6226. 'And sat on the bed' means which was turned towards the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'the bed' as the natural, dealt with in 6188. The reason why 'Israel sat on the bed' means that spiritual good was turned towards the natural is that in the last verse of the previous chapter, Chapter 47, 'Israel bowed himself over the head of the bed' meant that spiritual good turned itself towards things of the interior natural, see 6188, and therefore moving himself from the head and sitting on the bed means that spiritual good turned itself towards the natural. Nothing intelligible can be said to show what turning itself to the interior natural is, or to the exterior natural, because very few people know of the existence of the interior natural and the exterior natural, or that thought takes place at one time in the first, at another in the second. And people who do not know these things do not stop to reflect on them and consequently cannot have gained any knowledge of this particular matter by anything they have experienced. Yet this turning to one and then to the other goes on in everyone, though with variations; for at one time a person's thought is raised to things on a higher level, and at another it comes down to those on a lower level, so that at one time his thought looks upwards, at another time downwards.

[2] Apart from all this anyone can see that 'Israel bowed himself over the head of the bed' and that after that 'he sat on the bed' are matters which would have been too trivial for mention in the most holy Word unless they had held some arcanum within them. That arcanum cannot be brought to light except by means of the internal sense, except therefore through a knowledge of what each individual word means in the spiritual sense, that is, the sense that angels understand. For angels thoughts are not based, as men's are, on worldly, bodily, and earthly objects, but on heavenly ones. The nature of the difference between those two kinds of objects is particularly evident from correspondences, which are the subject at the ends of a number of chapters.

4884. 'And put on the clothes of her widowhood' means intelligence. This is clear from the meaning of 'a widow' as one with whom truth exists without good but who nevertheless desires to be led by good, dealt with above in 4844; and from the meaning of 'clothes' as truths, dealt with in 297, 2576, 4545, 4763. The reason why these taken together mean intelligence is that nothing else than truths constitute intelligence, for those in possession of truths rooted in good possess intelligence. Indeed truths rooted in good enable the human understanding to dwell in the light of heaven, and the light of heaven is intelligence because Divine Truth rooted in Divine Good constitutes it. Also, a further reason why 'putting on the clothes of widowhood' here means intelligence is that 'a widow' in the genuine sense means one with whom truth exists and who desires to be led by good to truth that constitutes intelligence, as also shown above in 4844, and so to intelligence itself.

[2] To enable the implications of all this to be seen a brief explanation is necessary. When a person knows the truth it is not truth constituting intelligence until he is led by good; but when he is led by good it starts to become the truth of intelligence. For truth does not receive its life from itself but from good; and truth receives its life from good when the person lives in conformity with that truth. When he does this, truth injects itself into the intentions of his will, and from these into his actions, and so into the entire person. Truth that is merely known or grasped intellectually by a person remains excluded from his will, and so from his life since the intentions of a person's will constitute his life. But once he is intent on truth it stands at the gateway into his life; and when he is intent on it and therefore practices it, that truth is present within the entire person. Then, when his practice of that truth is frequent its reappearance is attributable not merely to habit but also to an affection for it and so to a free desire to practise it. Let anyone at all consider whether anything can be taken in by a person apart from that which he is intent on putting into practice. That which he merely thinks about but does not actually do, more so that which he thinks about but does not wish to do, is nothing else than something which remains excluded from that person, and is also driven away like a straw by the smallest puff of wind, and is actually blown away in that manner in the next life. From this one can know what faith without works is. These considerations now show what truth constituting intelligence is, namely truth which is rooted in good. Truth is the characteristic feature of the understanding and good that of the will; or what amounts to the same, truth is the substance of doctrine and good that of life.