Plants in the Bible, according to Swedenborg, generally represent facts, knowledge that can be gleaned from the world. Plants that can serve animals as food represent facts that have the potential to be put to use, ones that can lead to something good. A pasture, then, is an area that offers a great deal of this sort of useful, life-building knowledge, and the deeper insight that comes when knowledge is organized around the idea of being good — which Swedenborg would call “the truth of good.”
“Pasture” is often used a verb in the Bible as well; to pasture animals means teaching people facts and leading them toward truth that can help them do what is good in life.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6078
6078. ‘For there is no pasture for the flock which belongs to your servants’ means that factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth is wanting. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pasture for the flock’ as factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth, so that ‘no pasture’ means factual knowledge that does not hold any forms of the good of truth. In the internal sense ‘pasture’ is that which supports spiritual life; in particular it is truth contained in factual knowledge, for the human soul desires such truth just as the body desires food. Nourishment is derived from it, and for that reason ‘feeding’ means receiving instruction, 5201.
Arcana Coelestia 6413
[4] In Jeremiah,
There has gone out from the daughter of Zion all her majesty; her princes have become like harts, they have not found pasture. Lam. 1:6.
‘The daughter of Zion’ stands for the affection for good, the affection the celestial Church has, 2362. ‘Princes stands for the first and foremost truths of that Church, 1482, 2089, 5044, which truths are compared to ‘harts’, by which affections for natural truth are meant. And by harts that ‘have not found pasture’ are meant natural affections devoid of truths and forms of good that go with them, ‘pasture’ being truth and the good of truth that sustain a person’s spiritual life, see 6078, 6277.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4671
4671. ‘Was pasturing the flock with his brothers’ means its presence among those governed by faith who were teachers. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pasturing the flock’ as teaching those within the Church, in particular from matters of doctrine. For one who pasturesthe flock, or a shepherd, means one who teaches, see 343, 3772, 3795. In this case the meaning is presence among those who taught, because the words ‘pasturing the flock with his brothers’ are used – Joseph’s brothers in this chapter representing the Church which turned aside from charity to faith, and at length to faith separated from charity and so to falsities, as will be evident in what follows below.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3787
3787. ‘Water the flock, and go and pasture them’ means instruction from these was nevertheless to be given to a few. This is clear from the meaning of ‘watering the flock’ as giving instruction from the Word, dealt with in 3772, and from the meaning of ‘go and pasturethem’ as resulting life and teaching – ‘going’ meaning life, see 3335, 3690, and ‘pasturing’ teaching, 343, and in what is said below. The arcanum that lies hidden within is that there are a few people who do nevertheless reach a state that is complete, dealt with in 2636, and so are able to be regenerated.
Arcana Coelestia 5201
[3] In the same prophet,
I have given You as a covenant of the people – to restore the land; to share out the devastated inheritances; to say to the bound, Go out; to those who are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They will feed along the ways, and on all slopes will their pasture be. Isa. 49:8, 9.
This refers to the Lord’s Coming. ‘Feeding along the ways’ stands for receiving instruction in truths, ‘the ways’ being truths, 627, 2333. ‘Pasture’ stands for the actual instruction. In Jeremiah,
Woe to the shepherds destroying and scattering the flock of Mypasture! Therefore said Jehovah God of Israel against the shepherds feeding My people….. Jer. 23:1, 2.
‘The shepherds’ stands for those who give instruction, and ‘the flock’ for those who receive it, 347, 3795, so that ‘feeding’ means giving instruction.