3942. 'And found dudaim in the field' means the essentials of conjugial love that are present within the truth and good of charity and love. This is clear from the meaning of 'dudaim' as the essentials of conjugial love, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'the field' as the Church, and therefore the truth of faith and the good of charity since these constitute the Church, dealt with in 368, 2971, 3196, 3310, 3500, 3508, 3766. Translators do not know what dudaim were. They all think that they were fruits or flowers and each translator uses a name that fits in with his particular ideas of what dudaim were. But knowledge of what kind of fruit or flower they were is unimportant. All that one needs to know is that among the ancients who belonged to the Church all fruits and flowers had spiritual meanings, for the ancients knew that the whole natural order was a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, 3483. They knew that all things in its three kingdoms were representative, and that every individual thing, and so also every particular kind of fruit or flower, represented some specific thing in the spiritual world. As regards 'dudaim' meaning for them the conjugial element present in good and in truth, this may be seen from the train of thought in the internal sense here, and also from the derivation of that word in the original language. For dudaim is derived from the word dudim which means loves and being joined together by means of these. This origin of the word dudaim, meaning the conjugial element, is evident from the following,

In the morning we will get up to the vineyards, we will see if the vine has flowered and produced the grape, if the pomegranates have brought forth flowers. There will I give you my loves (dudim). The dudaim have given a fragrance. Cant. 7:12-13.

This quotation shows what dudaim were.

[2] As regards the book in which these verses appear, called the Song of Songs, it does not belong among the books called Moses and the Prophets because it does not have an internal sense. But it is written in the ancient style, and is full both of things with spiritual meanings that were gathered together from the books of the Ancient Church, and also of many things which in the Ancient Church meant celestial and spiritual love, especially conjugial love. The fact that it is a book of this nature is also evident from the consideration that, unlike the books known as Moses and the Prophets, the sense of the letter presents many things which are quite improper. But because the kind of things that have heavenly and conjugial love as their real meaning are massed together there, this book is therefore seen to have some mystical meaning.

[3] From the meaning of 'dudaim' one may now see that the reference to Reuben finding dudaim in the field means the conjugial element which is present within the truth and good of love and charity, that is, that which enables the two to become joined together is meant. For nothing else is meant in the spiritual sense by the conjugial element than such truth as can be joined to good, and such good as can be joined to truth. This joining together of good and truth is also the origin of all conjugial love, 2728, 2729, 3132. Consequently genuine conjugial love does not exist except within good and truth, and so at the same time within the heavenly marriage.

3483. Everything at all visible in the universe is representative of the Lord's kingdom, so much so that nothing exists in the starry sky above, or on this planet and in its three kingdoms below, which is not in its own way representative. For every single thing within the natural order is an ultimate image, in that the Divine issues forth into celestial things, which are expressions of good; celestial things issue forth into spiritual, which are expressions of truth; and celestial and spiritual things issue forth into natural things. This shows how stupid, indeed how earthly and also topsy-turvy, human intelligence is which separates or isolates natural forces from that which is prior to them and flowing into them - that is, from their efficient cause - and then attributes everything to natural forces. And people who think and talk in this fashion seem to themselves to be wiser than anybody else, that is to say, by their attribution of everything to natural forces. Angelic intelligence however is quite the reverse - it attributes nothing to natural forces but every single thing to the Lord's Divine, and so to life, not to anything devoid of life.

[2] The learned know that remaining in being consists in perpetual coming into being. Nevertheless it is contrary to their affection for falsity, and consequently to their reputation for being learned, to say that natural forces are constantly kept in being, even as they came into being, from the Lord's Divine. Now because every single thing remains in being from the Divine, that is, is constantly coming into being from Him, and every single thing from that source is inevitably a representative of the real thing by means of which it has come into being, the whole visible universe is therefore nothing else than a theatre that is representative of the Lord's kingdom. And this in turn is a theatre representative of the Lord Himself.