3911. Who withholdeth from thee the fruit of the belly. That this signifies that this must be from the internal, is evident from the signification that results from the internal sense of the words; for in the internal sense the “fruit of the belly” signifies the like as “birth,” namely, the acknowledgment of truth and good in faith and in act (n. 3905); and what is more, the consequent conjunction of truth and good. This acknowledgment and conjunction cannot come forth from the external man, but from the internal; for all good inflows from the Lord through the internal man into the external, and there adopts the truths that are insinuated by means of the sensuous things of the external man, and causes the man to acknowledge them in faith and act, and causes them to be adjoined and thus appropriated to the man. That all good inflows from the Lord through the internal man into the truths gathered in the memory of the external man, has been repeatedly shown before. This is what is meant by the explication of the words before us-that this must be from the internal.

3905. And Rachel saw that she did not bear to Jacob. That this signifies that interior truth was not yet acknowledged, is evident from the representation of Rachel, as being the affection of interior truth, or interior truth itself (n. 3758, 3782, 3793, 3819); from the signification of “bearing,” as being to acknowledge in faith and also in act (concerning which below); and from the representation of Jacob, as being the good of natural truth (of which n. 3669, 3677, 3829, and in the whole of the preceding chapter). The reason why “to bear” is to acknowledge in faith and also in act, is that by “births” in the Word are signified spiritual births (n. 1145, 1255, 3860, 3868). Spiritual birth is the acknowledgment of and faith in truth and good; here, the acknowledgment in faith and also in act, namely, of the interior truth represented by Rachel. As nothing is acknowledged in faith until the man lives according to it, it is for this reason said, “the acknowledgment in faith and also in act.” Truths of faith which are not learned for the sake of doing, but only for the sake of knowing them, join themselves to the affections of evil and falsity; for which reason they are not of faith with the man who has learned them, but are interiorly contrary to faith.