3861. And she called his name Reuben. That this signifies the quality thereof, which is described, is evident from the signification of “name” and of “calling a name,” as being quality (see n. 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, 3321). The quality itself is described by the words, “Jehovah hath seen my affliction, for now my man will love me,” which are “Reuben.” (That all the names in the Word signify actual things has been often shown above, n. 1224, 1264, 1876, 1888; and that the ancients gave names significative of states, see n. 340, 1946, 2643, 3422.) That here the names of all the sons of Jacob signify the universals of the church, will be shown. A real universal has also been put into the name of each; but what universal it is impossible for anyone to know, unless he knows what is involved in the internal sense of the expressions from which each one was called-as for instance in the expression, “hath seen,” from which Reuben was named; in the expression, “hath heard,” from which Simeon was named; in the expression, “will adhere,” from which Leviticus was named; and in the expression, “will confess,” from which Judah was named; and so with regard to all the others.

3344. But the speech of the angels of the still more interior or third heaven, although also representative, is yet such as to be inconceivable by any idea, and consequently is indescribable. Even this perfect form of speech [idea] is also within man, but in the man who is in celestial love, that is, in love to the Lord; and after the separation of the body he comes into it as if born into it, although as before said nothing of it could be comprehended by him under any idea during his life in the body. In short, by means of representatives adjoined to ideas, speech becomes as it were alive; least of all with man, because he is in the speech of words; but more so with the angels of the first heaven; still more so with the angels of the second heaven; and most of all with the angels of the third heaven, because these are most nearly in the Lord’s life. In itself whatever is from the Lord is alive.