3956. And Leah said, God hath given me my reward, because I gave my handmaid to my man. That this signifies in the supreme sense the Divine good of truth and truth of good; in the internal sense, celestial conjugial love; and in the external sense, mutual love, may be seen from the signification of “reward.” “Reward” is frequently mentioned in the Word, but few know what it there signifies. It is known in the churches that by the goods which man does he can merit nothing, for they are not his, but the Lord’s; and that meriting or merit looks to man, and thus conjoins itself with the love of self, and with the thought of pre-eminence over others, and consequently with contempt for others. For this reason works done for the sake of reward are not good in themselves, because they do not spring from the genuine fountain; that is, from charity toward the neighbor. Charity toward the neighbor has within it the desire that it should be as well with him as with ourselves; and with the angels, that it should be better with him than with themselves. Such also is the affection of charity; and therefore it is averse to all self-merit, and consequently to all the doing of good that looks to reward. To those who are in charity, the reward consists in being able to show kindness, and in being allowed to do so, and in the kindness being accepted. This is the delight, nay, bliss itself that is enjoyed by those who are in the affection of charity. From this it is evident what that “reward” is that is mentioned in the Word, namely, the delight and bliss of the affection of charity; or what is the same, the delight and bliss of mutual love (n. 3816); for the affection of charity, and mutual love, are the same thing. (See n. 1110, 1111, 1774, 1835, 1877, 2027, 2273, 2340, 2373, 2400.) From all this it is evident that by “reward” in the external sense is here signified mutual love.

[2] That in a sense still higher, or in the internal sense, by “reward” is signified celestial conjugial love, may be seen from the things that have been said above concerning the heavenly marriage (n. 2618, 2739, 2741, 2803, 3024, 3132, 3952), namely, that it is the conjunction of good and truth; and that mutual love is from this conjunction, or from this marriage (n. 2737, 2738). It is evident from this that “reward” in the internal sense is celestial conjugial love.

[3] That in the supreme sense “reward” is the Divine good of truth and truth of good, is evident from the fact that the heavenly marriage is thence derived; for this union is in the Lord, and proceeds from Him; and when it inflows into heaven, it makes the conjugial of good and truth, and thereby mutual love. From what has now been said and from what goes before, it is evident what is signified in the internal sense by these words of Leah: “God hath given me my reward, because I gave my handmaid to my man;” for by the “handmaid” is signified an affirmative means that serves for the conjunction of the external and the internal man (n. 3913, 3917, 3931). Thus before those things which are signified by the sons of the handmaids are affirmed and acknowledged, there cannot come forth any conjunction of good and truth, and thus not any mutual love; for these affirmations necessarily come first. This is what is meant by these words now before us.

3952. And he lay with her that night. That this signifies conjunction, is evident without explication. The reason why the foregoing matters have been unfolded in the internal sense merely as to the significations of the words, is that they are of such a nature that they cannot be comprehended unless they are set forth in one series. For the subject treated of is the conjunction of truth with good and of good with truth, which conjunction is the conjugial as understood in the spiritual sense; that is, the conjunction which makes the heavenly marriage with man and in the church. The arcana of this heavenly marriage are described in the above verses, and are there revealed as follows. As before shown the heavenly marriage is that of good with truth and of truth with good, yet is not between good and truth of one and the same degree, but between good and truth of a lower and of a higher degree, that is, not between the good of the external man and the truth of the same, but between the good of the external man and the truth of the internal; or what is the same, not between the good of the natural man and its truth, but between the good of the natural man and the truth of the spiritual man. This conjunction is that which makes the marriage.

[2] It is the same in the internal or spiritual man; the heavenly marriage there is not between the good and the truth in that man; but between the good of the spiritual man and the truth of the celestial man; for the celestial man is relatively in a higher degree. Nor is there a heavenly marriage between the good and the truth in the celestial man; but between the good of the celestial man and the truth Divine which proceeds from the Lord. From this it is also evident that the Divine marriage itself of the Lord is not between the good Divine and the truth Divine in His Divine Human, but between the good of the Divine Human and the Divine Itself, that is, between the Son and the Father; for the good of the Lord’s Divine Human is that which is called in the Word the “Son of God,” and the Divine Itself is called the “Father.”

[3] These are the arcana contained in the internal sense in what is said concerning the dudaim. Everyone can see that there must be some arcanum therein, for to relate that Reuben found dudaim in the field, and that Rachel longed for them, and in return for them promised that their man should lie with Leah; and that Leah went to meet Jacob when he came from the field in the evening, and said that she had hired him with the dudaim-these things would be too trivial to make any part of the history in the Word, unless there was something Divine hidden within them. But what Divine thing is meant no one can know unless he knows what is signified by the sons of Jacob and by the tribes named from them; and unless he also knows the series of the subject in the internal sense; and moreover unless he knows what the heavenly marriage is, for this is what is treated of, namely, that it is the conjunction of the good in the external man with the affection of truth in the internal man.

[4] But in order to the better understanding of this arcanum, I may illustrate it further. The truths of the external man are the memory-knowledges and doctrinal things that the man first learned from his parents, and also from his teachers, then from books, and finally by his own study. The good of the external man is the pleasure and delight that he perceives in these things. The memory-knowledges, which are truths, and the delights, which are good, are conjoined together; but they do not make in him the heavenly marriage, for with those who are in the love of self and of the world, and thence in evil and falsity, the memory-knowledges, and even the doctrinal things, are conjoined with delights; but it is with the delights of these loves, for with these even truths can be conjoined. And yet such persons are out of the heavenly marriage. But when the pleasure or the delight that is the good of the external or natural man is from spiritual love, that is, from love toward the neighbor, toward our country or the state, toward the church and the Lord’s kingdom, and still more when it is from celestial love, which is love to the Lord; and when these flow in from the internal or spiritual man into the delight of the external or natural man and make it; then this conjunction with the memory-knowledges and doctrinal things of the external or natural man constitutes with him the heavenly marriage. This is not possible with the evil, but only with the good, that is, with those who have these things as their end. (But see how the case is with the influx of the internal or spiritual man into the external or natural man, n. 3286, 3288, 3314, 3321.)

[5] As soon as these things have become known, it is possible to know what is signified by each of the things that have been explained above in regard merely to the internal sense of the words-as that Reuben (who is the truth of faith, which is the first of regeneration) found dudaim; that he brought them to his mother Leah (who is the affection of external truth); that Rachel (who is the affection of interior truth) longed for them, and that they were given her; that Leah therefore lay with her man Jacob (who is the good of truth in the natural man) also, in what follows, that there were born to Jacob by Leah the sons Issachar and Zebulun, by whom are signified and represented the things of conjugial love, and thus of the heavenly marriage; and then that Joseph was born, by whom is signified and represented the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, which is the marriage itself that is treated of.