3440. And I will bless thee, and will multiply thy seed. That this signifies that thence would be an increase of good and truth, is evident from the signification of “blessing thee,” as being an increase of good (n. 3406); and from the signification of “multiplying thy seed” as being an increase of truth (n. 43, 55, 913, 983, 2846, 2847; that “seed” denotes truth, of which “multiplying” is predicated, may be seen above, n. 1025, 1447, 1610, 2848, 3038, 3373, 3380). That there is an increase of good and truth with man from the literal sense of the Word also, is that in this sense also each and all things are Divine, as just stated (n. 3439), and also because in many passages of the literal sense the internal sense is open; as for instance in the Prophets of the Old Testament that the Lord would come who would be the salvation of the human race; that the whole Law and Prophets consist in loving God and the neighbor; and that “to kill” is to bear hatred, because the man who hates kills every moment, this being in his will and in the delight of his life. These are of the internal sense in the literal sense, besides many other such things.

913. That they may spread themselves over the earth. That this signifies the operation of the internal man on the external, and that “being fruitful” signifies increasings of good, “multiplying” increasings of truth, and “upon the earth” in the external man, is evident from the connection of the things, and also from what has been before said and shown about the signification of “being fruitful” which in the Word is predicated of goods, and about that of “multiplying” which is predicated of truths. That “earth” signifies the external man has likewise been shown before; so that we need not dwell longer on these significations in order to confirm them. Here the subject is the operation of the internal man on the external after the man has been regenerated, showing that good is for the first time made fruitful, and truth multiplied, when the external man has been reduced to correspondence or obedience. This can never be so before, because what is corporeal opposes what is good, and what is sensuous opposes what is true, the one extinguishing the love of good, and the other extinguishing the love of truth. The fructification of good and the multiplication of truth take place in the external man; the fructification of good in his affections, and the multiplication of truth in his memory. The external man is here called “the earth” over which they spread themselves, and upon which they become fruitful and multiply.