5742. They were gone out of the city, not yet far off. That this signifies the amount of removal, may be seen from what has gone before.

5680. And they said, There is peace to thy servant our father. That this signifies a noticing therefrom of the natural that it is well with the good from which it comes, is evident from the signification of “saying,” as being to perceive (see n. 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509); from the signification of “peace,” as being to be well (see n. 5662, 5677); and from the representation of Israel, as being spiritual good (of which just above, n. 5678). This good is called “father,” because from it as from a father are the truths and goods in the natural which are represented by his ten sons; and because the truths and goods in the natural are represented by them, the natural also is signified by them; for the natural is the containant, and the truths and goods therein are the contents, which make a one. From this it is plain that by their saying “there is peace to thy servant our father,” is signified a noticing therefrom of the natural that it is well with the good from which it comes. It is called a noticing therefrom, namely, from the internal, which is represented by Joseph (n. 5648), because all the perception of the natural comes from the spiritual, and because from the spiritual, it comes from the internal, that is, through the internal from the Lord. The natural never has any perception, nor even any life of thought and affection, except what comes from the spiritual; for in the natural all things are of themselves dead, but they are vivified by influx from the spiritual world, that is, through the spiritual world from the Lord. In the spiritual world all things live from the light which is from the Lord; for in this light is wisdom and intelligence. That here there is signified a noticing therefrom, or from the internal in the natural, follows also from what has been said above (n. 5677).