6432. 'The blessings of the breasts' means with affections for goodness and truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'the breasts' as affections for goodness and truth. 'The breasts' means those affections because the breasts communicate with the generative organs, and for that reason they too belong to the province of conjugial love (regarding that province see 5050-5062). Now conjugial love corresponds to the heavenly marriage, which is a marriage of goodness and truth (for conjugial love comes down from that marriage, see 2618, 2728, 2729, 2803, 3132, 4434, 4835, 6179), and therefore 'the breasts' means affections for goodness and truth. In addition they derive that meaning from the fact that the breasts are what feed infants and so mean, through the affection that goes with breast-feeding, conjugial love when joined to the love of offspring.

[2] The same affections are also meant by 'the breasts' in Isaiah,

You will suck the milk of nations, and the breasts of kings you will suck. Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron silver. Isaiah 60:16-17.

'Sucking the breasts of kings' stands for good obtained from truth, for by 'kings' truths are meant, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148. 'The milk of nations' and 'the breasts of kings' plainly mean some profoundly spiritual matter, for those words would otherwise be meaningless. The fact that goodness and truth are meant is clear from the words that follow, which are 'Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron silver'; for 'bronze' is natural good, 425, 1551, and 'gold' celestial good, 113, 1551, 1552, 5658; 'iron' is natural truth, 425, 426, and 'silver' spiritual truth, 1551, 2954, 5658, 6112.

[3] In Ezekiel,

As regards increase, I gave you to be like the seed of the field, out of which you grew up and matured and reached full beauty; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Ezekiel 16:7.

This refers to Jerusalem, which here means the Ancient spiritual Church. 'Breasts that were formed' stands for interior affections for goodness and truth, 'your hair had grown for exterior affections belonging to the natural - 'hair' being the natural as regards truth, see 3301, 5247, 5569-5573. These words plainly contain a spiritual sense which is not visible in the letter, for without that sense why would it say of Jerusalem that its breasts were formed and its hair had grown?

[4] In the same prophet,

Two women, the daughters of one mother, committed whoredom in Egypt. In their youth they committed whoredom; there their breasts were squeezed, and there they contemplated their virgin busts. Ezekiel 23:2-3, 8, 21.

This passage in Ezekiel states that the two women are Jerusalem and Samaria, by whom Churches are meant in the internal sense. The statement that in their youth they committed whoredom with Egypt means that they falsified the truths of the Church by their use of factual knowledge - 'committing whoredom' is falsifying truths, see 2466, 4865, and 'Egypt' is factual knowledge, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 5700, 5702. Consequently 'their breasts were squeezed' stands for affections for goodness and truth that became perverted through falsifications. The fact that the women's whoredom and the squeezing of their breasts mean such things can be seen by those who are prepared to look into what is meant in the description of those women.

[5] In Hosea,

Contend with your mother, let her remove her whoredoms from her sight, ¹ and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest perhaps I strip her naked, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. Hosea 2:1, 3.

'Mother' here stands for the Church, 289, 2691, 2717, 3703, 4257, 5581, whoredoms' for falsifications of truth, 2466, 4865, 'adulteries' for adulterations of good, 2466, 2729, 3399. Consequently 'adulteries from between her breasts' stands for adulterated affections for goodness and truth, 'stripping naked' for depriving of all truth, 1073, 4958, 5437, 'making like a wilderness, setting like a dry land, and slaying with thirst' for the annihilation of all truth.

[6] In the same prophet,

Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. Hosea 9:14.

'Dry breasts' stands for affections for neither truth nor good. In Isaiah,

O women without anxiety, stand still, hear My voice; O confident daughters, perceive My speech with your ears. Strip and make yourself bare, and gird [sackcloth] around your waist ² - people beating themselves on their breasts for the fields of unmixed wine, and the fruitful vine. Isaiah 32:9, 11-12.

'Daughters' stands for affections, 2362, 3024, 3963, 'being stripped bare' for being deprived of truth, 1073, 4958, 5433, 'girding [sackcloth] around one's waist' for suffering grief over good that has been lost, 'beating on breasts' for suffering grief over the good of truth that has been lost. Since these things are meant, it also says 'for the fields of unmixed wine, and the fruitful vine'; for 'the field' is the Church in respect of good, thus the Church's good, 2971, 3196, 3310, 3766, and 'vine' is the spiritual Church, and therefore the good of truth, 5113, 6375, 6376.

[7] In the Book of Revelation,

I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe, and surrounded by a golden girdle around the breasts. Revelation 1:12-13.

'Golden lampstands' are truths of good, 'the Son of Man' is Divine Truth, 'surrounded by a golden girdle around the breasts' the good of love. Anyone may deduce from the holiness of the Word that the things John saw concealed within themselves realities such as belong to the Lord's kingdom and His Church; for what holiness would there be in making predictions about kingdoms in the world? From this one may recognize that they are heavenly things that are meant by 'lampstands' and by 'the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe, and surrounded by a golden girdle around the breasts'.

[8] In Luke,

A certain woman lifted up her voice out of the crowd; ³ she said about Jesus, Blessed is the womb that carried You, and the breasts that You sucked. But Jesus said, Rather than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Luke 11:27-28.

The Lord's reply shows what 'blessed is the womb' and what 'the breasts' mean - 'those who hear the Word of God and keep it', thus affections for truth which exist with those who hear the Word or God, and affections for good which exist with those who keep it, that is, put it into practice.

სქოლიოები:

4493. 'And they circumcised every male, all who went out of the gate of his city' means the acceptance of externalities. This is clear from the meaning of 'circumcising every male' as being introduced into the representatives and meaningful signs of that people (that is, into those of Jacob's descendants) - solely into the external observances involved in these, dealt with in 4486; and from the meaning of 'going out of the gate of the city' as departing from the doctrine of the Church among the Ancients, dealt with immediately above in 4492. And as the departure from doctrine and the acceptance of externalities is meant, the expression 'those who went out of the gate of his city' occurs twice, without any reference at the same time, as is so elsewhere, to those who went into it. For 'going in' means an acceptance of doctrine and a departure from externalities; but the reverse of this is described here.

[2] The implications of this must now be stated. Members of the Most Ancient Church, the remnants of which Hamor and Shechem with their families were a part, had an entirely different mental constitution and different disposition from adherents to the Ancient Church. The will in the case of the members of the Most Ancient Church contained that which was whole; but this was not so with adherents to the Ancient Church. Because of this the Lord was able with members of the Most Ancient Church to flow in through the will, and therefore by an internal way, but not so with adherents to the Ancient Church, since in these the will had been destroyed. But the Lord flowed into their understanding, and so not by an internal way but by an external one, as stated above in 4489. Flowing in through the will involves flowing in through the good of love, for all good belongs to the will part of the mind, whereas flowing in through the understanding involves flowing in through the truth of faith, for all truth belongs to the understanding part. Within the latter - the understanding - the Lord formed, in the case of adherents to the Ancient Church, a new will when He regenerated them. For goods and truths were implanted in the will part of the mind of members of the Most Ancient Church, see 895, 927, but in the understanding part of that of adherents to the Ancient Church, 863, 875, 895, 927, 2124, 2256, 4328. The new will is formed within the understanding part of the mind, 928, 1023, 1043, 1044, 4328. A parallelism exists between the Lord and the good residing with man, but not between Him and the truth there, 1831, 1832, 2718, 3514. As a consequence adherents to the Ancient Church dwelt in obscurity compared with members of the Most Ancient, 2708, 2715, 2935, 2937, 3246, 3833. From all this it may be seen that members of the Most Ancient Church had an entirely different mental constitution and different disposition from adherents to the Ancient Church.

[3] It was for this reason that those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church were internal people and had no external forms of worship, while those who belonged to the Ancient Church were external people and did have them. For the former saw external things in the light of internal ones, as if by the light of the sun in the daytime, whereas the latter saw internal things in the light of external ones, as if by the light of the moon or stars at night. This also explains why the Lord is seen by the former in heaven as the Sun, but by the latter as the Moon, 1521, 1529-1531, 2441, 2495, 4060. The former are those who in explanations above are called celestial, the latter those who are called spiritual.

[4] To illustrate the essential difference between the two let an example be taken. If a member of the Most Ancient Church had read the Word, the historical or the prophetical, he would have seen its internal sense without prior instruction or any explanation. He would have seen it so perfectly that the celestial and spiritual things belonging to the internal sense would have instantly met his eyes, and scarcely anything belonging to the sense of the letter. Thus the internal sense would have been for him in brightness, but the sense of the letter in obscurity. He would be like someone listening to a person speaking, and taking in only the sense and paying no attention to the words used by the speaker. But if a member of the Ancient Church had read the Word he would not have been able, without prior instruction or explanation, to see its internal sense, and so the internal sense would have been for him in obscurity but the sense of the letter in brightness. He would be like someone listening to a person speaking and in thought hanging on to the words used by him, all the while paying no attention to the sense of them, which would therefore be lost on him. But when a member of the Jewish Church reads the Word he does not understand anything beyond the sense of the letter. He does not know of and also denies the existence of any internal sense. And it is similar with the member of the Christian Church at the present day.

[5] These considerations show the essential difference between those represented here by Hamor and Shechem who, being part of the remnants of the Most Ancient Church, were interested in internal things and not in external ones, and those meant by the sons of Jacob who were interested in external things and not in internal ones. Those considerations show in addition that Hamor and Shechem could not have acceded to external things and accepted those which existed among the sons of Jacob unless their internals were closed. But if these had been closed they would have perished for ever.

[6] This is the hidden reason why Hamor and Shechem with their families were slain, a deed that would not otherwise have been allowed. Not that this absolves the sons of Jacob from blame for having committed that hideous crime. They had no knowledge of that hidden reason, nor did they have that as their end in view. Everyone is judged according to the end he has in view, that is, his intention; and it is plainly stated in verse 13 that their intention was deceitful. When the Lord allows any such crime as this it is carried out by the evil and by those in hell who instigate it. But all evil which the evil intend and do to the good the Lord converts into good, as is the case here in that Hamor and Shechem with their families were [eternally] saved.