5741. And the men were sent away, they and their asses. That this signifies that the external natural man was removed somewhat with its truths and memory-knowledges, is evident from the representation of Jacob’s sons, who are here the “men,” as being the truths of the church in the natural (see n. 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512), and therefore the external natural man (n. 5680); from the signification of “asses,” as being memory-knowledges (n. 5492); and from the signification of “sent away, and not far off,” as being that it-the external natural man-was removed somewhat. From this it is plain that by “the men were sent away, they and their asses, not far off,” is signified the external natural man, removed somewhat with its truths and memory-knowledges, namely, from the internal celestial which is represented by Joseph.

[2] As regards the signification of “asses,” be it known that they signified one thing when they were used for riding, and another when they served for carrying burdens; for judges, kings, and their sons rode upon he-asses, she-asses, and also upon mules, and these then signified rational, and also natural, truth and good (n. 2781); for which reason when the Lord as Judge and King entered Jerusalem, He rode upon an ass with a colt; for this was the mark of judgeship, and also of royalty. But when asses served for carrying burdens, as here, then they signified memory-knowledges. Nor is the case different with these knowledges. One who in thinking of man’s interior things advances no further than to the knowledges that are of the memory, supposes that everything of man consists in these knowledges, not being aware that memory-knowledges are the lowest things in man, and such as for the most part are put away when the body dies (n. 2475-2480); but the things that are in them, namely truth and good together with their affections, remain; and also with the evil there remain falsity and evil together with their affections; memory-knowledges being as it were the body of these. So long as a man lives in the world, he has truth and good, or falsity and evil, in the memory-knowledges, for these are what contain them; and because memory-knowledges contain, and therefore as it were carry, interior things, they are signified by the asses which serve for carrying burdens.

5648. Because they were brought to Joseph’s house. That this signifies because the truths that belong to the natural were to be adjoined and subjected to the internal, is evident from the signification of “being brought to Joseph’s house,” as being to be conjoined and subjected to the internal; for by Joseph is represented the internal, because he represents truth from the Divine, or the celestial of the spiritual (see n. 5307, 5331, 5332, 5417, 5469); and by a “house” is signified man’s internal as well as his external (n. 3128, 3538, 4973, 5023), here the internal, as it is called “Joseph’s house;” and by “being brought” (namely, to the internal) is signified to be adjoined, and therefore to be subjected. The reason is that when the natural is adjoined to the internal, it is then subjected to it; for the command which had before belonged to the natural man, then becomes the spiritual man’s; of which command, of the Lord’s Divine mercy more will be said in the following pages.

[2] A few words must here be added in regard to the internal sense. The internal sense of the Word is especially for those who are in the other life. When those who are there are with a man who is reading the Word, they perceive it according to the internal sense, and not according to the external; for they understand no human words, but only the sense of the words, and this not according to the man’s natural thoughts, but according to their thoughts which are spiritual. Into this spiritual sense the natural sense that is with the man is at once transmuted, just as one turns the language of another into his own which is different, doing it in an instant. So is the sense of natural human thought turned into spiritual, for spiritual language or speech is proper to the angels, and natural language or speech to men. That there is so sudden a change of as it were one language into the other, is because there is a correspondence of each and all things in the natural world with those in the spiritual world.

[3] Now as the internal sense of the Word is chiefly for those who are in the spiritual world, therefore such things are here mentioned in the internal sense as are for them, and as are pleasant and delightful to them. Yet the more interior such things are, the more remote are they from the apprehension of men to whom only those things which are of the world and the body are pleasant and delightful; and when this is the case, they hold in contempt the spiritual things that belong to the internal sense, and also loathe them. Let everyone explore within himself whether the things contained in the internal sense of the verses that now follow are worthless and distasteful to him, when yet they are what the angelic societies take the greatest delight in. From this it may be plain to one who reflects what a difference there is between the delights of men and the delights of angels, and also in what things the angels vest wisdom, and in what men vest it—that the angels vest wisdom in such things as man thinks worthless and holds in aversion, and that man vests wisdom in such things as the angels care nothing about, and many in such things as the angels reject and shun.