4719. 'And he said, I am looking for my brothers; tell me now, where they are pasturing [the flock]' means knowledge of what the situation was and what their state was - in line with the meaning of these words in the proximate sense, which is, What the situation was with those teaching from faith, and his knowledge of their state. For 'brothers' means those who teach from faith, 4712; 'looking for (or seeing) their peace' means what the situation was with them, 4712, 4713; 'where' means the state, for in the internal sense everything denoting place means state, 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321; and 'those pasturing [the flock]' means those who teach, 343, 3767, 3768, 3772, 3783.

2837. 'Jehovah will see' means the Lord's Providence. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing', when it has reference to Jehovah or the Lord, as foreseeing and providing, dealt with in 2807 - for Jehovah is the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2156, 2329. In the literal sense this phrase is a place-name, but in the internal sense it is the character of the state under description that is meant. For periods of time and measurements of space belong solely to the natural order, and therefore when the sense of the letter of the Word passes over from the natural order into heaven the natural idea of those things perishes completely and becomes the spiritual idea which corresponds to them.