5051. In a peaceful dream I once saw some trees planted in a wooden receptacle, one of which was tall, another shorter, and two were small. The shorter tree gave me very great delight, and all the while a very lovely feeling of peacefulness, beyond my ability to describe, was filling my mind. When I woke up from my sleep I talked to those among whom my dream had originated. They were angelic spirits, see 1977, 1979. Who told me what was meant by that sight - conjugial love. The tall tree meant a husband, the shorter his wife, and the two small ones their children. Those angelic spirits went on to say that the very lovely feeling of peacefulness which filled my mind served to indicate the loveliness of the peace enjoyed by those in the next life who have led lives of genuine conjugial love. They added that people like these are the ones who belong to the province of the thighs immediately above the knees, and that those whose state is yet more lovely belong to the province of the loins. I was also shown that this province communicates through the feet with the soles and heels. The existence of this communication is also evident from the large nerve in the thigh which sends out its branches not only through the loins to the generative parts, which are the organs of conjugial love, but also through the feet to the soles and heels. Those angelic spirits also disclosed to me at this time the meaning in the Word of the acetabulum and the nerve in the thigh which was put out of joint when Jacob wrestled with the angel, Genesis 32:25, 31-32, dealt with in 4280, 4281, 4314-4317.

[2] After this I saw a large dog, like the one which very ancient authors call Cerberus. It had horrible, gaping jaws. I was told that a dog such as this means the guard which is set to prevent a person crossing over from heavenly conjugial love to a love of adultery, which is a hellish love. For heavenly conjugial love consists in one living, content in the Lord, together with one's partner whom one loves very tenderly, and with one's children. In the world this brings a person a deeper pleasure, and in the next life heavenly joy. But if people cross over from that love to its opposite, and this opposite love seems to them to hold heavenly delight within it, though in fact it is a hellish delight, a dog resembling Cerberus presents itself as if on guard to prevent any communication of opposite delights.

4281. 'The hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him' means that in the descendants of Jacob that conjunction had been thoroughly damaged and the two loves pulled apart. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'wrestling' in this sense as being pulled apart and so suffering damage. It is evident from what has been stated above in 4280 that 'the hollow of the thigh' means a joining together; and that 'Jacob' in the Word means not only Jacob but also all his descendants is clear from very many places, such as Numbers 23:7, 10, 21, 23; 24:5, 17, 19; Deuteronomy 33:10; Isaiah 40:27; 43:1, 22; 44:1-2, 21; 48:12; 59:20; Jeremiah 10:16, 25; 30:7, 10, 18; 31:7, 11; 46:27-28; Hosea 10:11; Amos 7:2; Micah 2:12; 3:8; Psalms 14:7; 24:6; 59:13; 78:5; 99:4; and in other places.

[2] Jacob and his descendants were by nature such that with them celestial and spiritual love could not be joined to natural good, that is, the internal or spiritual man could not be joined to the external or natural man. This is evident from the details told in the Word concerning that nation. For they neither knew nor wished to know what the internal or spiritual man was, and therefore that matter was not revealed to them. In fact it was their belief that nothing existed with man apart from the external and natural. Nor in all their worship did they have anything else in mind, so that Divine worship with them was wholly idolatrous; for once internal worship is separated from external, it is nothing but idolatrous. The Church which was established among them was not in fact a Church but only a representative of the Church, for which reason that Church is called a representative Church. For it was possible for a representative of the Church to exist among such people, see 1361, 3670, 4208.

[3] Indeed in representations no attention is paid to the person who represents, only to the thing represented by him. Consequently not only persons represented Divine, celestial, or spiritual things, but also inanimate objects, such as Aaron's garments, the ark, the altar, the oxen and sheep which used to be sacrificed, the lampstand with its lamps, the bread of the presence on the table of gold, the oil with which they were anointed, the frankincense, and other objects like these. This was why their kings, bad ones no less than the good, represented the Lord's kingship, and why their high priests, bad ones no less than the good, represented the things that belong to the Lord's Divine priesthood, when they performed their own function in external form according to the prescribed rules and commands. In order therefore that among them a representative of the Church might come into existence they were provided through plainly visible revelation with such prescribed rules and such laws as would be entirely representative. Therefore as long as they kept to them and strictly complied with them, those people were able to play a representative role. But when they deviated from them into the prescribed rules and laws of other nations, and in particular to the worship of another god, they deprived themselves of their ability to play that representative role. For this reason they were coerced by external means - which were captivities, calamities, threats, and miracles - into obeying laws and prescribed rules that were truly representative, not by internal means, as those people are whose external worship has internal within it. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal historical sense by the words 'the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint', which sense has regard to Jacob and his descendants.