4277. 'And he touched the hollow of his thigh' means where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. This is clear from the meaning of 'the thigh' as conjugial love, and consequently as all celestial and spiritual love, since these are derived from conjugial love as offspring from their parent, dealt with in 3021; and from the meaning of 'the hollow' or socket or cavity of it - that is to say, of the thigh - as the place where the joining together exists, and here therefore where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. But no one can be told anything about that conjunction unless he knows first of all what celestial-spiritual good, meant by 'Israel', is, and what natural good, meant by 'Jacob', is. It will be told below at verse 28 where Jacob, who at that point is named Israel, is the subject and also further on where Jacob's descendants are the subject.

3145. 'And he ungirded the camels' means freedom for the things that were to be subservient. This is clear from the meaning of 'ungirding' as freeing, and from the meaning of 'the camels' as general facts, and so things that were to be subservient, as dealt with just above in 3143. The situation is that without freedom no production of truth ever takes place in the natural man, nor summoning of it from there into the rational man, where it becomes joined to good. It is in a state of freedom that all these things come about, for it is the affection for truth springing from good that sets them free. Unless truth is learned with an affection for it, and so in freedom, it is not even implanted in the mind, let alone raised up towards the interior parts of the mind to become faith there. For all reformation is effected in freedom; all freedom goes together with affection, and the Lord keeps man in freedom so that he can - as if of himself and from what is his own - have an affection for what is true and good and so be regenerated, see 2870-2893. These are the things meant by 'he ungirded the camels'; and unless those things were meant, the details recorded here would have been too trivial to mention.