3145. 'And he ungirded the camels' means freedom for the things that were to be subservient. This is clear from the meaning of 'ungirding' as freeing, and from the meaning of 'the camels' as general facts, and so things that were to be subservient, as dealt with just above in 3143. The situation is that without freedom no production of truth ever takes place in the natural man, nor summoning of it from there into the rational man, where it becomes joined to good. It is in a state of freedom that all these things come about, for it is the affection for truth springing from good that sets them free. Unless truth is learned with an affection for it, and so in freedom, it is not even implanted in the mind, let alone raised up towards the interior parts of the mind to become faith there. For all reformation is effected in freedom; all freedom goes together with affection, and the Lord keeps man in freedom so that he can - as if of himself and from what is his own - have an affection for what is true and good and so be regenerated, see 2870-2893. These are the things meant by 'he ungirded the camels'; and unless those things were meant, the details recorded here would have been too trivial to mention.

2870. HUMAN FREEDOM

Few know what freedom is and what non-freedom is. Freedom seems to entail everything that is in keeping with any love and associated delight, and non-freedom to entail everything that is at variance with these. That which is in keeping with self-love and love of the world, and with the desires belonging to those loves, seems to man to be freedom; but that is the freedom of hell. That however which is in keeping with love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, consequently with the love of what is good and true, is true freedom, being the freedom that exists in heaven.