9150. 'And it is taken away by theft out of the man's house' means the loss of them from there. This is clear from the meaning of 'theft' as taking away the kinds of things that compose a person's spiritual life, and therefore taking away the truths and factual knowledge meant by 'silver and vessels', 9149; and from the meaning of 'house' as the place where something is stored. So it is that 'house' has various meanings, such as the Church, what is good there, also a person, as well as both levels of the human mind, the natural level and the rational; but at this point it means the memory, because truths and factual knowledge reside in it as in their own house. Regarding 'house' and its various meanings, see 3128, 3142, 3538, 3652, 3720, 3900, 4973, 4982, 5023, 5640, 6690, 7353, 7848, 7929.

2559. 'It happened, when God caused me to depart from my father's house' means when He left behind factual knowledge and the appearances that arise from this, together with their delights, meant here by 'father's house'. This is clear from the meaning of 'departing' as leaving behind, and from the meaning of 'house' as good, 2233, here the good that consists in the delight received from the appearances that go with factual knowledge and rational concepts, for all delight appears as good. The reason 'father's house' here means the delights received from factual knowledge and rational concepts, and therefore from the appearances that go with these, is that they are spoken of in reference to Abraham when he departed from his father's house, for at that time, together with his father's house, Abraham worshipped other gods; see 1356, 1992. This explains why the verb in the clause God caused me to depart is plural. This clause, as is also in keeping with the original language, could be rendered, the gods caused me to wander, but because the Lord is represented by Abraham it must be rendered, 'God caused me to depart'. Now it is because the factual knowledge that existed initially with the Lord, and also the rational concepts formed from that knowledge, were human - steeped as they were in what had been inherited from the mother - and so were not purely Divine, that they are represented by 'Abraham's' first state. But how far representations go, see 665, 1097 (end), 1361, 1992.