432. Verse 5. Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand sealed; of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand sealed; of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand sealed.

5. "Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand sealed," signifies love to the Lord, and that all who are in that love are in heaven, and come into heaven n. 433; "of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand sealed," signifies the light of truth from that good, and that all who are in that light are in heaven and come into heaven n. 434; "of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand sealed," signifies the consequent good of life (n. 435, 436).

4913. 'Seeing that I have not given her to Shelah my son' means because what was external was of such a nature. This becomes clear from what has been explained already - that Tamar could not be given to Shelah, Judah's son, because if she had been the joining together would have been as that of a wife and husband married to each other through the law of leviratical marriage. But the semblance of religion existing among the Jewish nation which he was to represent was not like that husband but like a father-in-law joined to a daughter-in-law as to a prostitute.