5998. And sacrificed sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. That this signifies worship therefrom and influx from the Divine intellectual, is evident from the signification of “sacrificing sacrifices,” as being worship (see n. 922, 923, 2180); and from the representation of Isaac, as being in the supreme sense the Divine rational or intellectual of the the Lord, (n. 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210). That influx therefrom into worship is signified, follows, for the worship meant is that from charity and faith, which are signified by “Beersheba” (n. 5997), where he sacrificed. That Jacob sacrificed to the God of his father Isaac, shows what was the nature of the fathers of the Jewish and Israelitish nation, namely, that each of them worshiped his own God. That the God of Isaac was a God other than Jacob’s, is evident from the fact that he sacrificed to him, and that in the visions of the night it was said unto him, “I am God, the God of thy father;” and also from the fact that he swore by the same in these words: “The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us; and Jacob sware by the Dread of his father Isaac” (Genesis 31:53). And it is also evident that at first Jacob did not acknowledge Jehovah, for he said, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way in which I walk, and will give me bread to eat, and garment to put on, and I return in peace to my father’s house, then shall Jehovah be my God” (Genesis 28:20-21). Thus he acknowledged Jehovah conditionally.

[2] It was their custom to acknowledge the gods of their fathers, but their own in especial. This custom they derived from their fathers in Syria; for Terah, Abram’s father, and also Abram himself when there, worshiped other gods than Jehovah (n. 1356, 1992, 3667). Their posterity, who were called “Jacob” and “Israel,” were consequently of such a disposition that at heart they worshiped the gods of the Gentiles, and Jehovah only with the mouth and in name alone. The reason why they were such was that they were in externals alone without any internal, and such men can believe no otherwise than that worship consists merely in uttering the name of God and in saying that He is their God, and this so long as He is their benefactor; and that worship does not at all consist in a life of charity and faith.

1896. And her name was Hagar. That this signifies the life of the exterior or natural man, may be seen from what has been said, and also from the meaning of “Hagar,” which is “a stranger” or “sojourner.” Strangers represented those who were to be instructed, and sojourning represented instruction and also principles of life [vitae instituta], as shown above (n. 1463). When anyone’s name is stated in the Word, as here that “her name was Hagar,” it signifies that something is involved in the name to which attention should be given, for to “call by name” means to know a person’s quality (as before shown, n. 144, 145, 340). No syllable in the Word is there without a cause, or without a signification in the internal sense of some actual thing.