4277. 'And he touched the hollow of his thigh' means where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. This is clear from the meaning of 'the thigh' as conjugial love, and consequently as all celestial and spiritual love, since these are derived from conjugial love as offspring from their parent, dealt with in 3021; and from the meaning of 'the hollow' or socket or cavity of it - that is to say, of the thigh - as the place where the joining together exists, and here therefore where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. But no one can be told anything about that conjunction unless he knows first of all what celestial-spiritual good, meant by 'Israel', is, and what natural good, meant by 'Jacob', is. It will be told below at verse 28 where Jacob, who at that point is named Israel, is the subject and also further on where Jacob's descendants are the subject.

6266. 'And bowed down, his face to the earth' means an expression of humility by them. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowing down, face to the earth' as an expression of interior humility, dealt with in 5682. For that kind of bowing down is an action performed by the body corresponding to humility of mind; and it explains why people who worship God in their hearts bow down in that manner. It is said that Joseph 'bowed down' because he was acting in place of them; yet he did not bow down before Israel but before the Lord, from whom the blessing came through Israel.

[2] Joseph did it in place of them because of the situation in spiritual things. Good belonging to the will and truth belonging to the understanding within the natural possess no ability on their own to humble themselves before the Lord; they can possess it only if it flows in from the internal. In fact without an inflow through the internal into the natural, nothing at all of the powers of will and understanding are present there, nor indeed any life since the internal is the means through which life from the Lord comes to be there.