4276. 'And he saw that he did not prevail against him' means that in temptations He conquered. This is clear without explanation.

6266. 'And bowed down, his face to the earth' means an expression of humility by them. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowing down, face to the earth' as an expression of interior humility, dealt with in 5682. For that kind of bowing down is an action performed by the body corresponding to humility of mind; and it explains why people who worship God in their hearts bow down in that manner. It is said that Joseph 'bowed down' because he was acting in place of them; yet he did not bow down before Israel but before the Lord, from whom the blessing came through Israel.

[2] Joseph did it in place of them because of the situation in spiritual things. Good belonging to the will and truth belonging to the understanding within the natural possess no ability on their own to humble themselves before the Lord; they can possess it only if it flows in from the internal. In fact without an inflow through the internal into the natural, nothing at all of the powers of will and understanding are present there, nor indeed any life since the internal is the means through which life from the Lord comes to be there.

8381. When the spirits from Jupiter saw horses belonging to our planet those horses seemed to me to be smaller than usual, though in fact they were quite powerful and tall ones. This was due to the idea that spirits from that planet had about the horses there. They said that their horses were similar yet much larger, but that they are wild or live in forests and that when caught sight of they terrify people, although they are completely harmless. They added that their fear of them is innate or natural. This gave them an opportunity to think about the cause of that fear. In the spiritual world a horse represents an understanding formed from factual knowledge, 2761-2763, 6534; and since they fear to cultivate their understanding by means of knowledge, fear therefore enters them. The fact that they have no interest in the factual knowledge belonging to human learning will be seen further on.