Arcana Coelestia #3471
3471. 'They were a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and Rebekah' means that this led at first to grief. This is clear from the meaning of 'bitterness of spirit' as grief, and from the representation of 'Isaac and Rebekah' as the Lord's Divine Rational as regards Divine Good and Divine Truth. For in the highest sense the Lord is the subject, but in the representative sense those who are likenesses and images of Him. That is to say, the highest sense describes how the Lord made His own Human Divine, the representative how the Lord regenerates man, or makes him celestial and spiritual. As regards man's regeneration being the image of the Lord's glorification, see 3043, 3138, 3212, 3296.
[2] The reason why there was grief at first is that when truths are brought into association with natural good they give rise to grief initially since they weigh down the conscience and cause feelings of anxiety owing to the presence of cravings with which spiritual truth conflicts. But this initial grief lessens gradually and at length disappears. It is like the body, when feeble and ill, having to be restored to health by painful remedies. While in that condition it at first suffers pain and grief.
Genesis 26:26-35
26
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.
27
And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?
28
And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;
29
That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD.
30
And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.
31
And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32
And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.
33
And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day.
34
And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:
35
Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
