6507. 'And the Egyptians wept for him' means sadness on the part of the Church's factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'weeping' as the highest degree of sadness, and an action representing internal grief, dealt with in 3801, 4786; and from the representation of 'the Egyptians' as the Church's factual knowledge, dealt with in 4749, 4964, 4966. The sadness on the part of the Church's factual knowledge which is described by 'the Egyptians wept for Israel' does not mean sadness because of his death; that is the meaning in the literal sense. Rather the sadness meant here is sadness because the Church's good, represented by' Israel', had departed from the factual knowledge that forms the external level of the Church when it rose up from there to an internal level, the level of the good of truth. For it does not now see that knowledge present with itself, as it did before, but beneath itself. For when the truth of the spiritual Church becomes good, a reversal takes place, in that the person no longer sees truths from the point of view of truths but of good. This reversal has been discussed several times before. From this comes the sadness, which also arises from the fact that a different order is introduced at that time within the factual knowledge; and that is not accomplished without pain.