4277. 'And he touched the hollow of his thigh' means where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. This is clear from the meaning of 'the thigh' as conjugial love, and consequently as all celestial and spiritual love, since these are derived from conjugial love as offspring from their parent, dealt with in 3021; and from the meaning of 'the hollow' or socket or cavity of it - that is to say, of the thigh - as the place where the joining together exists, and here therefore where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. But no one can be told anything about that conjunction unless he knows first of all what celestial-spiritual good, meant by 'Israel', is, and what natural good, meant by 'Jacob', is. It will be told below at verse 28 where Jacob, who at that point is named Israel, is the subject and also further on where Jacob's descendants are the subject.

6265. 'And Joseph brought them away from his thighs' means that the good belonging to the will and the truth belonging to the understanding were brought away from an affection originating in love on the part of spiritual good. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal celestial, dealt with in 5869, 5877; from the representation of Manasseh and Ephraim, the ones here whom 'Joseph brought away', as the good belonging to the will and the truth belonging to the understanding, dealt with in 5354, 6222; from the meaning of 'the thighs' as an affection originating in love, dealt with in 3021, 4277, 4280, 4575, 5050-5062; and on the part of spiritual good is meant because they were brought away from Israel, who represents spiritual good, 6253. The words used here mean that the internal celestial took good belonging to the will and truth belonging to the understanding away from spiritual good, that is, away from the affection arising from its love; they have this meaning because 'Israel', who represents spiritual good, had made that goodness and truth draw near him. Besides this they had to be brought to him by Joseph, who represents the internal celestial; for that reason they were brought away and after that, as described in what follows, were brought to him again by Joseph.

[2] The explanation for all this is that the inflow of love came to that goodness and truth from the internal celestial by way of spiritual good - in keeping with true order. That external procedure had therefore to be strictly adhered to when they were going to be blessed; for they were being presented to the Lord, the Source of the foretelling meant here by the blessing, 6254. This now explains why Joseph brought his sons away from his father's thighs, and why he himself after that brought them to him again.

5075. 'After these words' means after the things prior to this. This is clear from the meaning of 'words' in the original language, in which the same expression also means things. This therefore is why 'after these words' here means after these things, and so after those that happened prior to this. The reason words ¹ in the original language also means things is that in the internal sense 'words' means the truths of doctrine, on account of which all Divine Truth in general is called the Word; and in the highest sense the Lord Himself, the source of all Divine Truth, is the Word, 1288. A further reason is that no thing which comes into being anywhere in the world has any existence, that is, any reality, unless it has been created by Divine Good acting through Divine Truth. It explains why in Hebrew the same expression is used for things as for words. The truth that no thing anywhere in the world has any existence, that is, any reality, unless it has been created by Divine Good acting through Divine Truth, that is, through the Word, is evident in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. John 1:1, 3.

[2] The interior meanings that words possess have their origin for the most part in the interior man, which dwells with spirits and angels. For as to his spirit, that is, as to his true self which lives after the death of his body, everyone lives in communion with angels and spirits, though the external man is not conscious of this. Living in communion with them he is also among those who use a universal language and so use that which is the origin of verbal expressions. It is for this reason that words have many spiritual meanings attached to them which to outward appearance seem to be out of keeping with them; but inwardly they are in keeping, as with the meaning of 'words' here as things. The same is true of very many other expressions, as when for instance a person's understanding is called his inner sight and is said to possess light, or as when his apprehension of and obedience to something is called hearing and listening, or as when his detection of something is called smelling, and so on.