4298. En Jakob noemde de naam van de plaats Peniël; dat dit de staat van de verzoekingen betekent, staat vast uit de samenhang; oudtijds werden aan plaatsen waar iets bijzonders voorviel, namen gegeven en deze namen waren tekenend voor de zaak die daar voorviel en voor de staat ervan, nrs. 340, 2643, 3422; aan deze plaats werd een naam gegeven die de staat van de verzoekingen betekende, want de staat van de verzoekingen wordt hier beschreven door de worsteling en het kampen van Jakob; Peniël betekent in de oorspronkelijke taal ‘de aangezichten van God’ ; dat ‘de aangezichten van God’ zien, wil zeggen, de zwaarste verzoekingen doorstaan, zal in wat volgt worden ontvouwd.

3502. 'And make me savoury food such as I love' means the forms of pleasantness received from that truth, because it is acquired from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'savoury food' as forms of pleasantness; and because that food was received from Esau who represents the good of the natural, that which is acquired from good is therefore meant. In the original language 'savoury food' refers to the forms of delight and pleasantness of taste, and means in the internal sense the delights which go with good and the forms of pleasantness which go with truth, the reason being that taste, as with all the other physical senses, corresponds to celestial and spiritual things - which correspondence will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on. The situation in these matters does not become clear unless one knows how the natural is made new or receives life from the rational, that is, from the Lord by way of the rational.

[2] The natural is not renewed, it does not receive a corresponding life from the rational - that is, it is not regenerated - except by means of matters of doctrine or cognitions of good and truth, the celestial man being regenerated by means primarily of cognitions of good, the spiritual man by means primarily of cognitions of truth. Matters of doctrine or cognitions of good and truth cannot be conveyed to the natural man, nor thus be joined to it and made its own, except through all delight and pleasantness that are appropriate for it, for they are instilled by the external way or that of the senses. Anything that does not enter in by way of some delight or pleasantness does not attach itself there and so does not remain. These are the factors meant by truth acquired from good, and the forms of pleasantness received from this truth. And it is these that are the subject in what follows.