3375. And I will set up the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father. That this signifies confirmation, is evident from the signification of an “oath,” or of “swearing,” as being confirmation (n. 2842). It is not here said to “set up the covenant” made with Abraham, but the “oath,” for the reason that a “covenant” is predicated of the celestial or of good, but an “oath” of the spiritual or of truths (n. 3037), which are the subject here treated of. And for the same reason in what follows it is not said of Isaac that he “made a covenant with Abimelech,” but that he “sware a man to his brother” (verse 31); whereas it is said of Abraham that he and Abimelech “made a covenant” (Genesis 21:32; see Psalms 105:8-10). By the confirmation here referred to which is signified by an “oath,” there is meant the conjunction of the Lord with those who are in His kingdom; for an “oath” is the confirmation of a covenant; and by a “covenant” is signified conjunction (n. 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021).

2021. For an eternal covenant. That this signifies conjunction with these, is evident from the signification of a “covenant,” as being conjunction (explained before, n. 665, 666, 1023, 1038) and that it is with those who are called his “seed” is evident from its immediately following, and because a “covenant” is spoken of a second time in this verse. The “covenant” first spoken of refers to the union of Jehovah with the Human Essence, and the second mention of a “covenant” refers to the conjunction with those who are the seed. In order that a more distinct idea may be formed concerning the union of the Lord’s Divine Essence with His Human Essence, and concerning the Lord’s conjunction with the human race through the faith of charity, it may be well here and in what follows to call the former Union, but the latter Conjunction. Between the Lord’s Divine Essence and His Human Essence there was a Union; but between the Lord and the human race there is a Conjunction, through the faith of charity, as is evident from the fact that Jehovah or the Lord is Life, and that His Human Essence also was made Life, as shown above, and between Life and Life there is Union. Whereas man is not Life, but a recipient of life, as also has been shown before; and when Life flows into a recipient of life, there is conjunction; for it is adapted to the recipient as is the active to the passive, or as that which is in itself alive to that which is in itself dead, and which lives therefrom. The principal and the instrumental-as they are termed-do indeed appear to be conjoined together as if they were a one, but still they are not a one; for the former is by itself, and the latter is by itself. Man does not live from himself, but the Lord in mercy adjoins man to Himself and thereby causes him to live to eternity; and because the Lord and man are thus distinct, it is called conjunction.