8367. 'And they came to Elim' means a state of enlightenment and affection, and so a state of comfort after temptation. This is clear from the meaning of 'Elim'; as with all the other places to which the children of Israel came, it embodies and has as its meaning the state and essential nature of the reality to which it refers, see 2643, 3422, 4298, 4442. In this instance a state after temptation is meant, which is a state of enlightenment and affection, and so of comfort. Every spiritual temptation is followed by enlightenment and affection, and so by feelings of pleasure and delight, pleasure as a result of enlightenment through truth, delight as a result of affection for good.

[2] For the fact that comfort follows temptations, see 4572, 5246, 5628, 6829; and the reason why is that through temptations truths and forms of good are instilled and linked together, as a result of which inwardly, as to his spirit, a person is brought into heaven and to heavenly communities among which he has not been before. Once a temptation is completed, contact with heaven, contact which previously was partially shut off, is opened up. Enlightenment and affection, and consequently pleasure and delight, result from this, because the angels with whom he is now in contact enter in by means of truth and by means of good. The enlightenment through truth and the pleasure this gives are meant by 'twelve springs of water', since truths are meant by 'springs'; and an affection for truth arising from good and the delight this affords are meant by 'seventy palm trees', spoken of in what comes next.

2643. 'Who would have said to Abraham, Sarah will suckle sons?' means that by His own power the Lord implanted the Human within the Divine. This is clear from the representation of 'Abraham' and also of 'Sarah', and from the meaning of 'suckling', and of 'sons'. It has been shown already that 'Abraham' represents Divine Good and 'Sarah' Divine Truth. 'Milk' means that which is spiritual from a celestial origin, that is, truth deriving from good, see 2184, so that 'suckling' means implanting that truth; And 'sons' means truths, here truths that exist in the Rational, as is clear from the meaning of 'sons', 489-491, 533. The reason why in the internal sense the words under consideration mean that the Lord by His own power implanted the Human within the Divine is that Divine Truth is one and the same as the Divine Human, and when in reference to this it is said 'to suckle sons for Abraham' the meaning is that He implanted the Human within the Divine; and as it was the Human He implanted, He did so by His own power. But scarcely any clearer and more intelligible explanation of these matters is possible. To say more would obscure still further what is meant; for these are Divine matters, which can be presented to angels alone by means of celestial and spiritual things. If presented to men in some more exalted manner those matters would fall into the material and bodily ideas which men possess.

[2] What is more, it should be recognized that it is the nature of the Lord's Divine Rational when it was first born that is being described by these words, 'God has made laughter for me; everyone that hears will laugh for me; and she said, Who would have said to Abraham, Sarah will suckle sons?' For this was in keeping with an ancient custom that when an infant was born it was given a name which served to mean the state; and at the same time a description of that state was added, as when Cain was born to Eve and Adam, Genesis 4:1, and when Seth was born to the same, Genesis 4:25; and as when Noah was born to Lamech, Genesis 5:29, Esau and Jacob to Isaac, Genesis 25:25-26, the twelve sons to Jacob, Genesis 29:32-35; 30:6, 8, 11, 13, 18, 20, 24; 35:18, Perez and Zerah to Tamar, Genesis 38:29-30, Manasseh and Ephraim to Joseph, Genesis 41:51-52, and Gershom and Eliezer to Moses, Exodus 2:22; 18:4. What all these represent, and what they mean in the internal sense, was embodied in the descriptions added to the names that were given. The same is the case here with what Isaac represents and means. What this name embodies is evident to some small extent from this brief explanation that has been given, but deeper arcana are nevertheless concealed there since they are Divine matters, which no sentences or phrases can be formed to express.