4434. And his soul clave unto Dinah. That this signifies an inclination to conjunction, is evident from the signification of “his soul cleaving,” as being an inclination. That it is to conjunction is evident, because in the internal sense the things which belong to conjugial love involve spiritual conjunction, which is that of truth with good, and of good with truth. The reason why in the internal sense the things which belong to conjugial love involve this conjunction, is that conjugial love derives its origin from the marriage of truth and good, and of good and truth (n. 2618, 2727-2729, 2737, 2803, 3132). Hence also the adulterations of good are meant in the Word by “adulteries,” and the falsifications of truth by “whoredoms” (n. 2466, 2729, 2750, 3399). From all this it may be seen that by all that is related of Shechem and of Dinah in this chapter nothing else is meant in the internal sense than the conjunction of the truth represented by Shechem with the affection of truth represented by Dinah; thus that by the words “his soul clave unto Dinah” is signified an inclination to conjunction.

[2] As in the whole of this chapter conjugial love toward Dinah is treated of, and how Shechem sought her for a woman, and as by the things of conjugial love there is signified spiritual conjunction, I may confirm from the Word that marriages and what belongs to them involve nothing else.

In John:

Let us be glad and exult, and let us give the glory unto Him, because the wedding of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready, as have they who are called unto the wedding supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7, 9).

In the same:

I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. One of the seven angels spoke with me, saying, Come, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife; and he carried me away in the spirit upon a mountain great and high, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God (Revelation 21:2, 9-10).

That by what relates to betrothal and marriage naught else is here signified than the Lord’s conjunction with the church, and this by means of truth and good, is very evident, for the “holy city” and the “New Jerusalem” are nothing else than the church. (That a “city” is the truth of the church may be seen above, n. 402, 2268, 2449, 2451, 2712, 2943, 3216; and that “Jerusalem” is the spiritual church, n. 402, 2117, 3654)

[3] In Malachi:

Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah hath profaned the holiness of Jehovah, because he hath loved and hath betrothed to him the daughter of a strange god. Jehovah hath borne witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously (Malachi 2:11, 14); where “to love and betroth the daughter of a strange god” is to conjoin one’s self with falsity instead of truth, which is the “wife of youth.”

[4] Ezekiel:

Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast borne unto Me, and hast sacrificed to devour them. Was there little of thy whoredoms? Thou art the daughter of thy mother, who loathes her husband and her sons; and thou art the sister of thy sisters who loathed their husbands and their sons (Ezekiel 16:20, 45);

here the abominations of Jerusalem are treated of, which because they were from evils and falsities, are described in this chapter by such things as are contrary to marriages, namely, by adulteries and whoredoms. The “husbands whom they loathed” are goods; the “sons” are truths; and the “daughters” are the affections of these.

[5] In Isaiah:

Sing, O barren one, that didst not bear, resound with singing and shout for joy that didst not travail, because more are the sons of the desolate than the sons of the married one. The reproach of thy widowhood shalt thou remember no more, because thy makers are thy husbands, Jehovah Zebaoth is His name, and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth is He called; for as a woman forsaken and afflicted in spirit hath Jehovah called thee, and as a woman of youth when she is divorced, hath said thy God. All thy sons are taught of Jehovah, and much is the peace of thy sons (Isaiah 54:1, 5-6, 13);

as by marriage is signified the conjunction of truth and good and of good and truth, it is evident what is signified by “husband and wife,” by “sons and daughters,” by “widows,” by the “divorced,” and by “bearing,” “travailing,” “being desolate,” and “being barren;” for these things belong to marriage. What these signify in the spiritual sense has been frequently shown in the explications.

[6] In the same:

For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest; it shall no longer be said to thee, Forsaken one; but thy land shall be called The married one, for Jehovah shall be well pleased in thee, and thy land shall be married; because a young man shall marry a virgin, thy sons shall marry thee, and there shall be joy of the bridegroom over the bride, thy God shall rejoice over thee (Isaiah 62:1, 4-5);

he who knows not the internal sense of the Word may suppose that such things in the Word are only comparisons, like many expressions in common speech, and that this is the reason why the church is compared to a daughter, to a virgin, and a wife; thus the things of faith and charity to those of marriage. But in the Word all things are representative of spiritual and celestial things, and are real correspondences; for the Word has come down from heaven, and because it has come down thence it is in its origin the Divine celestial and spiritual to which those things which belong to the sense of the letter correspond. Hence it is that the things of the heavenly marriage, which is the conjunction of good and truth, fall into such as correspond, thus into those which belong to marriages on earth.

[7] Hence also it is that the Lord likened the kingdom of the heavens (that is, His kingdom in heaven, and His kingdom on earth which is the church) to a “man, a king, who made a wedding for his son, and invited many to it” (Matthew 22:2-14); and also to “ten virgins who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom” (Matthew 25:1-13). And the Lord likewise called those who are of the church “sons of the wedding”:

Jesus said, Can the sons of the wedding mourn, so long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then will they fast (Matthew 9:15).

[8] Hence also the affection of good and the affection of truth are called “the joy and gladness of the bridegroom and the bride,” because heavenly joy is from and in these affections. As in Isaiah:

Thy sons shall marry thee, and there shall be the joy of the bridegroom over the bride, Jehovah thy God shall rejoice over thee (Isaiah 62:5).

In Jeremiah:

The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that say, Confess ye to Jehovah, because good is Jehovah (Jeremiah 33:11).

In the same:

I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, because the land shall go forth into a waste (Jeremiah 7:34; 16:9; 25:10).

And in John:

The light of a lamp shall not shine in Babylon anymore, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall not be heard in her anymore (Revelation 18:23).

[9] As through love truly conjugial marriages on earth correspond to the heavenly marriage, which is that of good and truth, therefore the laws delivered in the Word concerning betrothals and marriages wholly correspond to the spiritual laws of the heavenly marriage, as that they were to espouse only one wife (Mark 10:2-8; Luke 16:18); for such is the case in the heavenly marriage, namely, that good cannot be conjoined except with its own truth, and truth with its own good. If good were conjoined with any other truth than its own, it would not subsist at all, but would be rent asunder and so would perish. In the spiritual church the wife represents good and the man represents truth, but in the celestial church the husband represents good and the wife truth; and-what is a mystery-they not only represent, but also in all their activities correspond to them.

[10] Moreover, the laws delivered in the Old Testament about marriages have in like manner a correspondence with the laws of the heavenly marriage, such as those in Exodus 21:7-11; 22:15-16; 34:16; Numbers 36:6; Deuteronomy 7:3-4; 22:28-29, and also the laws about the forbidden degrees (Leviticus 18:6-20); as regards each of which, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere. That the degrees and laws of marriages have their origin in the laws of truth and good, which are those of the heavenly marriage, and bear relation to them, is manifest in Ezekiel:

The priests the Levites shall not take for their wives a widow nor her that is divorced, but virgins of the seed of the house of Israel and a widow that has been the widow of a priest shall they take (Ezekiel 44:22).

The subject here treated of is the holy city New Jerusalem and the heavenly Canaan, and it is evident that these are the Lord’s kingdom and His church. Consequently by “the Levites” are not signified Levites, nor by a “widow and her that is divorced” are there signified a widow and one who has been divorced, but the things to which these correspond.

2803. That the Divine Truth is the “son,” and the Divine Good the “father,” is evident from the signification of a “son,” as being truth (see n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2633); and of a “father,” as being good; and also from the conception and birth of truth, which is from good. Truth cannot be and come forth [existere] from any other source than good, as has been shown many times. That the “son” here is the Divine Truth, and the “father” the Divine Good, is because the union of the Divine Essence with the Human, and of the Human Essence with the Divine, is the Divine marriage of Good with Truth, and of Truth with Good, from which comes the heavenly marriage; for in Jehovah or the Lord there is nothing but what is infinite; and because infinite, it cannot be apprehended by any idea, except that it is the being and the coming forth [esse et existere] of all good and truth, or is Good itself and Truth itself. Good itself is the “Father,” and Truth itself is the “Son.” But because as before said there is a Divine marriage of Good and Truth, and of Truth and Good, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, as the Lord Himself teaches in John:

Jesus saith unto Philip, Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me ? Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in me (John 14:10-11).

And again in the same Evangelist:

Jesus said to the Jews, Though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father (John 10:36, 38).

And again:

I pray for them; for all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee (John 17:9-10, 21).

And again:

Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself. Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee (John 13:31-32; 17:1).

[2] From this may be seen the nature of the union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord; namely, that it is mutual and alternate, or reciprocal; which union is that which is called the Divine Marriage, from which descends the heavenly marriage, which is the Lord’s kingdom itself in the heavens—thus spoken of in John:

In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John 14:20).

And again:

I pray for them, that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, I in them and Thou in Me; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:21-23, 26).

That this heavenly marriage is that of good and truth, and of truth and good, may be seen above (n. 2508, 2618, 2728, 2729 and following numbers).

[3] And because the Divine Good cannot be and come forth without the Divine Truth, nor the Divine Truth without the Divine Good, but the one in the other mutually and reciprocally, it is therefore manifest that the Divine Marriage was from eternity; that is, the Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son, as the Lord Himself teaches in John:

And now O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (John 17:5, 24).

But the Divine Human which was born from eternity was also born in time; and what was born in time, and glorified, is the same. Hence it is that the Lord so often said that He was going to the Father who sent Him; that is, that He was returning to the Father. And in John:

In the beginning was the Word (the “Word” is the Divine Truth itself), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-3, 14; see also John 3:13; 6:62).