5109. Verses 9-13 And the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, and behold, a vine before me. And on the vine three shoots, and it was as though budding; its blossom came up, and its clusters ripened into grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and put the cup onto Pharaoh's palm. And Joseph said to him, This is the interpretation of it: The three shoots are three days. In yet three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and will restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup into his hand, according to the former manner when you were his cupbearer.

'And the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph' means that the celestial of the spiritual discerned what the outcome would be for the sensory impressions subject to the understanding part of the mind, which until then had been cast aside. 'And said to him' means revelation resulting from perception. 'In my dream' means a foretelling. 'And behold, a vine before me' means the understanding part. 'And on the vine three shoots' means derivatives from this even to the final one. 'And it was as though budding' means an influx that allows rebirth to be effected. 'Its blossom came up' means the state next to regeneration. 'And its clusters ripened into grapes' means spiritual truth when joined to celestial good. 'And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand' means an influx of the interior natural into the exterior natural, and the beginning of reception. 'And I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup' means a reciprocal influx into good deeds that have a spiritual origin. 'And put the cup onto Pharaoh's palm' means that the interior natural made these its own. 'And Joseph said to him, This is the interpretation of it' means revelation resulting from perception received from the celestial within the natural as to what it held within it. 'The three shoots are three days' means continuous derivatives even to the final one. 'In yet three days' means that at that point a new state is arrived at. 'Pharaoh will lift up your head' means that which has been provided and therefore decided. 'And will restore you to your position' means that the impressions received through the senses subject to the understanding part were restored to order, to occupy the lowest position. 'And you will put Pharaoh's cup into his hand' means in order that they might consequently serve the interior natural. 'According to the former manner' means in keeping with the law of order. 'When you were his cupbearer' means as is the normal position for sensory impressions of this kind.

4963. 'And Joseph' means the celestial of the spiritual from the rational. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the celestial-spiritual man that comes from the rational, dealt with in 4286. Here therefore, since the Lord is the subject, the Lord's Internal Man is represented by him. Everyone born a human being is external and internal. His external man is that which is seen with the eyes; it is that which enables him to live in association with other people and enables him to carry out what belongs properly to the natural world. But the internal man is one that is not seen with the eyes; it is what enables a person to live in association with spirits and angels and to carry through what belongs properly to the spiritual world. Everyone has an internal and an external, that is, the internal man and the external man exist, to the end that through man heaven may be joined to the world. For heaven flows by way of the internal man into the external and from that influx gains a perception of what exists in the world, while the external man in the world gains from the same influx a perception of what exists in heaven. It is to this end that the human being has been created the way he has.

[2] The Lord's Human too had an External and an Internal because it pleased Him to be born like any other human being. The External, or His External Man, has been represented by 'Jacob' and after that by 'Israel', but His Internal Man is represented by 'Joseph'. The latter - the Internal Man - is what is called the celestial-spiritual man from the rational; or what amounts to the same, the Lord's Internal, which was the Human, was the celestial of the spiritual from the rational. This, and the glorification of it, are dealt with in the internal sense of the present chapter and those that follow it in which Joseph is the subject. What the celestial of the spiritual from the rational is has been explained already in 4286, 4585, 4592, 4594, namely that which comes above the celestial of the spiritual from the natural, represented by 'Israel'.

[3] The Lord was indeed born like any other human being. But it is well known that everyone who is born depends for his make-up on both his father and his mother; also that he derives his inmost self from his father, but his more external aspects, or those which clothe his inmost self, from his mother. That is to say, both what he derives from his father and what he derives from his mother are defiled with hereditary evil. But in the Lord's case it was different. That which He derived from His mother possessed a hereditary nature essentially the same as that existing in any other human being; but what He derived from His Father, who was Jehovah, was Divine. Consequently the Lord's Internal Man was unlike the internal of any other human being, for His Inmost Self was Jehovah. Being intermediate this is therefore called the celestial of the spiritual from the rational. But in the Lord's Divine mercy more will be said about this later on.