6298. 'And he blessed them on this day' means Foresight and Providence continuing for ever. This is clear from the meaning of 'blessing' as a foretelling, dealt with in 6230, 6254, but in the highest sense the Lord's Foresight (and as Foresight is meant, so also is Providence since the one does not exist without the other; for evil belongs to Foresight, but good to Providence, and evil that is foreseen is turned by Providence towards good. The reason why 'blessing' here means Foresight and Providence is that in the highest sense 'Israel', who gives the blessing, is the Lord, 4286); and from the meaning of 'on this day' or today as that which is eternal, dealt with in 2838, 7998, 4304, 6165.

6230. 'And blessed me' means a foretelling about a bestowal of life. This is clear from the meaning here of 'blessing' as a foretelling regarding a bestowal of life; for the blessing was that He would make him fruitful and multiply him, make him into a congregation of peoples, and give the land to his seed after him as an everlasting possession, which are all part of the foretelling about the bestowal of life. Not that Jacob's descendants were to have life bestowed on them but those who have the truth of faith and the good of charity in them; for these are the ones who are meant in the internal sense by 'Jacob and Israel'.