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.

6264. 'And behold, God has caused me to see your seed also' means that not only an inflow of love was discerned, but also the goodness and truth springing from it. This is clear from the representation of Manasseh and Ephraim, to whom 'seed' refers here, as good belonging to the will and truth belonging to the understanding, dealt with in 5354, 6222, as well as from the meaning of 'seed' also as goodness and truth, 1610, 2848, 3310, 3373, 7671. And since the words used are 'I did not think to see your face, and behold, God has caused me to see', the meaning is that not only an inflow of love was discerned, but also the goodness and truth springing from it; for 'seeing the face' means an inflow of love, see immediately above in 6263.

5877. 'And Joseph said to his brothers' means that the internal celestial imparted a power of perception to the truths in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in the historical narratives of the Word as perception, dealt with in 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509, 5687, 5743, in this case an imparting of a power of perception, dealt with below; from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal celestial, dealt with just above in 5869; and from the representation of the ten sons of Jacob, to whom 'brothers' refers here, as the truths in the natural, dealt within 5403, 5419, 5458, 5512. The internal sense is therefore this, that the internal celestial imparted a power of perception to the truths in the natural. The reason why 'saying' here means imparting a power of perception is that the subject in what follows below is the joining of the internal celestial, which is 'Joseph', to the truths in the natural, which are 'the sons of Jacob'. And when that joining together takes place an ability to perceive is imparted - through the affection for truth and thus for good.