3264. 'Whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's servant-girl, bore to Abraham' means the birth of the spiritual man brought about by Divine influx into the affection for knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'bearing' as coming into being, dealt with in 2621, 2629, from the representation of 'Hagar the Egyptian' as the life of the exterior man', dealt with in 1896, 1909, and from the meaning of 'servant-girl' as the affection for knowledge and cognitions which belong in the exterior man, dealt with in 1895, 2691. She is called 'Sarah's servant-girl' because 'Sarah' represents the Lord's Divine Truth to which the affection for knowledge and cognitions of truth was subordinate. Since Ishmael represents the spiritual man it is evident that the words 'Whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's servant-girl, bore to Abraham' mean the birth of the spiritual man brought about by Divine influx into the affection for knowledge. This is the way in which man's rational is born, see 1895, 1896, 1902, 1910, 2094, 2557, 3030, 3074, and therefore the way in which his spiritual is born, seeing that this has no existence except within the rational.

[2] Consequently the spiritual man and the rational man are practically the same. The difference between one spiritual person and another lies solely in what each person's reason and his life resulting from this are like. Their birth or regeneration is brought about by Divine influx into the affection for cognitions, see 1555, 1904, 2046, 2063, 2189, 2657, 2675, 2691 (end), 2697, 2979. See what has been stated and shown already about Ishmael - that he represented the Lord's first rational which was not as yet Divine, 1893, and that later on he represented those who are truly rational, or who are spiritual, 2078, 2691, and so represented the Lord's spiritual Church, 2699.

2691. 'God heard the boy's voice' means help at that point. This is clear from the meaning in the internal sense of 'God hearing the voice 'the words used in the historical sense - as bringing help, and from the meaning of 'the boy' as spiritual truth, dealt with already. Here a state is meant in which the spiritual as regards truth existed, for it is said that 'He heard the boy's voice' and soon after in this verse that 'He heard the boy's voice where he was', that is to say, where he was as to state. And, in the explanations of the verses immediately before, this state was shown to be one of utmost grief because truth had been taken away. The reason it was the boy's voice, not Hagar's, that God is said to have heard is that the state of the spiritual man is the subject. 'The boy', or Ishmael, represents the member of the spiritual Church, 'Hagar his mother' the affection for cognitions of truth, it being within this affection that the grief was felt. Man's rational is born from the affection for factual knowledge as a mother, 1895, 1896, 1902, 1910, 2094, 2524, but his spiritual is born from the affection for cognitions of truth acquired from doctrine, chiefly from the Word. Here the spiritual itself is 'the boy', and the affection for cognitions of truth is 'Hagar'.