3182. 'They sent away Rebekah their sister' means separation from the affection for Divine truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'sending away' as being separated, and from the representation of 'Rebekah their sister' as the affection for Divine truth, dealt with above in 3077, 3179 - 'a sister' meaning truth, see 1495, 2508, 2524, 2556, 3160. What is implied here may be seen from what has been stated and shown above in this chapter; yet to make it even clearer let a further brief comment be made about it. When truth that is to be introduced and joined to good is raised up from the natural it is separated from things present in the natural. That separation is what is meant by 'they sent away Rebekah their sister'. The separation takes place when the person looks no longer from truth to good but from good to truth, or what amounts to the same, when he looks no longer from doctrine to life but from life to doctrine - as the following example shows: Doctrine teaches the truth that no one is to be hated, for anyone who hates another slays him every moment. In his earliest years a person scarcely recognizes this, but as he grows older, if he is being reformed he places it among those matters of doctrine which ought to be matters of life. At length he lives according to that truth, in which case he no longer thinks from doctrine but acts from life. When that happens this truth of doctrine is raised up from the natural, indeed it is separated from the natural, and is implanted within good in the rational. Once this has happened he no longer permits the natural man to voice any doubt about it by means of any captious argument existing there; indeed he does not allow the natural man to reason against it at all.

3077. 'That behold, Rebekah came out' means the affection for truth coming from matters of doctrine. This is clear from the representation of 'Rebekah' as Divine truth that was to be joined to the Divine Good of the Rational, though here, before she has been betrothed, she takes on the representation of the affection for truth coming from matters of doctrine; for from these comes forth truth. Truth however is not truth unless it has life within it, and that life is affection, which is an attribute of love. As regards 'Rebekah' representing Divine truth that was to be joined to the Divine good of the Rational, this is clear from the details that occur in this chapter in the internal sense, and also from the fact that 'Isaac' represents the Lord's Divine Rational, 1893, 2066, 2083, 2630. Thus 'Rebekah', who became Isaac's wife, represents something within the Rational that was to be joined like a wife to a husband, and this something was clearly Divine Truth, for 'Abraham' in a similar way represented Divine Good itself, and 'Sarah his wife' Divine Truth itself joined to Divine Good, 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065, 2904. Isaac and Rebekah represent something similar, but within the Lord's Divine Human, that is to say, within His Rational.

[2] In general 'a husband' in the Word means good and 'his wife' truth, 1468, 2517; for the essence of every marriage is derived, that is, conjugial love is derived, from the marriage of Divine Good to Truth, and of Truth to Good in the Lord, 2508, 2618, 2728, 2729, 2803. The reason the affection for truth comes from matters of doctrine is that Rebekah is said 'to have come out', that is to say, out of the city, and 'a city' means matters of doctrine, see 402, 2449. Truths too come from matters of doctrine.