3811. Verses 14-15 And Laban said to him, Surely you are my bone and my flesh. And he dwelt with him for a full month. And Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my brother should you serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your reward be?

'Laban said to him, Surely you are my bone and my flesh' means joined together as regards truths and as regards goods. 'And he dwelt with him for a full month' means a new state of life. 'And Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my brother' means, because they are kindred, by virtue of good. 'Should you serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your reward be?' means that there must be a means by which they are joined together.

100. That 'a garden' means intelligence and 'Eden' love, is also evident in Isaiah,

Jehovah will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the Garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness will be found in her, confession and the voice of song. Isaiah 51:3.

Here 'wilderness', 'joy', and 'confession' are terms used by the prophet to express the celestial things of faith, that is, things that belong to love. But 'desert', 'gladness', and 'the voice of song' express the spiritual things of faith, which in turn are matters of the understanding. The former relate to 'Eden', the latter to 'a garden'. For throughout this prophet dual expressions for the same thing are constantly occurring, with one expression meaning celestial things, the other spiritual. For more about what the garden in Eden means, see at verse 10 below.