414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

3132. 'And so it was, when he saw the nose-jewel and the bracelets on his sister's hands' means when it recognized Divine Good and Divine Truth within the power of the affection for truth, meant by 'a sister'. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as recognizing, dealt with in 2150, from the meaning of 'a nose-jewel' as Divine Good, dealt with in 3103, 3104, from the meaning of 'bracelets' as Divine Truth, also dealt with in 3103, 3105, from the meaning of 'hands' as power, dealt with in 878, 3091, and from the meaning of 'a sister' as the affection for truth, dealt with in 2508, 2524, 2556. From these paragraphs it is evident that 'seeing the nose-jewel and the bracelets on his sister's hands' means recognizing Divine Good and Divine Truth within the power of the affection for truth.

[2] The truth of the matter is that Divine Good and Divine Truth joined together within the Lord constitute the Divine marriage itself, from which the heavenly marriage springs, which in a similar way is a marriage of good and truth. From this too conjugial love springs, see 2727-2759. Consequently when a marriage is the subject in the Word the heavenly marriage is meant in the internal sense, which is the marriage of good and truth, and in the highest sense the Divine marriage which exists within the Lord. For this reason nothing else is meant here by the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah. The marriage itself exists when good and truth have been joined together, but the betrothal of the two, or the state preceding the marriage, when one is being introduced into the other. But it is the state preceding the betrothal that is described here. In this state, as it is in the power of a [marriageable] girl to become betrothed, and subsequently as a wife to be joined to a husband, so it is in the power of the affection for truth to be introduced into Divine Truth and so to be joined to Divine Good. What is more, in the initial affection for truth and after that in every affection for it, with the Lord, Divine Good itself and Divine Truth itself were inmostly present because Jehovah Himself was present there. This was the source of the power which is the subject here.