6003. And He said, I am God, the God of thy father. That this signifies the Divine intellectual from which is the influx, is evident from the representation of Isaac, who is here the “father,” as being the Divine rational or intellectual of the Lord (see ab ove n. 5998); for it is said, “God, the God of thy father.” That the influx is from this is because all truth is of the intellectual, thus also natural truth, which is represented by Jacob (n. 6001). (What the Divine rational or intellectual is which is represented by Isaac, see n. 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210.) In the original tongue, “God” is named in the first place in the singular, but in the second place in the plural; that is, in the first the name is “El,” and in the second it is “Elohim.” The reason is that by “God” in the first place is signified that there is one God and only one, and by “God” in the second place that He has many attributes. Thus arises the name “Elohim” or “God” in the plural, as in the Word almost everywhere. As there are many attributes, and the Ancient Church assigned a name to each, therefore its descendants, with whom the knowledge of such things was lost, believed there were many gods, and each family chose one of them for its God-as Abraham, Shaddai (n. 1992, 3667, 5628), and Isaac, the God who was called “Pachad” or “Dread.” And as the God of each was one of the Divine attributes, therefore the Lord said unto Abram, “I am God Shaddai” (Genesis 17:1), and here unto Jacob, “I am the God of thy father.”

2066. And I will give thee a son from her also. That this signifies the rational, is evident from the signification of a “son,” as being truth (see n. 489, 491, 533, 1147); and as all that is rational begins from truth, the rational is here signified by a “son.” The Lord’s first rational was represented and signified by Ishmael, born of Hagar the handmaid treated of in the preceding chapter 16. . The second rational, treated of here, is represented and signified by Isaac who was to be born from Sarah. The former, that is, the rational represented by Ishmael, was the rational that was afterwards expelled from the house; but this second rational, represented by Isaac, is that which remained in the house, because it was Divine. But concerning this rational, of the Lord’s Divine mercy we shall speak in the following chapter, where Isaac is treated of.