5022. 'And she kept his garment with her' means that it retained outermost truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'keeping with oneself' as retaining, and from the meaning of 'a garment' as outermost truth, dealt with above, in 5006, 5008; for once that truth is removed the spiritual man no longer has anything with which he may protect himself against people who are merely natural, 5008 (end), 5009, and so he suffers harm. For any utterance made in this case by the spiritual man is declared by those who are merely natural to be something they do not perceive and also something that is not true. At the mere mention of anything internal or spiritual they either ridicule it or else call it something arcane, as a result of which any link they may have with the spiritual man is severed. And once that link has been severed the spiritual man undergoes trying experiences at the hands of those who are merely natural. This is also represented by the fact that after the wife used the garment to prove to her husband the accusation she was making, Joseph was thrown into the prison-house.

2245. 'The men looked from there' means the Lord's thought from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'looking from' as thinking, for 'seeing' in the internal sense, as in everyday speech, is understanding, since the understanding is internal sight, and thus 'looking from' means thinking, which is the activity of the internal sight or the understanding; and also from the meaning of 'the men' as the Divine. In various places in this chapter 'the men' are mentioned, and in various other places 'Jehovah' instead of 'the men'. When 'the men' is used the Trinity is meant, that is, the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the [Holy] proceeding. The Lord's thought from this Divine is meant by the words 'the men looked from there'. That thought came from the Human joined to the Divine, which conjunction was dealt with at the start of this chapter; but the perception from which the thought stemmed came from the Divine, which explains why immediately afterwards in this same verse reference is made to Jehovah in the words 'he stood before Jehovah'. And when the Human had been joined to the Divine, the [Holy] proceeding was together with them as well.