7502. 'behold, the hand of Jehovah will be on your livestock that are in the field' means the laying waste of the truth and good of faith which they had acquired from the Church to which they had belonged. This is clear from the meaning of 'the hand of Jehovah being on someone' as a plague or punishment, for 'hand' means power, 4931-4937, 6292, 6947, 7188, 7189, and 'the hand of Jehovah' almighty power, 878, 3387, and since those who are confined to the superficial things of the Church are led by appearances to believe that every plague or punishment comes from Jehovah (for they attribute all things to His power), 'the hand of Jehovah being on someone' means punishment, in this instance laying waste or vastation (for the stages In the vastation of those who molested were punishments); from the meaning of 'livestock' as forms of the truth and good of faith, dealt with in 6016, 6045, 6049; and from the meaning of 'the field' as the Church, dealt with in 2971, 3310. 'The field' is the Church because 'seed' which is cast onto the field means the truths of faith, and also because 'the products of the field', such as wheat, barley, spelt, and forms of the good of charity, and truths of faith, thus the kinds of things that belong to the Church.

[2] To understand why it is that hellish spirits who molest the upright in the next life undergo vastation in respect of the truths of faith taught by the Church, it should be recognized that those who molest the upright belonged to the Church. Those who have not belonged to the Church cannot molest others who do belong to it. They cannot do so because falsities, which are opposed to the truths of faith taught by the Church, are what spirits use when they molest, and those who have been outside the Church cannot molest anyone by means of such falsities because they have never come to know them. It is those who have claimed to be believers but have lead an evil life that turn to falsities in the next life and molest the upright with them, see 7097, 7127, 7317. Therefore to prevent the truth of faith which they had acquired from the teachings of their Church while they were living in the world from affording them any light at all from heaven (for they take with them into the next life everything they have come to know in the life of the body; nothing whatever is missing), and to prevent them from using things seen in the light of heaven to lend support to the falsities and evils belonging to hell, everything like that is taken away from them, and they are left finally with the evils forming their life and with the resulting falsities. This vastation is the subject at present.

[3] The reason why those who have belonged to the Church but led an evil life are devastated in stages in this way before they are cast into hell is that they had come to know the truths of faith, which put them in contact with heaven. The heavenly communities with whom they were in contact in the world, and with whom they are still in contact in the next life, cannot be separated from them except in stages. For in heaven such is the nature of order originating in the Lord that nothing is carried out in a violent manner. Everything people do they do in freedom, of their own accord so to speak. Therefore those communities are not wrenched away from them, but separated gradually, so that those people may seem to depart of their own free will and accord. From this one may now see what vastation is like for those who have known the truths of faith taught by the Church and yet have led an evil life.

[4] Without revelation no one can be aware of what such vastation is like; for without revelation people have no knowledge of things that take place in the next life. And since people show little concern to find out from the Word about the truths and forms of the good of faith, because they have no affection for truth for its own sake, let alone for life's sake, neither are such things revealed to them. Yet these things are discernible in the Word; indeed the whole sequence in which they occur and the course they take is presented in its internal sense. Since therefore people in the Church have no affection for knowing truth from the Word, only an affection - for worldly reasons - for substantiating the teachings of their Church, whether true or false, they know nothing whatever about the state after death, nothing about heaven, and nothing about hell. They do not even know what makes heaven or what makes hell with a person. In fact their ignorance is such that they teach and believe that anyone can be admitted into heaven, some believing that a person can be admitted by the power which they have arrogated to themselves, others by the Lord's mercy, irrespective of the life the person has been leading. Scarcely any know that heaven is given to people while they live in the world, through a life of charity and faith, and that this life is enduring. These matters have been stated in order that people may know what members of the Church are like who advocate faith alone but are unconcerned about the life of faith; for these are the ones who are represented by the Egyptians here and in what follows below.

6049. 'And you are to say, Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our boyhoods and right up to now' means that the truths which lead to good have been present from the beginning and are present still. This is clear from the meaning of 'keepers of livestock' as truths that lead to good, dealt with in 6016, 6045; and from the meaning of 'from our boyhoods and right up to now' as from the beginning and remaining so still. Regarding the meaning of 'livestock' as truths that lead to good, it should be recognized that livestock includes all draught animals, large and small - both those in the flock and those in the herd, and in addition camels, horses, mules, and asses. The latter mean things connected with truths, whereas the former - members of the herd and of the flock - mean things connected with good. This then is why all these draught-animals in general, which are 'livestock', mean truths that lead to good. In the original language 'livestock' is derived from a word which also means acquisition, and 'acquisition' in the spiritual sense also means truth that leads to good, for the reason that good is acquired by means of truth. But the smaller animals mean interior forms of good since they are members of the flock, such as lambs, sheep, kids, she-goats, and rams.

[2] 'Livestock' also means truths that lead to good in other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

Then He will give rain for your seed with which you will sow the land, and bread the produce [of the land]; and there will be fatness and wealthiness. On that day they will feed your livestock in a broad grassland. Isaiah 30:23.

'Feeding' stands for receiving instruction in truths and forms of good, 5201, while 'a broad grassland' stands for the doctrine of truth, the expression 'broad' being used because 'breadth' means truth, 3433, 3434, 4482. From this it is evident that 'livestock' means truths that lead to good. In Ezekiel,

To bring back your hand upon the inhabited waste places and upon the people that were gathered out of the nations, that are working with livestock and a possession - dwellers upon the navel of the earth. Ezekiel 38:11-12.

'Livestock' in a similar way stands for truths leading to good, 'a possession 'for good.