3624. THE CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GRAND MAN, WHICH IS HEAVEN, OF ALL THE ORGANS AND LIMBS, BOTH INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR, OF THE HUMAN BEING

Let me now tell of and describe marvels which, so far as I know, have not as yet been known to anyone, nor has even the idea of them entered anyone's head - the marvel that the whole of heaven has been formed in such a way that it corresponds to the Lord, to His Divine Human; also the marvel that the human being has been formed in such a way that every single part of him corresponds to heaven, and through heaven to the Lord. This is a great mystery which is now to be revealed, it being the subject here and at the ends of chapters that follow this.

4871. 'And he said, I will send a kid of the she-goats from the flock' means a pledge assuring a joining together. This is clear from the meaning of 'a kid of the she-goats' as innocence present in the external or natural man, dealt with in 3519; and being innocence it is a pledge of conjugial love or a pledge assuring a joining together, for genuine conjugial love consists in innocence, see 2736. From this arose the custom received from the ancients that when they went in once again to their wives men would send ahead of them 'a kid of the she-goats', as is also evident from what is recorded concerning Samson in the Book of Judges,

It happened after a while, ¹ in the days of the wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid of the she-goats; for he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. Judges 15:1.

Much the same situation is described here in Genesis; but as the promised kid of the she-goats was not going to be accepted by her, Tamar asked for a pledge. The expression 'pledge assuring a joining together' is used, not a conjugial pledge, because on Judah's side the joining together was as it is with a prostitute.

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