4608. 'And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant-girl: Dan and Naphtali' means secondary goods and truths which serve the interior ones. This is clear from the representation of 'Bilhah, Rachel's servant-girl' as a secondary affection which, as a means, serves the affection for interior truth, dealt with in 3849. 'A servant-girl' furthermore is used to denote a means which serves to effect a joining together, 3913, 3917, 3931, her 'sons' being the same kinds of means. By secondary goods and truths are meant those goods and truths which do not enter in directly but are derived from these and are associated with them like maidservants, acting also as intermediaries and facilitators. The essential characteristics of them are represented by 'Dan and Naphtali'. In the highest sense 'Dan' means righteousness and mercy, in the internal sense the holiness of faith, and in the external sense the good of life, 3921, 3923, while 'Naphtali' in the highest sense means [the Lord's] own power, in the internal sense temptation in which a person overcomes, and in the external sense resistance offered by the natural man, 3927, 3928. These are the essential characteristics of the means that serve interior goods and truths.

2868. 'His concubine, whose name was Reumah' means gentiles whose worship was idolatrous but in whom good was present. This becomes clear from what has gone before, for in the former place come those gentiles meant by the sons born to Nahor from his wife, in the latter those born from his concubine. As has been shown, those born from his wife were people outside the Church who dwelt in a brotherly relationship by virtue of good, 2863, whereas these latter sons are people outside the Church whose worship was idolatrous but in whom good was present. Thus the latter were born from a less legitimate union than the former, though the union was nevertheless legitimate, for in those times children born from servant-girls were accepted as legitimate, as becomes clear from Jacob's sons born from the servant-girls Bilhah and Zilpah, Genesis 30:4-12, from whom tribes descended no less than from the sons born from Leah and Rachel, and who in this respect were no different from the latter. Yet that a difference did exist is clear from Genesis 33:1-2, 6-7.

[2] Servant-girls whom in those times a wife gave to her husband for the sake of producing children were called concubines, as is evident from Bilhah, Rachel's servant-girl, who is also called Jacob's concubine in Genesis 35:22. The practice of producing children by means of servant-girls or concubines was allowed in those times so that those outside the Church might be represented, as well as those of lower degree within the Church. The statement that the concubine's name was Reumah embodies the essential nature of that group of people, 1896, 2009, which in this case is exaltation, this being what Reumah means. Regarding the state and condition of nations and peoples outside the Church, see 593, 932, 1032, 1059, 1327, 1328, 1366, 2049, 2051, 2284, 2589-2604.