2637. 'When Isaac his son was born to him' means when the Lord's Rational was made Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'being born' as being manifested, dealt with in 2584, 2621, 2629, and from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Divine Rational, dealt with in 2630. The latter is said 'to be born' to Abraham when it has been made Divine, as also in verse 3 above, 'Abraham called the name of his son born to him', see 2628.

2621. That 'conceived and bore' means received essential being and was given manifestation - that is to say, the Divine Rational received and was given these from the Lord's Divine spiritual united to His Divine celestial - is clear from the meaning of 'conceiving and bearing'. The fact that no other kind of conceptions and bearings or childbirths is meant in the internal sense of the Word but spiritual and celestial ones, see 2584. But here Divine conceivings and bearings are meant because the subject is the Lord's Rational when it had been made Divine; to Him, that is, to the Lord, are Being and Manifestation pre-eminently attributable since He alone has [underived] Being and Manifestation. In addition to this, Being and Manifestation appear to be almost the same as each other, but they are not. Every person or thing receives Being by conception but Manifestation by being born; so that Being is prior to Manifestation as conception is prior to birth.

[2] The soul constitutes a person's essential Being, while the powers of the senses or the body constitute the Manifestation of it; for the former manifests itself in the latter. Celestial and spiritual love is the Being itself of one who is being regenerated, while the rational part and the sensory part of him - when these are endowed with that love - are the Manifestation of it. The same may be said of every single thing in the universe, for nothing ever exists without conception to give it Being and birth to give it Manifestation. This may also be illustrated for learned people from the idea that every effect has its cause, and every cause has its end. The end is the Being of the cause, and the cause is the Manifestation of the end. In the same way the cause is the Being of the effect, and the effect is the Manifestation of the cause.