2691. 'God heard the boy's voice' means help at that point. This is clear from the meaning in the internal sense of 'God hearing the voice 'the words used in the historical sense - as bringing help, and from the meaning of 'the boy' as spiritual truth, dealt with already. Here a state is meant in which the spiritual as regards truth existed, for it is said that 'He heard the boy's voice' and soon after in this verse that 'He heard the boy's voice where he was', that is to say, where he was as to state. And, in the explanations of the verses immediately before, this state was shown to be one of utmost grief because truth had been taken away. The reason it was the boy's voice, not Hagar's, that God is said to have heard is that the state of the spiritual man is the subject. 'The boy', or Ishmael, represents the member of the spiritual Church, 'Hagar his mother' the affection for cognitions of truth, it being within this affection that the grief was felt. Man's rational is born from the affection for factual knowledge as a mother, 1895, 1896, 1902, 1910, 2094, 2524, but his spiritual is born from the affection for cognitions of truth acquired from doctrine, chiefly from the Word. Here the spiritual itself is 'the boy', and the affection for cognitions of truth is 'Hagar'.

2524. 'She herself also said, He is my brother' means that the rational itself so declared that celestial good should be coupled with it. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'a sister', to whom 'she herself' refers here, as the rational, 1495, 2508, and from the meaning of 'a brother' as good that stands related to truth, 367, 2508. For the implications of this are as follows: Divine Good and Divine Truth are united to each other as if in a marriage. From this comes the heavenly marriage, and also conjugial love, even down to the natural world below. But the good and truth of the rational are not joined to each other as if in a marriage but as in a blood relationship like that of brother and sister. For as regards truth, the rational is conceived from an influx of Divine Good into the affection for knowledge and cognitions, see 1895, 1902, 1910, whereas the good of the rational comes through an influx of Divine Good into that truth, which then becomes that good itself which belongs to charity and is 'the brother' of faith, or what amounts to the same, of truth, 367.

[2] As regards the way in which the good and truth of the rational are acquired, its good comes from Divine good, but not its truth from Divine truth, for the truth of the rational is acquired through knowledge and cognitions which are implanted by means of the senses, external and internal, and so by an external route. Consequently many illusions that result from sensory impressions cling to the truths of that rational which cause those truths not to be truths. Nevertheless when Divine Good flows into them and takes hold of them they are in that case seen as truths and are acknowledged as truths, even though they are no more than appearances of truth. The good itself within those truths undergoes modification determined by the shadows there and comes to have the same nature as the truth. This is one arcanum which lies concealed in these words, that the rational so declared that celestial good should be coupled with it.