4843. To Tamar his daughter-in-law. That this signifies a church representative of spiritual and celestial things, which is called “daughter-in-law” from truth, is evident from the representation of Tamar, as being a church representative of spiritual and celestial things, of which above (n. 4831); and from the signification of a “daughter-in-law” as being the spiritual or truth of the church. That a “daughter-in-law” has this meaning in the internal sense is because all things belonging to marriage, and all who were born from marriage, represented such things as are of the heavenly marriage (see n. 4837), and consequently which are of good and truth; for these are of the heavenly marriage. From this it is that in the Word a husband signifies good, and a wife truth; and also that sons and daughters signify the truths and goods that are from them. Hence a daughter-in-law, being the wife of a son now become a husband, signifies the truth of the church conjoined with good and so on. But in regard to those who are of the celestial church these significations are different from what they are in regard to those who are of the spiritual church; for in the spiritual church the husband is called “man,” and signifies truth; and the wife is called “woman,” and signifies good (see n. 4823).

[2] That by a “daughter-in-law” in the internal sense of the Word is signified the truth of the church adjoined to its good, consequently in the opposite sense the falsity of the church adjoined to its evil, is also evident from the passages in the Word in which “daughter-in-law” is mentioned-as in Hosea:

They sacrifice upon the heads of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under the oak, and the poplar, and the terebinth, because the shadow thereof is good; therefore your daughters commit whoredom, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. Shall not I visit upon your daughters because they commit whoredom, and upon your daughters-in-law because they commit adultery? (Hos. 4:13-14); where the subject treated of is the worship of evil and falsity, the worship of evil being signified by “sacrificing upon the heads of the mountains,” and the worship of falsity by “burning incense upon the hills.” A life of evil is signified by the “daughters committing whoredom,” and the doctrine of falsity from which is a life of evil is signified by the “daughters-in-law committing adultery.” That in the Word adulteries and whoredoms signify adulterations of good and falsifications of truth may be seen above (n. 2466, 2729, 3399); and therefore “daughters-in-law” here denote affections of falsity.

[3] In Micah:

The great one speaketh the perversity of his soul; and he wresteth it. Their good one is as a thorn; the upright, as a bramble. The son lightly esteemeth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s foes are they of his household (Micah 7:3-4, 6); where the subject treated of is the falsity from evil in which the church is in the last time, when vastated, and in the proximate sense that in which the Jewish Church was. The “daughter rising up against her mother,” signifies that the affection of evil is opposed to truth; and the “daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,” that the affection of falsity is opposed to good.

[4] As the case is similar with the man who is in temptations-for in these there is a combat of evil against truth and of falsity against good, spiritual temptations being nothing else than vastations of the falsity and evil in a man-therefore temptations or spiritual combats are described by the Lord in almost the same words, in Matthew:

Jesus said, Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth; I am not come to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes shall be they of his household (Matthew 10:34-36).

The like words quoted just above from the prophet signified the vastation of the church, but here they signify the temptations of those who are of the church, because as already said temptations are nothing else than vastations, or removals, of falsity and evil; and for this reason both temptations and vastations are also signified and described by inundations of water and by floods (n. 705, 739, 756, 907). Here also therefore the “daughter being at variance against her mother” denotes the affection of evil opposed to truth, and the “daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,” the affection of falsity opposed to good; and because in the man who is in temptation evils and falsities are within or are his, they are said to be of his household—“a man’s foes shall be they of his household.” That temptations are what are thus described is plain from the Lord’s saying that He came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword, for by a “sword” is signified truth combating, and in the opposite sense falsity combating (n. 2799, 4499), when yet He came to give peace (John 14:27; 16:33). That it is temptations which are so described is evident from what follows in that chapter: “He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.”

[5] So also in Luke:

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, Nay; but division; for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law (Luke 12:51-53);

from these sayings also it is plain that by “father,” “mother,” “son,” “daughter,” “daughter-in-law,” and “mother-in-law” are signified those things which are from the heavenly marriage, namely, goods and truths in their order, and also their opposites; as likewise in Mark:

Jesus said, There is no man that has left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields, for My sake and the gospel’s, but he shall receive a hundred-fold in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10:29-30);

one unacquainted with the internal sense of the Word will suppose that nothing more than house, brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, and fields are signified by these words here; but it is such things as appertain to man, his own, which he must forsake; and the spiritual and celestial things that are of the Lord which he must receive in their place, and this by means of temptations, which are meant by “persecutions.” Everyone can see that if he forsake a mother he will not receive mothers; in like manner neither brethren, sisters, etc.

1463. That “to sojourn” means to be instructed, is evident from the signification of “sojourning” in the Word, as being to be instructed; and this for the reason that sojourning and migration, or proceeding from place to place, is in heaven nothing but change of state, as before shown n. 1376,1379); and therefore, whenever traveling, sojourning, and passing from place to place, occur in the Word, nothing else is suggested to the angels than such change of state as exists with them. There are changes of state of both the thoughts and the affections; changes of the state of the thoughts are knowledges, and in the world of spirits these changes are presented by means of instructions; which also was the reason why the men of the Most Ancient Church, having communication with the angelic heaven, by sojourning perceived nothing else. So in the passage before us, Abram’s going down into Egypt to sojourn, signifies nothing else than the instruction of the Lord.

[2] Similar, too, is the signification of Jacob and his sons’ going down into Egypt; as in Isaiah:

Thus hath said the Lord Jehovih, My people went down in the beginning into Egypt to sojourn there; and Assyria oppressed them without cause (Isaiah 52:4); where “Assyria” denotes reasonings. Hence also in the Jewish Church, those who were being instructed were called “sojourners, sojourning in the midst of them,” concerning whom it was commanded that they should be treated as the homeborn (Exodus 12:48-49; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 15:13-16, 26, 29; 19:10). Of them it is thus written in Ezekiel:

Ye shall divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel. And it shall come to pass that ye shall divide it by lot, for an inheritance unto you and to the sojourners that sojourn in the midst of you; and they shall be unto you as the homeborn among the sons of Israel; with you shall they cast the lot for an inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel; and it shall come to pass that in what tribe the sojourner sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance (Ezekiel 47:21-23).

This is concerning the New Jerusalem, or the Lord’s kingdom; by “the sojourners sojourning” are meant those who suffer themselves to be instructed, consequently the Gentiles; that those are meant who are being instructed, is evident from its being said that in the tribe with which he has sojourned, there his inheritance should be given; “tribes” denote the things that are of faith.

[3] “Sojourning” has also nearly the same signification as “journeying,” and “dwelling.” By “journeying” are signified the arrangements and order of life, and by “dwelling” is signified to live (see above, n. 1293); on which account the land of Canaan is also called the land of the sojournings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 28:4; 36:7; 37:1; Exodus 6:4); and Jacob said unto Pharaoh:

The days of the years of my sojournings, few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their sojournings (Genesis 47:9); where “sojourning” denotes life and instructions.