8587. 'And he called the name of the place Massah' means the essential nature of the state of the temptation. This is clear from the meaning of 'name' and 'calling the name' as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2628, 2724, 3006, 3421, 6674, 6887; and from the meaning of 'the place' as the state, dealt with in 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381. The reason why the essential nature of the state of the temptation is meant is that the temptation is the subject. The essential nature of its state is meant by 'Massah'; also Massah in the original language means temptation. The essential nature of it will be stated in what follows next.

3385. 'And the men of the place asked about his wife' means questions that people ask about Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'asking about' as the asking of questions; from the meaning of 'the men of the place (that is to say, of Gerar)' as people who possess matters of doctrine concerning faith - 'Gerar' meaning matters of faith, see 1209, 2504, and so 'the men of the place' people whose state is such; and from the meaning of 'wife', who is Rebekah here, as the Divine Truth of the Lord's Divine Rational, dealt with in 3012, 3013, 3077. The subject in previous verses has been the consideration that appearances of truth are the product of Divine influx from the Lord into a person's rational concepts. Now the subject is the reception of those appearances, and indeed first by people who possess matters of doctrine concerning faith, and who are meant by 'the men of the place (which is Gerar)' who belong to the first class of those called spiritual. In fact because these do not have perception, as those who are celestial do, and in comparison with whom they are in obscurity, 1043, 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715, 2718, 2831, 3235, 3241, 3246, they always question whether a thing is so, and also whether it is Divine Truth. And because they do not have perception by which they see whether it is so, they are given something which is an appearance of the truth, such as falls within the range of their rational thought, that is, within their mental grasp and so can be received by them. Everyone is allowed to believe truths in the measure that he understands them. If this were not so there would be no reception of them because there would be no acknowledgement. These are the matters which are the subject now.