Arcana Coelestia # 2587
2587. 'Because of the matter of Sarah' means through the rational if it had joined itself. This is clear from the representation of 'Sarah when a sister' as rational truth, dealt with in 2508. 'The matter of Sarah' means the whole affair, that is to say, of her being called a sister, and of Abimelech's taking her, but not going near her. What more is meant by these things will be stated in what follows immediately below.
Zechariah 14:17-18
17
It will be, that whoever of all the families of the earth doesn't go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Yahweh of Armies, on them there will be no rain.
18
If the family of Egypt doesn't go up, and doesn't come, neither will it rain on them. This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike the nations that don't go up to keep the feast of tents.
