10646. 'For Jehovah the Jealous One is His name, God the Jealous One is He' means that if any other is worshipped Divine Good and Divine Truth depart. This is clear from the meaning of 'a jealous one' as somebody who does not allow anyone other than himself to be loved and worshipped; and from the meaning of 'Jehovah's name' as everything by means of which the Lord is worshipped, dealt with in 2724, 3006, 6674, 9310. And since this is Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Human, the Lord's Divine Human is what 'Jehovah's name' is used to mean in the highest sense, 2628, 6887, 8274. Divine Truth is the Lord Himself as He exists in heaven; for what emanates from Him is Himself. From the Divine nothing other than what is Divine can emanate; and what is Divine is one. From this it is evident that 'the Jealous One is His name' means that the Lord does not allow anyone other than Himself to be worshipped, because He alone is the Source of all the truth and all the good that lead to salvation. The Lord is called the Jealous One because as soon as any other is worshipped all truth and good depart. For goodness and truth, of which the Lord is the Source, are the means by which a person is linked to Him; therefore as soon as another is worshipped the link is severed, and falsity replaces truth and evil replaces good.

[2] The reason why He is called the Jealous One twice - Jehovah the Jealous One and God the Jealous One - is that Jehovah is used to mean Divine Good and God to mean Divine Truth. (In the Word the Lord is called Jehovah where Divine Good is the subject, but He is called God where Divine Truth is the subject, see 2586, 2769, 2921, 6303, 6905, 10158, 10617.) And since both depart from a person when someone other than the Lord is worshipped He is called the Jealous One twice.

[3] It is said that the Lord alone is to be worshipped. Anyone unacquainted with the nature of true worship of the Lord may think that the Lord loves to be worshipped and desires glory from people, like someone who grants another person what he requests because that other person pays him respect. Anyone who thinks like that has no idea at all of what love is like, let alone of what God's love is like. God in His love does not desire worship and glory for His own sake but for that of man and his salvation. For humility exists in those who worship the Lord and give Him glory, and from those in whom humility exists the proprium or what belongs to self departs. And so far as this departs, the Divine is received; for the proprium or self, being evil and false, is the one thing that stands in the way of the Divine. This is the glory of the Lord, and worship of Him exists to that end. Glory for the sake of self exists as a result of self-love; but heavenly love, and infinitely more so God's love, is as different from self-love as heaven is from hell.

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.