5316. 'See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt' means dominion over both parts of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'setting someone over' as dominion, and from the meaning of 'all the land of Egypt' as both parts of the natural, dealt with above in 5276. Described at greater length here is the dominion which Pharaoh transferred to Joseph over the land of Egypt. That is to say, Pharaoh divested himself of his own authority and placed the whole of Egypt under Joseph. These events happened by Divine Providence so that Joseph might come to represent the celestial of the spiritual which was the Lord's when He was in the world - the celestial of the spiritual being that by means of which the Lord exercised control over His natural and also His sensory awareness, so that step by step He could make both of these Divine. The end in view with what happened to Joseph was this: When that part of the Word in which Joseph was the subject came to be written it was to contain Divine matters, thus such matters as are most sacred in heaven and suited to the angels in heaven. For the angels there abide in the Lord because they live within the sphere of Divine Truth that goes forth from the Lord. Therefore the Divine matters in the internal sense of the Word which have to do with the Lord and the glorification of His Human stir so much affection in them that they feel all the blessedness that belongs to their wisdom and intelligence.

5276. 'A great abundance of corn in all the land of Egypt' means the multiplication of truth in both parts of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'an abundance of corn' as a multiplication of truth, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as both parts of the natural. For knowledge is meant by 'Egypt', see 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 4749, 4964, 4966; and since knowledge is meant by that land, so also is the natural meant by it, for the reason that as the expression 'factual knowledge' is used to describe what is stored in the natural, 'the land of Egypt' therefore means the natural mind in which factual knowledge is stored. This being so, 'all the land of Egypt' means both parts of the natural - the interior natural and the exterior natural, regarding which, see 5118, 5126. The reason 'an abundance of corn' means a multiplication of truth is that the expression describes the opposite of 'famine', by which an absence of truth is meant. The word used in the original language to express an abundance of corn - an antonym to 'famine' - means in the internal sense a vast wealth and sufficiency of religious knowledge; for 'famine' means an absence of it. Religious knowledge consists in nothing else than the truths present in a person's natural man which have not yet been made his own by him. The multiplication of such truths is what is meant here. Religious knowledge does not come to be truths residing with a person until that knowledge finds acceptance in his understanding, which happens when he firmly embraces it; and what are then truths residing with him are not made his own until he lives in conformity with them. For nothing is made a person's own other than that which is made part of his life; thus because those truths form his life, his true self is invested in them.