9185. 'If the father utterly refuses to give her to him' means if interior good does not allow the joining together. This is clear from the meaning of 'refusing' as not allowing; from the meaning of 'giving her to him' - to be his wife - as a rightful joining together, dealt with immediately above in 9184; and from the meaning of 'father' as good, dealt with in 3703, 3704, 5581, 5902, 6050, 7499, 8328, 8897. Interior good is meant because from interior good as the father and interior truth as the mother exterior truths and forms of good are conceived and born, which the Word therefore calls sons and daughters.

6050. 'Both we and our fathers' means that this was so from when the earliest forms of good existed. This is clear from the meaning of 'fathers' as forms of good, dealt with in 2803, 3703, 3704, 5581, 5902. Consequently the fact that they were keepers of livestock as their fathers had been means from when the earliest forms of good existed. There are in addition many other places in the Word where 'fathers' is not used in the internal sense to mean Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but members of the Ancient Church, who were governed by good.