1960. That 'Hagar bore Abram a son' means the rational man born from that coming together and conception is clear from the representation and meaning of 'Hagar', 'Abram', and 'son'. 'Hagar' means the life which is present in the affection for knowledge and which belongs to the exterior man, as stated above in 1895, 1896; 'Abram' means the Lord's Internal Man, 1893, 1950; and 'a son' means truth, and so the truth which this rational possessed, 264, 489, 491, 533, 1147. Consequently the words 'Hagar bore for Abram' mean the rational man born from that conception and coming together. This is the sense into which the sense of the letter is converted when it comes to or resides with angels.

533. Since nothing further is mentioned about Lamech apart from the fact that be beget sons and daughters, who are the conceptions and births of such a Church, there is no need to pause any longer over him. What these births, or sons and daughters, were, becomes clear from the Church, for the character of a Church determines that of its offspring. Both those Churches called Methuselah and Lamech breathed their last just before the flood.