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.

747. 'Two and two' means complementary things. This may become clear to anyone from the fact that they are pairs. It is impossible for them to be pairs unless they are complementary to one another as truths and goods are, or evils and falsities. In fact all things contain the likeness of a marriage or a coupling together, as in the case of truths to goods, or of evils to falsities, because of the marriage of the understanding to the will, or of things of the understanding to those of the will. Indeed everything contains a marriage or coupling together of its own on which its very continuance depends.