2858. 'And went together to Beersheba' means advancement in the doctrine of charity and faith, which doctrine is Divine and to which human rational ideas were allied. This is clear from the meaning of 'Beersheba' as the doctrine of charity and faith, which is Divine and to which human rational ideas were allied, dealt with in 2614, 2723. Human rational ideas are meant by 'the servants', 2782, 2792, 2856; and that the doctrine to which they were allied was Divine is meant by the statement about them going together with Abraham, see 2767.

2767. That 'so it was after these events' means after these things had taken place is clear without explanation. These things, which have received explanation, are those to do with Abimelech and Abraham's making a covenant in Beersheba, and finally with Abraham's establishment of a grove in Beersheba, by which was meant that human rational ideas were allied to the doctrine of faith, which in itself is Divine. Now the subject becomes the temptation of the Lord as regards the Rational, meant by Isaac; for by means of temptations the Lord made His Human Divine, and thus His Rational in which the human has its beginnings, 2106, 2194. He made it Divine by suppressing and driving out everything in the rational which was merely human, that is, which was the maternal human. The present verse serves as the link between the matters dealt with in the previous chapter and those dealt with in this; hence the words that occur here, 'So it was after these events, that God tempted Abraham'.