5598. 'And our generation' means regarding the truths of faith there. This is clear from the meaning of 'generation' as the birth of truth from good or faith from charity, dealt with in 1145, 1255, 4070, 4668. The reason 'generation' has this meaning in the internal sense is that in heaven no other kind of birth is meant than what is called regeneration, which is effected by means of the truth of faith and the good of charity. By this kind of generation or birth the children of men become the children of the Lord; these are they who are called 'the born of God' in John 1:13. The variations that exist in the offspring of good from truth and truth from good within that kind of generation are what determine the brotherly or blood relationships and the relationships by marriage that exist in heaven.

[2] In heaven unending variations exist; but those variations are effected by the Lord in such a way that they resemble families in which there are brothers, sisters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandsons, granddaughters, and so on. In general however all are organized into the kind of form that makes one united whole. They are like the variations within the human body, in which no one member is exactly the same as any other; indeed no one part within any member is the same as any other part. Even so, all those varying parts are organized into the kind of form in which they act as a single whole, and each fits in directly or remotely with the activity of another. Seeing a form such as this in the human being, one may deduce what the form must be like in heaven, with which there is a correspondence - a most perfect one - of everything in the human being.

4668. 'These are the generations of Jacob' means the things that follow. This is clear from the meaning of 'generations' as derivatives of the things which constitute the Church - truth derived from good, or faith from love - for no other generations are meant in the internal sense of the Word. These are also the subject in what follows, and this is why it is said that 'the generations of Jacob' means the things which follow. That things like these are meant by 'generations' is also evident from the fact that in what follows no subsequent generations are recorded. Instead Joseph, his dreams, his brothers' designs against him are described, and lastly the carrying away of him into Egypt. As regards 'generations' meaning derivatives of the kinds of things mentioned above, see 1145, 1255, 1330, 3263, 3279, 3860, 3868, 4070.