8300. Verses 11-13 Who is like You among the gods, O Jehovah? Who is like You, magnificent in holiness, to be venerated with praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. In Your mercy You have led this people [whom] you have redeemed; in Your strength You have brought them to the dwelling-place of Your holiness.

'Who is like You among the gods, O Jehovah?' means that every truth of good emanates from the Lord's Divine Human. 'Who is like You in holiness' means that He is the Source of everything holy. 'To be venerated with praises' means that to Him alone belong glory and thanksgiving. 'Doing wonders?' means that He is the Source of all the means through which comes power. 'You stretched out Your right hand' means that the exercising of power over all things became apparent from this. 'The earth swallowed them' means that as a result simply of His presence damnation and hell befell them. 'In Your mercy You have led this people' means the Divine flowing in among those who have been refraining from evils and consequently receiving good. 'You have redeemed' means those whom He has delivered from hell. 'In Your strength You have brought them to the dwelling-place of Your holiness' means that the Lord's Divine power has raised them to heaven, to the Divine there.

2586. 'For Jehovah had completely closed every womb of Abimelech's house' means sterility, that is to say, of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'completely closing the womb' as preventing conception itself, and from the meaning of 'Abimelech's house' as the good that belongs to the doctrine of faith, from which it is evident that sterility is meant. The reason why in this chapter the name 'God' is used up to this point, and 'Jehovah' for the first time now, is that 'God' is used when truth is the subject but 'Jehovah' when good is the subject. Doctrine is conceived wholly from good as the father, but birth is given to it through truth as the mother, as stated several times already. Here it is the conception of it that is dealt with, and because it is conceived from good the name 'Jehovah' is used; but above it is the birth of it that is dealt with, and because it is given birth through truth the name 'God' is used, as in the previous verse, 'God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his women servants, and they gave birth'.

[2] Similarly in other places in the Word where conception is referred to, as in Isaiah,

Jehovah has called me from the womb. Jehovah who formed me from the womb has said.... I will at that time be precious to Jehovah, and my God will be my strength. Isaiah 49:1, 5.

'Strength' has reference to truth and therefore 'God' is used. In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, your Maker, and He who formed you from the womb. Isaiah 44:2, 24.

And elsewhere. For the same reason also the phrase 'Abimelech's house' is used, which means the good that belongs to the doctrine of faith. As regards 'a house' meaning good, see 2048, 2233, and 'Abimelech' the doctrine of faith, 2509, 2510. The statements that 'they gave birth' and 'the wombs of Abimelech's house were closed on account of Sarah', it is evident, hold a Divine arcanum within them, but this arcanum cannot possibly be disclosed except by means of the internal sense.