3389. Verses 8-9 And it happened, because his days were prolonged for him there, that Abimelech the king of the Philistines looked through a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was laughing with Rebekah his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, But behold, she is your wife! So how did you come to say, She is my sister? And Isaac said to him, Because I said, Perhaps I may die because of her.

'It happened, because his days were prolonged for him there' means a state of reception. 'That Abimelech the king of the Philistines looked through a window and saw' means the doctrine of faith which has regard to rational concepts held within cognitions. 'And behold, Isaac was laughing with Rebekah his wife' means that Divine Good was present within Divine Truth. 'And Abimelech called Isaac, and said' means the Lord's perception from doctrine. 'But behold, she is your wife! So how did you come to say, She is my sister?' means, if it was Divine Truth, then it was not also rational truth. 'And Isaac said to him, Because I said, Perhaps I may die because of her' means that it would not be received.

3385. 'And the men of the place asked about his wife' means questions that people ask about Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'asking about' as the asking of questions; from the meaning of 'the men of the place (that is to say, of Gerar)' as people who possess matters of doctrine concerning faith - 'Gerar' meaning matters of faith, see 1209, 2504, and so 'the men of the place' people whose state is such; and from the meaning of 'wife', who is Rebekah here, as the Divine Truth of the Lord's Divine Rational, dealt with in 3012, 3013, 3077. The subject in previous verses has been the consideration that appearances of truth are the product of Divine influx from the Lord into a person's rational concepts. Now the subject is the reception of those appearances, and indeed first by people who possess matters of doctrine concerning faith, and who are meant by 'the men of the place (which is Gerar)' who belong to the first class of those called spiritual. In fact because these do not have perception, as those who are celestial do, and in comparison with whom they are in obscurity, 1043, 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715, 2718, 2831, 3235, 3241, 3246, they always question whether a thing is so, and also whether it is Divine Truth. And because they do not have perception by which they see whether it is so, they are given something which is an appearance of the truth, such as falls within the range of their rational thought, that is, within their mental grasp and so can be received by them. Everyone is allowed to believe truths in the measure that he understands them. If this were not so there would be no reception of them because there would be no acknowledgement. These are the matters which are the subject now.