4278. 'And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him' means that truth did not as yet have the power to join itself completely to good. This is clear from the meaning of 'being out of joint' as a situation in which truths have not yet been arranged into such an order that together with good they could all enter celestial-spiritual good, dealt with in the explanation at verse 31 below. The meaning as a consequence is that truth did not as yet have the power to join itself completely to good, for 'the hollow of the thigh' means the place where different kinds of good are joined together, as stated immediately above in 4277.

6265. 'And Joseph brought them away from his thighs' means that the good belonging to the will and the truth belonging to the understanding were brought away from an affection originating in love on the part of spiritual good. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal celestial, dealt with in 5869, 5877; from the representation of Manasseh and Ephraim, the ones here whom 'Joseph brought away', as the good belonging to the will and the truth belonging to the understanding, dealt with in 5354, 6222; from the meaning of 'the thighs' as an affection originating in love, dealt with in 3021, 4277, 4280, 4575, 5050-5062; and on the part of spiritual good is meant because they were brought away from Israel, who represents spiritual good, 6253. The words used here mean that the internal celestial took good belonging to the will and truth belonging to the understanding away from spiritual good, that is, away from the affection arising from its love; they have this meaning because 'Israel', who represents spiritual good, had made that goodness and truth draw near him. Besides this they had to be brought to him by Joseph, who represents the internal celestial; for that reason they were brought away and after that, as described in what follows, were brought to him again by Joseph.

[2] The explanation for all this is that the inflow of love came to that goodness and truth from the internal celestial by way of spiritual good - in keeping with true order. That external procedure had therefore to be strictly adhered to when they were going to be blessed; for they were being presented to the Lord, the Source of the foretelling meant here by the blessing, 6254. This now explains why Joseph brought his sons away from his father's thighs, and why he himself after that brought them to him again.

6238. 'As Reuben and Simeon will they be mine' means that they will be truth and the good of truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Reuben' as faith in the understanding, and the truth of doctrine by means of which one is able to arrive at the good of life, dealt with in 3861, 3866, thus in general truth that belongs to the understanding; and from the representation of 'Simeon' as faith in the will, consequently truth realized in action, which is the good of faith or the good of truth, dealt with in 3869-3872, 4497, 4502, 4503, 5626, 5630, thus in general good which belongs to the new will. The things that Ephraim and Manasseh represent are clearly similar to all this.

[2] But since Reuben profaned what he represented, 4601, and Simeon polluted what he represented, 4497, 4501, 4507, on account of which they were cursed, see verses 3-7 of the next chapter, they lost their birthright and Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh were acknowledged as the firstborn in place of them, 1 Chronicles 5:1. Nevertheless what Reuben and Simeon represented remained with them, for it makes no difference what the character of the person who serves to represent something is like, 665, l097 (end), 4281. That is to say, the representation of faith in the understanding remained with Reuben, and the representation of faith in the will with Simeon. But what resided with Ephraim was the representation of the Church's understanding, and what resided with Manasseh was the representation of the Church's will.