5435. 'And your servants come to buy food' means that they are present to enable the natural to make them - these truths - its own by means of good. This is clear from the meaning of 'servants' as lower things and natural ones when considered in relation to others, dealt with in 2541, 3019, 30201 5161, 5164, 5305, and consequently as truths too, 3409, since truths are subordinate to good and in the Word subordinates are called 'servants' (as is therefore the case here where, in relation to the celestial of the spiritual, truths in the natural are such); from the meaning of 'buying' as being made one's own, dealt with in 4397, 5374, 5406, 5410; and from the meaning of 'food' as celestial and spiritual good, dealt with in 5147, as well as truth linked to good, 5340, 5342, in this place truth that has to be linked to the natural by means of good and so made its own.

[2] There is no other means than good by which truth can be made a person's own. But once it has been made his own by means of good, truth becomes good, for it now acts in unison with it. At the same time the two make so to speak one body, the soul of which is the good. The truths are present within that good like spiritual fibres forming the body. For this reason also the inmost forms going forth from good are meant by the fibres of the body, and truths by the sinews there, 4303, 5189 (end).

2541. 'And called his servants' means rational concepts and factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'servants' in the Word, dealt with further on at verse 14, in 2567. Within the person who is in the Lord's kingdom, that is, who is the Lord's kingdom, there are celestial things, spiritual things, rational concepts, factual knowledge, and sensory impressions; and all these are ordered one beneath another. Celestial things and spiritual things hold the primary position and are the Lord's; rational concepts come next in order beneath them and are subservient to them; factual knowledge in turn comes beneath and serves rational concepts; and lastly sensory impressions come beneath and serve factual knowledge. The things which are subservient, or which serve, are in these relationships servants, and in the Word they are called 'servants'. Anyone whose thought is based solely on sensory impressions and factual knowledge is unaware of these things existing in their ordered sequence; and anyone who does know something about them nevertheless has only a very obscure idea because he is still immersed in bodily interests. Angels however have a very distinct idea, for thousands, indeed myriads, of distinct and separate ideas existing with angels do not present themselves to men except as one single obscure idea, as for example with the words that occur here, 'Abimelech called his servants and spoke all these words in their ears; and the men were very much afraid'. In these words angels perceive deeper arcana than man can possibly grasp or is indeed able to believe; that is to say, they perceive how the Lord brought rational concepts and factual knowledge into a condition of obedience, yet in such a way that He did not bring into that condition the rational concepts and the factual knowledge themselves but the affections rising up against the celestial and the spiritual things of doctrine; for it was when those affections had been brought into subjection that rational concepts and factual knowledge were brought into a condition of obedience and at the same time into order. These matters are to angels some of the most common and general; but to man they are perhaps some of the most obscure or are unintelligible.