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.

6265. 'And Joseph brought them away from his thighs' means that the good belonging to the will and the truth belonging to the understanding were brought away from an affection originating in love on the part of spiritual good. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal celestial, dealt with in 5869, 5877; from the representation of Manasseh and Ephraim, the ones here whom 'Joseph brought away', as the good belonging to the will and the truth belonging to the understanding, dealt with in 5354, 6222; from the meaning of 'the thighs' as an affection originating in love, dealt with in 3021, 4277, 4280, 4575, 5050-5062; and on the part of spiritual good is meant because they were brought away from Israel, who represents spiritual good, 6253. The words used here mean that the internal celestial took good belonging to the will and truth belonging to the understanding away from spiritual good, that is, away from the affection arising from its love; they have this meaning because 'Israel', who represents spiritual good, had made that goodness and truth draw near him. Besides this they had to be brought to him by Joseph, who represents the internal celestial; for that reason they were brought away and after that, as described in what follows, were brought to him again by Joseph.

[2] The explanation for all this is that the inflow of love came to that goodness and truth from the internal celestial by way of spiritual good - in keeping with true order. That external procedure had therefore to be strictly adhered to when they were going to be blessed; for they were being presented to the Lord, the Source of the foretelling meant here by the blessing, 6254. This now explains why Joseph brought his sons away from his father's thighs, and why he himself after that brought them to him again.

10090. 'And it shall be the portion for you' means transmission to those who are governed by God's truths. This is clear from the representation of Moses, whose portion the breast was to be, as the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, thus Divine Truth which comes from the Lord, dealt with in 6752, 7010, 7014, 9372; and from the meaning of 'being the portion for' as transmission, since those parts of sacrifices that were given to Moses, Aaron, his sons, and the people were signs of the transmission of what was Divine and holy with them. And all transmission takes place in accord with the character of the recipient, thus in accord with the character of the representation among those who were the recipients.

[2] The reason why the breast was apportioned to Moses and the flank, spoken of a little further on, to Aaron was that the subject at present is the transmission of Divine Truth and Divine Good from the Lord in heaven and in the Church, and their making that Truth and Good their own. These two - Divine Truth and Divine Good, both of which come from the Lord - are what are received there, Divine Truth by those in the Lord's spiritual kingdom and Divine Good by those in the celestial kingdom, see the places referred to in 9277, 9684. This explains why the breast was apportioned to Moses and the flank to Aaron, for 'the breast' means Divine Truth in the Lord's spiritual kingdom, 10087, while 'the flank' means Divine Good in the celestial kingdom, 10075, as also does 'the bread in the basket', which too was assigned to Aaron, 10077.

[3] As was shown just above, Moses represented the Lord in respect of Divine Truth; and Aaron, when consecrated to the priesthood, represented the Lord in respect of Divine Good, see 9806. The fact that the breast was assigned to Moses as his portion is clear in Leviticus, where again the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood is the subject,

Moses took the breast and waved it as a wave offering before Jehovah, from the ram of fillings [of the hand]; and it was Moses' portion, as Jehovah had commanded Moses. Leviticus 8:29.