6078. 'For there is no pasture for the flock which belongs to your servants' means that factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth is wanting. This is clear from the meaning of 'pasture for the flock' as factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth, so that 'no pasture' means factual knowledge that does not hold any forms of the good of truth. In the internal sense 'pasture' is that which supports spiritual life; in particular it is truth contained in factual knowledge, for the human soul desires such truth just as the body desires food. Nourishment is derived from it, and for that reason 'feeding' means receiving instruction, 5201. That factual knowledge and truths sustain the human soul is quite evident from a person's desire for knowledge, as well as from the correspondence of food with factual knowledge, 1480, 3114, 4792, 5147, 5193, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5579, 5915. This correspondence also manifests itself when a person is eating food. If he eats it while talking and listening the vessels that receive the chyle are opened, and he is nourished more fully than if he is alone. Spiritual truths and instruction in them would have the same kind of effect on people if they were to have an affection for what is good. The fact that truths nourish spiritual life is revealed primarily among good spirits and among angels in heaven. Those spirits and angels have a constant desire to acquire knowledge and wisdom; and when they lack this spiritual food they feel desolate, listless, and famished. Nor are they refreshed and raised into the bliss of their life until their desires are satisfied. But if that factual knowledge is to yield the soul wholesome nourishment, that knowledge must contain life received from forms of the good of truth. If it does not contain life received from them factual knowledge still sustains a person's inner life, but his natural life, not his spiritual life.

[2] The meaning of 'pasture' in the internal sense as that which sustains a person's spiritual life is also evident from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

I have given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land; to say to the bound, Go out, to those who are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They will feed along the ways, and on all slopes will their pasture be. Isaiah 49:8-9.

'Feeding along the ways' stands for receiving instruction in truths, 'the ways' being truths, see 627, 2333, and 'feeding' receiving instruction, 5201. 'On all slopes will their pasture be' stands for being sustained with good, for 'slopes', like 'mountains' are forms of the good of love, 795, 796, 1430, 2722, 4210.

[3] In Jeremiah,

Woe to the shepherds destroying and scattering the flock of My pasture. Jeremiah 23:1.

'Pasture' stands for the kinds of things that sustain spiritual life. In the same prophet,

The princes of Zion have become like deer, they have not found pasture. Lamentations 1:6.

'They have not found pasture' stands for no truth of good.

[4] In Ezekiel,

I, even I will look for My sheep. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their fold will be on the mountains of the loftiness of Israel; there ¹ they will lie down in a good fold, and on fat pasture they will feed upon the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 34:11, 14.

'A good and fat pasture upon the mountains of Israel' stands for forms of the good of truth. In the same prophet,

Is it a small thing to you? You feed off the good pasture but tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures. Ezekiel 34:18.

Here the meaning is similar. In Hosea,

I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. When [they had] their pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted. Hosea 13:5-6.

In Joel,

The beasts groan, the herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture, even the flocks of sheep ² are made desolate. Joel 1:18.

In David,

Jehovah is my Shepherd; He will make me lie down in green pasture; ³ He will lead me away to still waters; He will restore My soul. Psalms 23:1-3.

In the same author,

Jehovah made us and not we ourselves, His people and the flock of His pasture; therefore we are His, His people, and the flock of His pasture. ⁴ Psalms 100:3.

[5] 'Pasture' in these quotations stands for the truths in which a person receives instruction, here the kinds of things which have regard to spiritual life. For the nature of spiritual life is such that if it lacks that pasture it languishes and so to speak fades away, like the body when it lacks food. The fact that 'pasture' is the goodness and truth that refresh and sustain a person's soul or spirit is plain from the Lord's words in John,

I am the door. If anyone enters through Me he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:9.

'Pasture' stands for the forms of good and the truths which those people have who acknowledge the Lord and seek life from Him alone.

脚注:

5212. 'And behold, seven heads of grain were coming up on one stalk' means facts known to the natural, which facts existed linked together. This is clear from the meaning of 'heads' or 'tips' as facts known to the natural, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'on one stalk' as existing linked together, for all present on one stalk are linked together by their common origin. The reason facts are meant by 'heads' or 'tips' is that 'grain' means the good of the natural, 3580; for facts are the containers of natural good, just as heads are of grain. In general all truths are vessels for containing good; and so too are facts since these are truths of the lowest order. Truths of the lowest order, that is, the truths belonging to the exterior natural, are called known facts because they reside in a person's natural or external memory. They are also called such because for the most part they are dependent on the light of the world and can for that reason be presented and represented to others by the use of words, that is, by the use of ideas put into words that draw on things such as belong to the world and the light of the world. The contents of the interior memory however are not called facts but truths since these are dependent on the light of heaven. Without the aid of that light they are unintelligible, and without the use of words, that is, of ideas put into words that draw on things such as belong to heaven and the light of heaven they are inexpressible. The facts meant here by 'heads' or 'tips' are ones that are known to the Church, regarding which see 4749, 4844, 4964, 4965.

[2] The reason there were two dreams, one about seven cows, the other about seven heads of grain, was that in the internal sense both parts of the natural are dealt with, the interior natural and the exterior natural, the rebirth of the two being the subject in what follows. By 'the seven cows' are meant things in the interior natural which have been called the truths belonging to the natural, 5198; by 'the seven heads of grain' are meant the truths in the exterior natural, which are called facts.

[3] Interior facts and exterior ones are meant by 'the tips of the river Euphrates even to the river of Egypt' in Isaiah,

So it will be on that day, that Jehovah will smite from the tip of the river even to the river of Egypt, and you will be gathered one to another, O children of Israel. So it will be on that day, that a great trumpet will be blown, and they will come - those who are perishing in the land of Asshur, and those who are outcasts in the land of Egypt - and they will bow themselves down to Jehovah on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem. Isaiah 27:12-13.

'Those perishing in the land of Asshur' stands for interior truths, and 'the outcasts in the land of Egypt' for exterior truths, which are facts.

[4] Comparison with the blade, the tip or the ear, and the full grain also implies the rebirth of a person by means of factual knowledge, the truths of faith, and the good deeds of charity, in Mark,

Jesus said, The kingdom of God is like when someone casts seed onto the land. Then he sleeps and rises, by night and by day, but the seed sprouts and grows, he himself knowing not how; for the earth bears fruit of its own accord, first the blade, then the ear, after that the full grain in the ear. Once the fruit has been brought forth, he will immediately put in the sickle, because the harvest is established. Mark 4:26-29.

'The kingdom of God', which is compared to the blade, the ear, and the full grain, is heaven existing with a person through regeneration; for one who has been regenerated has the kingdom of God within him and he becomes an image of the kingdom of God, that is, of heaven. 'The blade' is factual knowledge, which comes first; 'the ear' is knowledge of what is true that develops out of that; and 'the full grain' is the good that develops out of this. In addition the laws laid down regarding gleanings, Leviticus 19:9; 23:22; regarding the freedom to pluck the ears on a companion's standing grain, Deuteronomy 23:25; and also regarding the non-eating of bread or of dried ears or of green ones before they had brought a gift to God, Leviticus 23:14, represented such things as are meant by 'ears'.