4568. And God said to him, Thy name is Jacob. That this signifies the quality of the Lord’s external Divine natural, is evident from the signification of “name,” as being quality (see n. 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, 3421); and from the representation of Jacob, as being the Lord’s Divine natural, of which often above. It is called external, because “Israel” is the Lord’s internal Divine natural, of which in what now follows.

144. That to “call by name” signifies to know the quality, is because the ancients, by the “name” understood the essence of a thing, and by “seeing and calling by name” they understood to know the quality. The reason was that they gave names to their sons and daughters according to the things which were signified, for every name had something peculiar in it, from which, and by which, they might know the origin and the nature of their children, as will be seen in a future part of this work, when, of the Lord’s Divine mercy, we come to treat of the twelve sons of Jacob. As therefore the names implied the source and quality of the things named, nothing else was understood by “calling by name.” This was the customary mode of speaking among them, but one who does not understand this may wonder that such things should be signified.