4374. Verses 12-16. And he said, Let us journey, and go, and I will go close by thee. And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and that the flocks and the herds are suckling with me, and if they drive them on in one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord I pray pass over before his servant, and I will proceed slowly to the foot of the work that is before me, and to the foot of the children, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. And Esau said, Let me set I pray with thee of the people that are with me. And he said, Wherefore is this? Let me find grace in the eyes of my lord. And Esau returned in that day unto his way, unto Seir. "And he said, Let us journey, and go," signifies what is successive; "and I will go close by thee," signifies that they are to be conjoined; "and he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender," signifies truths which have not yet acquired Divine life; "and that the flocks and the herds are suckling with me," signifies goods both interior and natural which have not as yet acquired Divine life; "and if they drive them on in one day, all the flocks will die," signifies delay and what is successive, and that otherwise they would not live, thus that they are to be prepared for conjunction; "Let my lord I pray pass over before his servant," signifies a more general presence; "and I will proceed slowly," signifies a successive state of preparation; "to the foot of the work that is before me," signifies according to generals; "and to the foot of the children," signifies according to the truths therein; "until I come unto my lord unto Seir," signifies until they could be conjoined; "Seir" denotes the conjunction in the natural of spiritual things with celestial; "and Esau said, Let me set I pray with thee of the people that are with me," signifies that some things from the truth of good should be conjoined; "and he said, Wherefore is this? Let me find grace in the eyes of my lord;" signifies enlightenment from presence more interiorly; "and Esau returned in that day unto his way, unto Seir," signifies the state then of Divine good natural to which the goods of truth were adjoined; "way" denotes the good of truth relatively.
