5946. 'For your young children and your wives' means for those who as yet have no knowledge - no knowledge of the more internal teachings of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'young children' as those who do not as yet have any knowledge of those things; and from the meaning of 'wives' as affections for truth. For when 'men' means truths, as 'the sons of Jacob' do here, 'their wives' means affections for truth; and conversely, when 'men' means forms of good, 'their wives' means truths, though in the latter case the men are called 'husbands', 3236, 4510, 4823. Affections for truth, meant by 'wives' here, have no knowledge of the interior teachings of the Church except through the truths, which are their 'men'. Without truths affections are like the will without the understanding. To see and have knowledge of anything the will must use the understanding, where its sight or eye exists.

4510. 'And their women' means charity. This is clear from the meaning of the words for 'woman' and 'wife' (femina, mulier, uxor) as affections for truth and affections for good. Affections for truth are meant when the partner is mentioned or when the expression 'husband' is used, affections for good when the partner is not mentioned or when the term 'man' is used, 915, 1468, 2517, 3236. At present affections for good are meant because the women belonged to the men of the city, who meant truths, 4478 (end), and because the city is everywhere called the city of Shechem, who represented the truth of the Church among the Ancients, 4454. The affection for spiritual good is the same as charity, and this is why 'women' here means charity.