9931. 'And engrave on it, [like] the engraving of a signet' means what is everlasting and has been imprinted on their hearts in accord with a heavenly sphere. This is clear from the meaning of 'engraving' as imprinting on the memory, 9841, 9842, thus also on the heart (for what is imprinted on the interior memory, or on one's life, is said to have been imprinted on the heart), and since this remains forever, what exists everlastingly is also meant; and from the meaning of 'the engraving of a signet' as a heavenly sphere, dealt with in 9846. The expression 'what has been imprinted on their hearts in accord with a heavenly sphere' is used because things which have been imprinted on the memory - in particular on the interior memory, which is 'the book of life', 2474 - have been imprinted in accord with a heavenly sphere. For a person governed by the good of love resulting from the truths of faith resembles heaven, indeed he is heaven in the smallest form it takes, see the places referred to above in 9279, 9632. This being so, the heavenly pattern resides in him; for all the communities in heaven have been arranged according to the heavenly pattern, because all affections for good and consequently thoughts of truth flow in accordance with that pattern, 9877. All factual knowledge too is arranged into the heavenly pattern when a person is governed by heavenly love, love being that which so arranges it, see 6690.

4085. 'And the angel of God said to me in a dream, Jacob. And I said, Behold, here I am' means perception from the Divine, and presence within that obscurity. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in historical narratives of the Word as perceiving - often dealt with already; from the meaning of 'the angel of God' as from the Divine (for when mentioned in the Word 'an angel' means something essentially the Lord's, that is, something belonging to the Divine, 1925, 2319, 2821, 3039, the reason being that no angel speaks from himself but from the Lord, especially when he does so in a dream, as he does here to Jacob. What is more, angels are such that they are annoyed if anything of what is good and true spoken by them is attributed to themselves; and so far as possible they remove any such ideas existing in others, especially in man. For they know and perceive that everything good and true which they think, will, and carry into effect originates in the Lord, and so in the Divine. And from this it may be seen that in the Word something essentially the Lord's, that is, something Divine, is meant by 'angels'); and from the meaning of 'in a dream' as within obscurity, dealt with in 2514, 2528. Presence within the natural, where it dwells in obscurity, is the meaning of Jacob's reply.