3583. 'And your mother's sons will bow down to you' means over all other affections for truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'sons' also as truths, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 3373, and from the meaning of 'mother' as the affection for spiritual truth - therefore as the Church, for the Church exists from truth and the affection for this, and is given the name 'mother', dealt with in 289, 2691, 2717.

491. The same things are meant by 'sons and daughters' in verses 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 26, 30, of this chapter, but the character of a Church determines that of its 'sons and daughters', or goods and truths. Here they are truths and goods that men perceived most clearly, for they have regard to the Most Ancient Church, the head and forefather of all other Churches that followed after it.