2698. 'And strengthen your hand in him' means support received from this. This is clear from the meaning of 'being strengthened' as being given support, and from the meaning of 'hand' as power, dealt with in 878, which is the source of support. 'In him', that is, in the boy, means from it, that is to say, from the spiritual as regards truth. Those who experience internal grief and experience despair because truth is taken away from them are uplifted and supported solely by truth, for it is for that same truth that they suffer grief and despair. In the case of those governed by an affection for good, the good with them desires good, as a person hungers for bread; but in the case of those governed by an affection for truth the good with them desires truth as a person thirsts for water. What 'strengthening your hand in him' means here will not be understood by anyone except from the internal sense.

41. Anything that is man's own has no life in it; and when depicted visually it looks like something hard as a bone and black. But anything that comes from the Lord does contain life. It has that which is spiritual and celestial within it, and when depicted visually it looks human and alive. It is perhaps incredible, but nevertheless absolutely true, that every expression, every idea, and every least thought of an angelic spirit is alive. In even the most detailed areas of his thought there is an affection that comes from the Lord, who is life itself. Consequently all that derives from the Lord has life within it, for it contains faith in Him, and is here meant by 'a living creature'. It then has the outward appearance of a body, meant here by that which is moving, or creeping. To man these matters remain arcana, but since the subject here is the living and moving creature, they ought at least to be mentioned here.