2867. Verse 24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah; she too bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maakah.

'His concubine, whose name was Reumah' means gentiles whose worship was idolatrous but in whom good was present. 'She too bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maakah' means their various religions. These constitute a third group of spiritual people who are saved.

2051. That 'he must be circumcised' ¹ means that they, namely those inside the Church meant by him 'born in the house' and him 'bought with silver', must completely remove from themselves self-love and love of the world is clear from the representation of 'circumcision' as purification from self-love and love of the world, dealt with above in 2039. Here the requirement for them to be circumcised is repeated in the command 'he must be circumcised ¹ ' which expresses the necessity for them to be purified completely from those loves. And because it means those who are inside the Church no reference is made here to sons who are foreigners, for the latter, as shown above in 2049, mean those outside the Church.

[2] From this repetition of what has been stated in the previous verse concerning those 'born in the house' and those 'bought with silver', anyone may see that there is a Divine arcanum that is not evident from the sense of the letter. The arcanum is that purification from those foul loves is absolutely vital inside the Church, for the reason also that people inside the Church are capable of rendering sacred things unclean, something that those outside the Church, that is, gentiles, cannot do. For this reason those inside the Church stand in greater danger of condemnation. What is more, those inside the Church are capable of formulating and adopting false assumptions that are contrary to truths of faith themselves, whereas those outside the Church cannot do so because they have no knowledge of those truths. Thus those inside the Church are capable of profaning sacred truths, but not those outside. For more on these matters, see Volume One, in 1059, 1327, 1328.

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