's natural new when regenerating him. The fact that a person who is being regenerated in adult life progresses according to the order described in the internal sense of this chapter and of those that follow is known to few. This fact is known to few because few stop to reflect on the matter and also because few at the present day are able to be regenerated; for the last days of the Church have arrived when no charity exists any longer, nor consequently any faith. This being so, people do not even know what faith is, even though the assertion 'men is saved by faith' is on everyone's lips; and not knowing this they therefore have even less knowledge of what charity is. And since they know no more than the terms faith and charity and have no knowledge of what these are essentially, it has therefore been stated that few are able to reflect on the order in accordance with which a person is made new or regenerated, and also that few are able to be regenerated.

[2] Because the subject here is the natural, and the latter is represented by 'Jacob', it is not said that he rose up and went to the land of the sons of the east but that 'he lifted up his feet'. Both these expressions mean a raising up. As regards 'rising up' having this meaning, see 2401, 2785, 2912, 2927, 3171; and as regards the expression 'lifting up the feet' which occurs here, this is used in reference to the natural - 'the feet' meaning the natural, see 2162, 3147. 'The feet' means the natural or natural things because of their correspondence with the Grand Man - currently the subject at the ends of chapters. In the Grand Man those belonging to the province of the feet are those who dwell in natural light and little spiritual light. This also is why the parts beneath the foot - the sole and the heel - mean the lowest natural things, see 259, and why 'a shoe', which is also mentioned several times in the Word, means the bodily-natural, which is the lowest part of all, 1748.