5216. 'Were sprouting after them' means appearing next to them. This is clear from the meaning of 'sprouting' here as appearing, and from the meaning of 'after them' as next to or at the boundary, which is the same meaning as that in the reference to the bad or thin cows coming up 'after them', that is, after the beautiful and fat ones, 5202. The reason 'after them' means next to them is that 'after' describes a subsequent point of time; and in the spiritual world, consequently in the spiritual sense, no notion of time exists, but instead of this the kind of state that corresponds to it.