4176. 'These twenty years I have served you in your house' means the proprium. This is clear from the meaning of 'twenty' as the good present in remnants, dealt with in 2280, which good, in reference to the Lord, consists in that which He acquired to Himself, 1906, and so in His proprium; and from the meaning of 'serving' when used in reference to the Lord, as His own power, dealt with in 3975, 3977.

1907. 'And she gave her to Abram her husband as his wife (mulier)' means a joining together prompted by the affection for truth. This is clear from what has been stated above about Sarai, Abram's wife, being in the genuine sense the affection for truth, and from what has also been stated about the joining of the internal man to the life and affection of the exterior man, from which conjunction the rational is born. Hagar was not given to Abram as a wife (uxor) but as a wife (mulier). The reason for this lies in the law of Divine order that it is not marriage unless it is a marriage of one man to one wife. Conjugial love cannot possibly be divided. When love is divided among several partners it is not conjugial love but such as goes with lasciviousness, to be dealt with, in the Lord's Divine mercy, later on.