6563. 'I beg you, forgive - I beg you - the transgression of your brothers, and their sin' means supplication and repentance. This is clear from the meaning of 'I beg you, forgive, I beg you' as supplication; and the fact that repentance too is meant is evident from the confession that they had transgressed and sinned, and also from what follows, in their offer of themselves as slaves to Joseph. The expressions 'transgression' and also 'sin' are used because of the marriage of truth and goodness in every detail of the Word; for 'transgression' means evil opposed to truth, which is the lesser, and 'sin' evil opposed to good, which is the greater. This is the reason why both expressions are used, as they are in other places, such as Genesis 31,

Jacob said to Laban, What is my transgression, what is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me? Genesis 31:36.

In Isaiah,

I will blot out, like a cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Isaiah 44:22.

In Ezekiel,

In his transgression that he has committed, ¹ and in his sin that he has committed, ² in them he will die. Ezekiel 18:24.

In the same prophet,

When your transgressions are revealed, so that your sins in all your works appear. . . Ezekiel 21:24.

In David,

Blessed is he whose transgression has been forgiven, whose sin has been covered. Psalms 32:1.

Poznámky pod čarou:

5686. 'His brother, his mother's son' means the internal born from the natural as its mother. This is clear from the representation of Benjamin, to whom 'brother' and 'mother's son' refer here, as the internal, dealt with in 5469. And since this is the intermediary it comes into being from the celestial of the spiritual, represented by 'Joseph', as its father, and from the natural as its mother; for it must have its beginning in both these if it is to serve as an intermediary. So this is what is meant by the internal born from the natural as its mother. Also because the celestial of the spiritual, which is 'Joseph', had come into being in a similar way from the natural as its mother, but from the Divine as its father, 'Benjamin' is therefore called, as he was in actual fact by birth, 'his brother, his mother's son'; and in what immediately follows he is also addressed as 'son'. The name 'brother' is used by the Lord, who is meant here in the highest sense by 'Joseph', to refer to everyone who has any good of charity which he has received from the Lord. He is also referred to as 'his mother's son', but in this case 'mother' is used to mean the Church.