4277. 'And he touched the hollow of his thigh' means where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. This is clear from the meaning of 'the thigh' as conjugial love, and consequently as all celestial and spiritual love, since these are derived from conjugial love as offspring from their parent, dealt with in 3021; and from the meaning of 'the hollow' or socket or cavity of it - that is to say, of the thigh - as the place where the joining together exists, and here therefore where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. But no one can be told anything about that conjunction unless he knows first of all what celestial-spiritual good, meant by 'Israel', is, and what natural good, meant by 'Jacob', is. It will be told below at verse 28 where Jacob, who at that point is named Israel, is the subject and also further on where Jacob's descendants are the subject.

2727. HOW MARRIAGES ARE REGARDED IN HEAVEN AND ALSO ADULTEROUS SITUATIONS

What genuine conjugial love is and where it originates few know at the present day, the reason being that it exists with few. Almost everyone believes that it is inborn and so flows from, they say, a kind of natural instinct, such belief being strengthened by the fact that the inclination to pair off as in marriage also occurs among animals. But the difference between conjugial love with human beings and that inclination with animals is as the difference between the human condition and that of any animal.