5594. Verses 6-10 And Israel said, Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had still [another] brother? And they said, The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our generation, saying, Is your father still alive? Have you a brother? And we told him according to the tenora of these words. Could we possibly have known that he would say, Cause your brother to come down? And Judah said to Israel his father, Send the boy with me, and we will rise up and go, and we will live and not die - even we, even you, even our young children. I myself will be surety for him; from my hand you will require him. If I do not bring him to you and set him before you, then I shall be sinning against you every day. For if perhaps we had not delayed we would by now have returned these two times.b
'And Israel said' means a perception received from spiritual good. 'Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had still [another] brother?' means that they separated the truth of good from spiritual good, so as to join it to the spiritual from the internal. 'And they said, The man questioned us closely about ourselves' means the clear perception this had regarding what existed within the natural. 'And our generation' means regarding the truths of faith there. 'Saying, Is your father still alive?' means and regarding spiritual good from which those truths sprang. 'Have you a brother?' means regarding interior truth. 'And we told him according to the tenor of these words' means its accordant discernment of these matters. 'Could we possibly have known that he would say, Cause your brother to come down?' means that we did not believe that he would want the truth of good to be joined to him. 'And Judah said to Israel his father' means a perception received from the good of the Church regarding these matters. 'Send the boy with me' means so that he would be attached to him. 'And we will rise up and go, and we will live and not die' means spiritual life entered into by degrees. 'Even we' means the external aspect of the Church. 'Even you' means the internal aspect of it. 'Even our young children' means aspects even more internal. 'And I will be surety for him' means that in the meantime [the truth of good] will be attached to it [the good of the Church]. 'From my hand you will require him' means that [the truth of good] will not be snatched away, insofar as it lies within its power to prevent it. 'If I do not bring him to you and set him before you' means the complete restoration of it to the Church. 'Then I shall be sinning against you every day' means that the good of the Church will not exist any longer. 'For if perhaps we had not delayed' means lingering in a state of indecision. 'We would by now have returned these two times' means that spiritual life, exterior and interior, [would have been restored].
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