5434. 'And they said to him, No, sir, we are upright men' means that truths are indeed present within them. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying to him, No, sir' as a denial that they existed for the sake of gain, meant by Joseph's words 'you are spies', 5432, and a denial that nothing would please them more than to know it for themselves that they are not truths, meant by Joseph's words 'you have come to see the nakedness of the land', 5433; and from the meaning of 'we are upright men' as that truths are indeed present within them, 'uprightness' meaning truth in the internal sense here, as also many times elsewhere in the Word. This meaning - that truths are indeed present within them - follows from the whole train of thought; for in the case of people who have acquired to themselves the truths known to the Church, doing so for the sake of their own material gain, those truths are not indeed truths to them, as shown above in 5433. But even so, truths can indeed be present within them, such truths known to the Church as a general whole being meant by 'the sons of Jacob'. The reason 'upright men' means truths quite apart from persons is that in the internal sense everything is withdrawn from ideas about persons; an idea in the literal sense describing a person becomes an idea describing some spiritual reality, see 5225, 5287. The reason for this is that otherwise the reader's thought and consequent speech are inevitably distracted and diverted from that spiritual reality and contemplation of it to details that have to do with the person. What is more, there is no other way in which the thought and consequent speech can become more universal, no other way in which just a number of ideas, let alone ideas that are countless and indescribable, can be taken in simultaneously, as is the case among angels. But although such spiritual images are withdrawn from ideas of persons they still have to do with persons; that is to say, they have to do with people in whom those spiritual realities are present. This is why 'upright men' means truths.

6788. 'And he said to his daughters' means thought about the holy things belonging to the Church. This is clear from the meaning of saying' as thought, dealt with in 3395; and from the meaning of 'daughters' as holy things belonging to the Church, dealt with above in 6775. The holy things meant here by 'daughters' are truths. In the Word these are called holy because the truths which become the truths of faith with a person have their origin in good, and also because what emanates from the Lord's Divine Human is Divine Truth originating in Divine Good. That being so, the Holy Spirit is a holy influence emanating from the Lord; the actual Spirit does not emanate from Him but the holy utterances made by the Spirit, as anyone may see who gives thought to the matter. The fact that the Holy Spirit, also referred to as the Paraclete, is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human, and the fact that the word 'holy' is used in reference to Divine Truth, is clear from the Lord's words in John,

I will ask the Father to give you another Paraclete, to remain with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all that I said to you. John 14:16-17, 26.

In the same gospel,

When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes forth from the Father, He will bear witness to Me. John 15:26.

And in the same gospel,

When He the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak. He will glorify Me, for He will receive from what is Mine and declare It to you; all things whatever that the Father has are Mine, therefore I said that He will receive from what is Mine and declare it to you. John 16:13-15.

If one compares these places with very many others one may understand that the Holy Spirit is a holy emanation from the Lord's Divine Human, for the Lord says, 'Whom the Father will send in My name', also 'Whom I shall send to you from the Father', as well as 'He will receive from what is Mine and declare it to you; all things whatever that the Father has are Mine, therefore I said that He will receive from what is Mine and declare it to you'. It is also evident that the word 'holy' is used in reference to truth because the Paraclete is called 'the Spirit of truth'.