9062. 'And if he strikes out the tooth of his male slave or the tooth of his female slave' means if it destroys truth or the affection for it on the level of the senses. This is clear from the meaning of 'tooth' as the outer part of the understanding, and therefore truth in the natural, dealt with above in 9052, at this point truth on the lowest level of the natural, that is, the level of the senses, since it is speaking about a male slave and a female slave; from the meaning of 'female slave' as an affection for that truth, also dealt with above, in 9059; and from the meaning of 'striking out' as destroying. What the sensory level is, and what it is like, see 4009, 5077, 5081, 5084, 5089, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5580, 5767, 5774, 6183, 6201, 6310, 6311, 6313, 6315, 6316, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6948, 6949, 7693.

5089. 'And they were in custody for days' means that they lay in a state when they were cast aside for a long time. This is clear from the meaning of 'days' as states, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850; so that 'for days' here means lying in a particular state for a long time - in a state when they were cast aside, meant by 'custody', 5083. A more lengthy explanation of the details contained in the internal sense here is not possible because they are not the kind of matters about which any idea can be gained with the help of things in the world, such as details about the celestial-of-the-spiritual man, about this man's state within the natural when the interior natural is being made new, and after that when it has been made new and the exterior natural has been cast aside. But some idea of these matters and others like them can be gained from things in heaven, which is the kind of idea that does not pass into any notion gained from things in the world, except in the case of people who, in their thinking, can be led away from sensory impressions.

[2] Unless a person's thought can be raised above sensory impressions so that these are beheld as existing so to speak beneath him, he cannot possibly discern any interior aspect of the Word, let alone things of heaven such as are totally removed from those of the world, since the senses take hold of them and stifle them. This explains why people who rely on their senses and have focused their attention on known facts rarely understand anything about the things of heaven; for they have immersed their thoughts in the kinds of things that belong to the world, that is, in terms and in definitions formed from these, and so in what the senses perceive, from which they can no longer be raised up and so preserved in a way of looking at things that is higher than the senses. Nor can their thought range freely any longer over the whole field of matters recorded in the memory, selecting those which agree and casting aside those which are contrary, and using those which are in any way appropriate. For their thought is locked up and immersed in terms, as has been stated, and consequently in sensory impressions, so that it cannot look round about. This is the reason why the learned possess less belief than the simple, and also indeed why they possess less discernment in heavenly matters. For the simple can view something from a position that is above mere terms and above known facts, and so above sensory evidence. This the learned cannot do; their viewpoint is based on terms and known facts because their mind is immersed in these. Thus they are bound so to speak in a dungeon or prison.

5580. 'Which they had brought from Egypt' means which had been obtained from factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'Egypt' as factual knowledge, dealt with in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, from this knowledge being meant by 'they had brought from there'. In the good sense 'Egypt' means the facts which the Church possesses, that is to say, which serve the Church in the outward form it takes, 4749, 4964, 4966. Facts of this kind, like the porch leading into a house, serve to introduce a person into the truths which the Church possesses.

[2] For the impression of those facts on a person's senses takes place first, and this opens the way into the more internal parts of the mind. Indeed it is well known that the area of external sensory perception is opened up first in a person, then that of the more internal sensory perceptions, and finally that where intellectual concepts reside; and that once the area where those concepts reside has been opened up, such concepts there are represented, to enable them to be understood, within those sensory impressions. The reason for this is that intellectual concepts spring up out of sensory impressions by a process of extraction from them; for intellectual concepts are deductions which, once they have been made, are separated from and rise far above sensory impressions. The presence of spiritual influences coming from the Lord by way of heaven is what accomplishes all this. From these things one may see what is implied by truths obtained from factual knowledge.