3671. 'You and your seed with you' means to the good and the truth born from this good. This is clear from the representation of Jacob, to whom 'you' refers here, as the good of truth, or good that is a product of truth, dealt with above, and from the meaning of 'seed' as the good and truth of faith, dealt with in 1025, 1447, 1610, 2848, 3373. 'With you' means that it was allied to the good of truth, represented by 'Jacob'. Good and truth are like seeds and the soil. Interior good is like seed that is productive, though not unless it is sown in good soil. Exterior good and truth are like the soil in which it is made productive. The former, that is to say, the seed, which is interior good and truth, cannot otherwise take root. This is why a person's rational is regenerated first of all, for the rational is where the seeds are; then after that the natural is regenerated to serve as the soil for them, 3286, 3288, 3321, 3368, 3493, 3576, 3620, 3623. And because the natural is like the soil, good and truth can be made fruitful and be multiplied within the rational, which could not take place if the soil where the seed has its root were anywhere else. From this comparison one may see as in a mirror what regeneration is like and the numerous arcana that go with it.

[2] Understanding good and truth and willing them is the function of the rational, and perceptions of good and truth resulting from this are like seeds; but knowing them and doing them is the function of the natural. Facts and deeds are like the soil. When a person has an affection for the facts that corroborate what is good and true, the more so when he experiences joy in acting them out, those facts are seeds that are present and growing in the natural as their own proper soil; and there they grow. As a consequence good is made fruitful and truth is multiplied, and they are constantly springing up out of that soil into the rational and perfecting it. The situation is different when a person understands what is good and true, and also interiorly perceives that he wills something, and yet does not desire to know these things, let alone do them. In that case good cannot be made fruitful nor truth be multiplied within the rational.

3620. 'I loathe my life on account of the daughters of Heth' means a connection with natural truth from some other source. This is clear from the meaning of 'loathing one's life' as no connection, that is to say, of the truth of the natural with the truth of the rational - for when these two are not connected to each other it seems to the rational as though its own life were no life, as may be seen from what has been stated above in 3493; and from the meaning of 'the daughters of Heth' as affections for truth from a non-genuine source, in this case affections for natural truth, since Rebekah said this to Jacob who, as shown above, represents natural truth. For 'the daughters' means affections, see 2362, and 'Heth' or Hittite truth from a non-genuine source, 3470. From these meanings it is clear that 'I loathe my life on account of the daughters of Heth' means that there should not be any connection with the natural through truth which does not come from a genuine source, thus that no connection with natural truth from some other source should exist. The connection with natural truth is dealt with later on where Jacob's stay with Laban is the subject - that is to say, when truths from a common stem have been joined on to it. Since the truths which 'the daughters of Heth' represent did not come from that common stem no connection of them with natural truth was possible, because they were dissimilar and did not accord with it. Actually the spiritual Church among gentiles, 2913, 2956, is represented by 'the sons of Heth', but as the Word does not exist in that Church the Word is not the source of its truths.