4355. Verses 5-7 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and their sons, and said, Who are these with you? And he said, The sons whom God has graciously bestowed on your servant. And the servant-girls came near, they and their sons, and bowed down. And Leah also came near, then her sons, and they bowed down; and after that Joseph came near, then Rachel, and they bowed down.

'He lifted up his eyes' means a perception . . . 'And saw the women and their sons' means, of the affections for truth and of the truths which belong to those affections. 'And said, Who are these with you?' means acknowledgement. 'And he said, The sons whom God has graciously bestowed on your servant' means truths conferred by Divine Providence. 'And the servant-girls came near, they and their sons, and bowed down' means sensory knowledge and its truths, and their submission. 'And Leah also came near, then her sons, and they bowed down' means the affection for the truth of faith so far as exterior things and their truths are concerned, and their submissive introduction. 'And after that Joseph came near, then Rachel, and they bowed down' means affections for the truth of faith so far as interior things are concerned, and their submissive introduction.

To bow in prayer is common in most religious practices, so it's not surprising that “to bow” in the Bible represents humility and worship in a general sense. But there are some interesting nuances. “Bowing” on its own represents only external humility and expresses the state of those motivated by truth - which tends to be rather rigid and unbending. To “bow down,” however, indicates a more internal humility, based on a desire to be good - a state which is much more flexible. Bowing with our faces to the ground has special significance. Our faces represent our interior spiritual states and the dust of the ground represents things that are profane and condemned - so bowing with our faces to the ground shows that we acknowledge the Lord's influence, and that without him we would be as profane and condemned as that dust.

To bow, as in Genesis 18:2 signifies to humble.