3613. And tarry with him some days. That this signifies what is successive, is evident from the signification of “to tarry,” as being the like as “to dwell,” thus as “to live” (concerning which n. 1293, 2268, 2451, 2712, 3384), but “to tarry” is predicated of the life of truth with good, and “to dwell,” of the life of good with truth; and from the signification of “days,” as being times and states (n. 23, 487, 488, 493, 2788, 3462); thus it is the life of subsequent times and states, consequently what is successive, that is here signified by “tarrying with him some days.” This successive condition-that is, the tarrying of Jacob with Laban-is treated of in the chapters which follow.

2173. That “Sarah” is here the Lord as to truth, is evident from the representation of Sarah, as being intellectual truth adjoined to good; here, as being rational truth, for the same reason as just now stated in regard to Abraham. (That Sarah represents truth may be seen above, n. 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065). In the historicals of the Word good and truth cannot be represented otherwise than by a marriage, for this is really the case with them, for there is a Divine marriage between things celestial and spiritual, or what is the same, between those which are of love and those which are of faith, or again what is the same, between those of the will and those of the understanding. The former are of good, the latter are of truth. There is such a marriage in the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens; such also in the Lord’s kingdom on the earth (that is, in the church); such a marriage in every man, in every single thing of him, nay, in the veriest singulars of all. That which is not in such a marriage does not live. Nay, from that Divine marriage there is such a marriage in universal nature, and in every particular of it, but under other form and appearance, otherwise nothing whatever would there subsist. Because there is such marriage in everything, therefore with the Prophets every matter is expressed in a twofold manner, especially in Isaiah-one expression referring to what is celestial, or to good, and the other to what is spiritual, or to truth (see n. 683, 793, 801). That in everything there is a resemblance of a marriage, may be seen above (n. 718, 747, 917, 1432). Hence it is that the Lord’s good is represented by Abraham, and His truth by Sarah.