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.

4272. Verses 24-25 And Jacob remained alone; and a man wrestled with him until dawn came up. And he ¹ saw that he did not prevail against him, and he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him.

'Jacob remained alone' means the good of truth, which had now been arrived at and was at this point the ultimate form of good. 'And a man wrestled with him' means temptation that concerns truth. 'Until dawn came up' means before natural good, meant by 'Jacob', was joined to the celestial-spiritual, that is, to the Divine good of truth. 'And he saw that he did not prevail against him' means that in temptations He conquered. 'And he touched the hollow of his thigh' means where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. 'And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him' means that truth did not as yet have the power to join itself completely to good.

[2] The same statements used here also have regard to Jacob and his descendants, in which case they are used to mean the essential nature of those people. Regarded in this sense the words 'he touched the hollow of his thigh' mean where conjugial love is joined to natural good, while the words 'the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him' mean that in the descendants of Jacob that conjunction had been thoroughly damaged and the two loves pulled apart.

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