6340. 'And hear Israel your father' means a foretelling regarding them made by spiritual good, in the highest sense the Lord's foresight. This is clear from the meaning of 'hearing' - hearing what will happen at the end of days - as a foretelling; and from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good, as in 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833. And since a foretelling is meant in the internal sense by 'hearing what will happen at the end of days', the Lord's foresight is meant in the highest sense; for the Lord's foresight is the source of every foretelling that is made. When it says that the sons of Jacob should hear Israel, the meaning is that those who belong to the Church should hear the Lord, that is, hear Him in the Word. They should hear what He teaches there about the truths of faith and forms of the good of love, and what He foretells about those in possession of some truth or form of good meant by one or another son of Jacob. They should hear for example what He teaches and foretells about people with whom faith exists separated from charity, who are meant here by Reuben, Simeon, and Levi; about those with whom celestial good is present, who are meant by Judah; about those with whom spiritual good is present, who are meant by 'Joseph'; and so also about those with whom whatever is meant by the rest of Jacob's sons is present.

5817. 'And so it was, when we went up to your servant my father' means a raising up to spiritual good. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up' as a raising up, dealt with below; and from the representation of Israel, to whom 'father' refers here, as spiritual good from the natural, dealt with in 4286, 4598. A raising up of the kind meant here by 'going up is a movement towards more internal things; here it is a raising up from the truths in the natural, which are represented by 'Jacob's ten sons', to spiritual good from the natural, represented by 'Israel'. For there is an exterior natural and there is an interior natural, 5497, 5649. The interior natural holds spiritual good, which is 'Israel', while the exterior natural holds the truths known to the Church, which are 'Jacob's sons', and therefore 'going up to their father' means a raising up of these to spiritual good.