3709. 'In you will all the families of the ground be blessed' means that all truths taught by doctrine which look to good will be joined to good. This is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed' as being joined together, dealt with in 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565, 3584, from the meaning of 'families' as goods and also truths which look to good, dealt with in 1159, 1261, and from the meaning of 'the ground' as that which is the Church's, consequently the doctrine of good and truth within the natural or external man, which 'Jacob' represents here, dealt with in 268, 566, ago, 3671. From this it is evident that 'in you will all the families of the ground be blessed' means that all truths taught by doctrine which look to good will be joined to good. Truths taught by doctrine which look to good are matters of doctrine concerning love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, which are said to be joined to good within the natural man when satisfaction and delight exists in knowing those things with the intention of acting upon them.

1304. That 'let us build ourselves a city and a tower' means that they fabricated a form of doctrine and of worship becomes clear from the meaning of 'a city' and from the meaning of 'a tower', dealt with in the paragraphs that follow this. The Church is such that when charity towards the neighbour departs and self-love takes its place, the doctrine of faith is of no account at all except insofar as it can be converted into worship of self. Nor do people consider that worship contains anything holy unless it exists for the sake of self, thus unless it is worship of self. This applies to all self-love. In fact a person who loves himself more than others not only hates everybody who is not subservient to him and shows no favour to them except when they have become subservient, but also, to the extent that he is not prevented, he plunges even into exalting himself above God. The fact that self-love is such when given free rein I have been shown in actual occurrences. These are the things meant by 'a city and a tower'. Self-love, and every desire springing from it, is of all things the filthiest and most unholy, and is very hell itself. From this anyone may deduce the nature of the worship that has such as this within it.