4976. 'And ministered to him' means that factual knowledge was assigned to its own good. This is clear from the meaning of 'ministering' as serving by supplying what another has need of, in this case as being assigned to since the subject is natural good to which factual knowledge is to be assigned. 'Ministering' is also used to describe known facts, for in the Word a minister and a servant mean factual knowledge or natural truth because this is subservient to good as its lord. Factual knowledge stands in relation to delight present in the natural man - or what amounts to the same, natural truth stands in relation to its good - in exactly the same way as water does to bread, or drink to food. Water or drink enables bread or food to be dissolved, and once dissolved to be conveyed into the blood, from which it passes into all parts around the body and nourishes them. Without the water or drink the bread or food is not broken down into extremely small particles and carried around the body to fulfill its purpose.

[2] The same applies to factual knowledge in relation to delight, or truth in relation to good. That being so, good longs for and desires truth, and does so because of the purpose such truth can fulfill by ministering to it and serving it. Food and drink also correspond to these. No one in the next life is nourished by any natural food or natural drink, only by spiritual food and spiritual drink, spiritual food being good, and spiritual drink truth. This is why, when bread or food is mentioned in the Word, angels understand spiritual bread or food, which is the good of love and charity; and when water or drink is mentioned they understand spiritual water or drink, which is the truth of faith. From this one may see what the truth of faith without the good of charity is, and also what kind of nourishment the former without the latter is able to supply to the internal man; that is to say, it is like the nourishment supplied by water or drink alone without bread or food. It is well known that a person fed on water or drink alone wastes away and dies.

4930. 'And he called his name Zerah' means the essential nature of it. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling the name' as the essential nature, as above in 4927. The essential nature meant by 'Zerah' is the nature of the reality which has been the subject in the internal sense up to this point, this reality being that in actual fact good is the firstborn but that truth appears to be such. That nature contains countless details, countless details such as cannot be seen in the light of the world, only in the light of heaven, and so by the eyes of the angels. If man could see the essential nature of a single reality like those visible to the angels he would be dumbfounded and would confess he would never have believed it, adding that compared with the angels he knew scarcely anything. In the original language Zerah means 'the rise' and is used to refer to the sun and the first sign of its light. This explains why this son was named Zerah, for good behaves in a similar way in the case of one who is being regenerated. Good first rises and sheds light, and from this light things within the natural man are lightened, enabling them to be seen, acknowledged, and finally believed. If light did not flow from the good present within that person he would never be able to see truths so that he could acknowledge and believe them. Instead he would see them as no more than the kind of things that have to be called truths for the common people's sake, or else as falsities.