4757. 'And they drew Joseph out and caused him to come up out of the pit' means the help provided by these so that [Divine Truth] is no longer among falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'drawing out and causing to come up' as delivering and therefore as providing help, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'the pit' as falsities, dealt with in 4728, and so as its being no longer among falsities. The reason 'drawing out and causing to come up' here means providing help is that truth is what brings help to good. For truth has power attributed to it because good exercises its power by means of truth, 3091, 3563. Furthermore truth is the means by which falsity is recognized, and so by which help is provided so that it is no longer among falsities. This is the reason why it was the Midianites who drew Joseph out and caused him to come up out of the pit, but why it was the Ishmaelites who bought him.

3074. What these three verses contain in the internal sense may be seen to some small extent from the explanation given. Yet because their contents are diffuse, the line of thought which runs through them cannot be seen unless they are viewed collectively as one entire idea, and unless at the same time one moves one's attention away from the sense of the letter. As long as one's attention rests there one's entire idea is not only muddled but also subjected to doubt. And to the extent it is subjected to doubt the mind is enveloped in obscurity. Described here in summary form is the process of how truth comes to be seen by means of facts - of how it is raised up from those facts, out of the natural man into the rational man and becomes rational truth, which in the Lord's case was Divine. In His case it was effected by an influx of Divine Love into the Human, from which came the affection for truth having innocence within it. That influx threw light on the facts present in the natural man, and the truths there, which were to be raised up into the Rational and here joined to the Good of Divine love, became visible. These same considerations are described in greater detail in what follows. But anyone who does not know that every single thing, even in the natural man, is ordered by means of the influx of love, and from that, of affection that has innocence within it, can have none but a very obscure concept, if any at all, of the things stated above and now here.