4855. 'To Timnah' means the state, namely the state when the interests of the Church were consulted. This is also evident from the Book of Judges, where Samson is described as going down to Timnah to take a wife there from the daughters of the Philistines. Judges 14:1-4, 7. There likewise 'Timnah' means a state when the interests of the Church are consulted. The wife he took from the daughters of the Philistines is in the representative sense truth received from what is not good, and so is truth rendered obscure, which is also represented here by 'Tamar' - the Philistines being those who have a knowledge of matters of doctrine regarding faith but who do not lead lives in accordance with these, 1197, 1198, 3412, 3413. In addition to this, the name Timnah appears among the places belonging to the inheritance of the tribe of Dan, Joshua 19:43. All place-names in the Word have spiritual realities and states as their meaning, see 1224, 1264, 1888, 3422, 4298, 4442.

4298. 'And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel' means a state of temptations. This is clear from the train of thought, for in former times names were given to places where some special incident took place, and those names served to mean that incident which took place there, and the state associated with it, 340, 2643, 3422. To this place a name was given which meant a state of temptations, because it is a state of temptations that is described here by Jacob's wrestling and contending. In the original language 'Peniel' means 'the face of God', and the fact that 'seeing the face of God' means suffering the severest temptations will be explained in what follows immediately below.