4351. 'And embraced him' means a first joining together effected by love. This is clear from the meaning of 'embracing' as affection, dealt with in 3807; and since all affection is essentially love, and love strives to effect conjunction, it is a joining together effected by love that is therefore meant here. The reason why a first joining together effected by love is meant is that the words 'he fell on his neck' follow and after that 'he kissed him', which mean closer and more interior joinings together brought about by love. It is plain without any further explanation that 'embracing' means the outward expression that flows from a joining together effected by love, and consequently means in the internal sense that joining together. For the ideas which belong to the internal sense present themselves in the Word by means of external events.

As with common verbs in general, the meaning of “come” in the Bible is highly dependent on context – its meaning is determined largely by who is coming to whom and the circumstances of the action. In general, though, to come to someone - or to come to a place - represents the presence of one spiritual state with another, communication from one to the other and ultimately conjunction between them.