4380. 'Let my lord now pass over before his servant' means a more general presence. This is clear from the meaning here, where the joining of good to truths is the subject, of 'passing over before anyone' as a more general presence. For with regeneration which is achieved by means of the joining of good to truths the situation is that good is that which acts and truth that which allows itself to be acted upon. Whenever good has brought itself in touch with truths and linked itself to them a little, truth is seen to react. Yet it is not the truth itself that reacts but the good combined with it or else attached to it, doing so by means of that truth. Such an attachment is what is meant by a more general presence. The phrase joining good to truths is used, but what is meant is the person in whom goodness and truth are present, for goodness and truth are meaningless attributes if they have no subject - that is, man - to which they can be applied. In heaven people do employ abstract terms such as these in their thought and speech, for the reason that they do not attribute good or truth to themselves but to the Lord, and also for the reason that goodness and truth from the Lord fill heaven in its entirety. The ancients too were accustomed to employ such terms in their speech.

'Shechem,' as in Genesis 37:12, signifies earliest basics of the doctrine concerning faith. The earliest basics are also the common, or general, principles of doctrinal things. These common, or general, principles are what are received first. Special, or particular, principles follow afterwards.

In Genesis 12:6, 'Abram's passing through the land unto the place Shechem' signifies a new state of the Lord when the celestial aspects of love first appeared to Him which is what Shechem signifies. This is the first stop in the land of Canaan, when coming from Syria, or Haran.

'Shechem' the son of Hamor in Genesis 34:2 signifies the truth of the church from ancient times.

In Genesis 33:17-20, Psalms 60:6-8 and 108:7-9, Shechem signifies the first dawn of light.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 1441, Genesis 6; Joshua 1, 7, 20, 20:7, 21, 21:21, 24:1, 24, 24:25)