3922. 'And has given me a son' means that this truth was acknowledged. This is clear from the meaning of 'a son' as truth, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, and from the meaning of 'giving a son' as giving this truth, which is the same as acknowledging it since every truth that is acknowledged is a gift from the Lord. 'Giving a son' also implies the same as 'bearing', and 'bearing' means acknowledging, see 3905, 3915, 3919.

3908. 'If you do not, I am [in]' means that otherwise [the affection for interior truth] would not rise again. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' as not rising again into life. In ancient times wives used to call themselves dead when they did not bear any son or daughter and also believed themselves to be so since no memory of them - no life so to speak - would remain for posterity. But the reason why they called and believed themselves to be such lay in fact in worldly causes. But since every cause is the manifestation of another cause prior to itself, and thus every aspect of a cause existing in the natural world is the product of a cause in the spiritual world, so too is the cause referred to. The cause existing in the spiritual world originated in the heavenly marriage of good and truth, in which marriage no other births take place than the truths of faith and the goods of charity. Those truths and goods are the sons and daughters born in that world, and are also meant by sons and daughters in the Word. Anyone who does not give birth to these - to the truths of faith and the goods of charity - is so to speak dead. For he belongs among the dead who do not rise again, that is to say, into life or heaven. From this one may see what is meant by Rachel's words, If you do not, I am dead.