3971. 'It happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph' means acknowledgement of the spiritual represented by Joseph. This is clear from the meaning of 'bearing' as acknowledging, dealt with in 3905, 3911, 3915, 3919; from the representation of 'Rachel' as the affection for interior truth, dealt with in 3758, 3782, 3793, 3819; and from the representation of 'Joseph' as the spiritual kingdom and so the spiritual man, dealt with in 3969, and therefore as the spiritual; for having its origin in the Lord, the spiritual is that which makes the spiritual man and also the spiritual kingdom what they are. By means of Jacob's sons by the servant-girls and by Leah, the sections prior to this have dealt with the reception and acknowledgement of general truths, and eventually with the joining of those truths to the interior man, and so have dealt with man's regeneration up to and including his becoming spiritual. 'Joseph' is that spiritual man. The present sections coming directly after them deal with the fruitfulness and the multiplication of truth and good, which are meant by the flock which Jacob obtained for himself by means of Laban's flock.

[2] Indeed after the joining of the interior man to the external man has taken place, that is, of the spiritual and the natural, fruitfulness of good and multiplication of truth take place, for that joining together of the two is the heavenly marriage with man. It is from this marriage that such fruitfulness and multiplication spring. This also is why 'Joseph' in the external sense means fruitfulness and multiplication, 3965, 3969, the expressions 'fruitfulness' being used in reference to good, and 'multiplication' to truth, 43, 55, 913, 983, 2846, 2847.

3911. 'Who is withholding from you the fruit of the womb' means that it had to originate in what was internal. This is clear from the meaning that results from the internal sense of these words. 'The fruit of the womb' is similar in meaning in the internal sense to birth, namely the acknowledgement of truth and good in faith and action, 3905. Indeed it means more than this, namely the joining together of truth and good as a result of that acknowledgement. Such acknowledgement and joining together cannot begin in the external man, only in the internal; for all good flows in from the Lord by way of the internal man into the external and adopts the truths which have been introduced through the sensory experiences of the external man, causing the person to acknowledge them in faith and action and causing them to be joined together and so made the person's own. The truth that all good from the Lord flows in by way of the internal man into the truths gathered together in the memory belonging to the external man has been shown many times already. This is what these words mean when explained - that it had to originate in what was internal.