3255. 'He was gathered to his peoples' means that these things involving Abraham [were completed]. This is clear from the meaning of 'being gathered to his peoples' as his ceasing to be the subject any longer. In fact being gathered to his peoples means taking leave of those among whom he had been until then, passing over to his own, and so here ceasing to represent. Among the ancients it was customary when somebody was dying to speak of his being gathered to his fathers or to his peoples. By this they meant that he was in the process of going to his parents, blood relatives, and relatives by marriage in the next life. This saying had come down to them from the most ancient people who were celestial, for while they were living on earth they were simultaneously present with angels in heaven and so knew all about this. That is to say, they knew that all who are governed by the same good meet and remain together in the next life, as do all who are governed by the same truth. They spoke of the former as being 'gathered to their fathers', but of the latter as being 'gathered to their peoples'; for with them 'fathers' meant goods, 2803, and 'peoples' truths, 1259, 1260. Furthermore because a like good was present in those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church they now live together in heaven, 1115; and so too do many of those live together who belonged to the Ancient Church and in whom a like truth dwelt, 1125, 1127.

[2] What is more, while he lives in the body a person's soul is always present in some community of spirits in the next life, 1277, 2379 - one who is evil in a community of hellish spirits, one who is good in a community of angels. Accordingly, everyone is present in a community consisting of the kind of people with whom he agrees so far as good and truth, or evil and falsity, are concerned. And into that same community a person comes when he dies, 687. These are the things that were meant among the ancients by their being gathered to their fathers, or gathered to their peoples, as is said here of Abraham when he breathed his last, and of Ishmael in verse 17 of this same chapter, of Isaac in Genesis 35:29, of Jacob in Genesis 49:29, 33, of Aaron in Numbers 20:24, 26, of Moses in Numbers 27:13; 31:2; Deuteronomy 32:50, and of the first generation which entered the land of Canaan, Judges 2:10. But in the internal sense of the Word when the subject has to do with anyone's life being representative, 'being gathered to his peoples', as stated above, in that case means that he ceases to be dealt with any longer.

1854. 'You will be buried at a good old age' means the enjoyment of all goods by those who are the Lord's. This is clear from the fact that people who die and are buried do not die but pass over from an obscure life into one that is bright. For death of the body is but a continuation and also a perfecting of life, when those who are the Lord's enter for the first time into the enjoyment of all goods. That enjoyment is meant by 'a good old age'. The expressions 'they died', 'were buried', and 'were gathered to their fathers' occur quite often, but they do not carry the same meaning in the internal sense as in the sense of the letter. In the internal sense it is the things which belong to life after death, and which are eternal, that are meant, whereas in the sense of the letter it is those which belong to life in the world and which are temporal.

[2] Consequently, when such expressions occur, those who see into the internal sense, as angels do, have no thoughts of such things as have to do with death and burial but with such as have to do with the continuation of life; for they look upon death as nothing else than a casting off of the things which belong to merely earthly matter and to time, and as the continuing of life proper. Indeed they do not know what death is, for death does not enter into any of their thinking. It is the same with people's ages. By the phrase used here, 'at a good old age', angels have no perception at all of old age; indeed they do not know what old age is, for they themselves are constantly moving towards the life of youth and early manhood. It is life such as this, consequently the celestial and spiritual things belonging to it, that are meant when the expression 'a good old age' and others like it occur in the Word.