5536. Me have ye bereaved. That this signifies that thus the church was no more, is evident from the representation of Jacob, who says this of himself, as being the good of truth (see n. 3659, 3669, 3677, 3775, 4234, 4273, 4538); and because it is the good of truth, it is also the church, for good is the essential of the church; and therefore it is the same whether we say the good of truth, or the church, for with the man with whom is the good of truth, there is the church (that “Jacob” is the church may be seen above, n. 4286, 4520; and hence also that his sons represent the truths of the church, n. 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512); and from the signification of “bereaving,” as being to deprive the church of its truths and goods, as here of those which are represented by Joseph, Benjamin, and Simeon (of which in what follows).

[2] That “to bereave” denotes to deprive the church of its truths, is because the church is compared to a marriage, its good to the husband, and its truth to the wife, and the truths born of this marriage to sons, and the goods to daughters, and so on. When therefore “bereavement,” or “bereaving” is spoken of, it signifies that the church is deprived of its truths, and that thereby it becomes no church. In this sense the terms “bereavement,” or “bereaving,” are occasionally used elsewhere in the Word, as in Ezekiel:

I will send upon you famine and evil beast, and will make thee bereaved (Ezekiel 5:17).

And again:

When I make the evil beast to pass through the land, and it shall bereave it, so that it become a desolation, that no man may pass through because of the wild beast (Ezekiel 14:15).

In Leviticus:

I will send against you the wild beast of the field, which shall bereave you, and cut off your beast, and lessen you, that your ways shall be laid waste (Leviticus 26:22).

[3] In these passages “famine” denotes a lack of the knowledges of good and truth, and hence desolation; an “evil beast,” falsities from evils; the “land,” the church; “sending a famine and an evil beast to bereave the land” denotes to destroy the church by falsities from evils, thus to completely deprive it of truths.

In Jeremiah:

I will winnow them with a fan in the gates of the land, I will bereave, I will destroy My people (Jeremiah 15:7); where also “bereaving” denotes to deprive of truths. In the same:

Give their sons to the famine, and make them flow away by the hand of the sword; that their wives may become bereaved and widows (Jeremiah 18:21); where “their wives becoming bereaved and widows” denotes being without truths and good.

[4] In Hosea:

Of Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the belly, and from conception; because if they have brought up their sons, then will I make them bereaved of man (Hos. 9:11-12);

with a similar meaning.

In Ezekiel:

I will make man, My people, walk over you, who shall possess thee by inheritance, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more add to bereave them. Thus hath said the Lord Jehovih, Because they say to you, Thou art a consumer of man, and hast been a bereaver of thy peoples (Ezekiel 36:12-13); where also “bereaving” is to deprive of truths.

[5] In Isaiah:

Now hear this, O delicate one, sitting securely, saying in thine heart, I and none besides like me, I shall not sit a widow, neither shall I know bereavement; surely these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, bereavement and widowhood (Isaiah 47:8-9);

said of the daughter of Babylon and of Chaldea, that is, of those who are in a holy external and a profane internal, and by virtue of this holy external call themselves the church. “Bereavement and widowhood” denote the deprivation of good and truth. Again:

Lift up thine eyes round about, and see; all they gather themselves together, they come to thee. The sons of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is strait for me; go from me that I may dwell. But thou shalt say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I am bereaved and lonely, banished and far away? Who therefore hath brought up these? I was left alone; these, where were they? (Isaiah 49:18, 20-21);

said of Zion or the celestial church, and of its fruitfulness after vastation; the “sons of bereavement” denoting the truths of which she had been deprived in vastation, restored and vastly increased.

3659. And Isaac called Jacob. That this signifies perception by the Lord of the quality in respect to the good of truth, is evident from the signification of “calling” anyone as being to perceive the quality (n. 3609); and from the representation of Isaac, as being the Lord as to the Divine good of the Divine rational (n. 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210); and from the representation of Jacob, as being the Lord as to natural truth (n. 1893, 3305, 3509, 3525, 3546, 3576, 3599). But here, and in what follows in this chapter, Jacob represents the good of this truth; from which it is evident that by the words, “Isaac called Jacob,” is signified perception by the Lord of the quality in respect to the good of truth.

[2] The reason why Jacob here represents the good of this truth, is that he has now carried off the birthright of Esau, and also his blessing, and has thereby put on the person of Esau, but still no further than in respect to the good of the truth which he had before represented; for all truth, whatsoever it be and whatsoever its quality, has good within it, inasmuch as truth is not truth except from good; it is from this that it is called truth. By the birthright which he took, and by the blessing, he obtained over Esau the privilege that his posterity should succeed to the promise made to Abraham and Isaac concerning the land of Canaan, and thus that by him should be represented the Lord’s Divine natural, as by Isaac was represented the Divine rational, and by Abraham His Divine Itself. In order therefore that the representative might fall upon one person, it was permitted that he should thus take from Esau the birth-right, and afterwards the blessing. Hence it is that Jacob now represents the good of the natural, but here at first the good of that truth, namely, of the truth which he had represented just before. Esau is also still further treated of, as in the following verses (6-8) of this chapter, to the intent that there might be represented the good of truth and the interior truth of good of the Lord’s natural, which could not as yet be represented by Jacob. What and of what quality is the good of truth here represented by Jacob, will appear from what follows.