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.

6641. 'And every soul, those who came out of Jacob's thigh' means everything that springs from general truth. This is clear from the meaning of soul' in an ordinary sense as a person, here a member of the spiritual Church, though in the internal sense truth and goodness are meant by 'soul' because these are what make a person human, 6605, 6626; from the meaning of 'thigh' as conjugial love, dealt with in 3021, 4277, 4280, 5050-5062, and - since 'thigh' means conjugial love - as all love, both celestial and spiritual, 3021, 4277, 4280, 4575, so that 'coming out of the thigh' means truth and goodness springing from the heavenly marriage, and consequently the Church's truth and good (for these when they are genuine are born from the heavenly marriage, which is a marriage of goodness and truth); and from the representation of 'Jacob' as truth and also good in the natural, but truth and good as a general whole since his sons are separate truths and forms of good within that general whole, dealt with in 6637. The reason why 'Jacob' here represents truths as a general whole is that the subject is the spiritual Church. For this Church begins in truths as a general whole, and by means of them is led into its good. With a member of the spiritual Church there is no knowledge of what spiritual good is, nor thus any acceptance of it, except through truth; for he does not have from good any perception of truth such as a member of the celestial Church has.

6637. 'These are the names of the children of Israel' means the essential nature of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of' the name as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2628, 2724, 3006, 3421; from the representation of 'the sons of Israel' as spiritual truths, dealt with in 5414, 5879, 5951; and from the representation of 'Israel' as the good of truth, which is spiritual good, dealt with in 3654, 4598, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833. Since Israel' represents the good of truth or spiritual good and 'his sons' represent spiritual truths in the natural, 'the sons of Israel' also represent the Church, for what makes it the Church is spiritual good and the truths that spring from that good. A person without spiritual good, that is, the good of charity, and without spiritual truths, that is, the truths of faith, does not belong to the Church in spite of having been born within the Church. The whole of the Lord's heavenly kingdom possesses the good of love and faith, and unless the Church possesses good like that it cannot be the Church since it is not joined to heaven; for the Church is the Lord's kingdom on earth.

[2] The term 'Church' is not used because it is the place where the Word is and teachings drawn from it, or because it is where the Lord is known and the sacraments are celebrated. Rather it is the Church because it lives in accordance with the Word or with teachings drawn from the Word, and seeks to make those teachings its rule of life. People who do not live like this do not belong to the Church but are outside it; and those who lead wicked lives, thus lives contrary to that teaching, are further away outside the Church than gentiles who know nothing whatever about the Word, the Lord, or the sacraments. For since those people are acquainted with the forms of good that the Church fosters and with the truths it teaches they annihilate the Church within themselves, something gentiles cannot do because they are unacquainted with those things. It should also be realized that everyone who leads a good life, in charity and faith, is a Church, and is a kingdom of the Lord. He is for that reason also called a temple, and a house of God too. Those who are Churches individually, no matter how remote from one another they may be, constitute one Church collectively. This then is the Church meant by the expression 'the children of Israel' here and in what follows.