8809. 'Do not go near a woman' means purification of the good of faith. This is clear from the consideration that marriages among the Israelite nation were impure because their interiors were foul. Conjugial love descends from the marriage of goodness and truth; consequently pure marriage does not exist with those whose interiors have no goodness or truth in them, and impure marriage exists with those whose interiors have evil and falsity in them, as that nation's did. This is why 'not going near a woman' means abstaining from impurity. Regarding the descent of conjugial love from the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of goodness and truth, see 2727-2759, 2803, 3132, 4434, 4835; and regarding the absence of anything of true marriage among the people descended from Jacob, who were therefore allowed to take a number of wives, 3246. But so far as those who belong to the spiritual Church are concerned, and who are represented here by the children of Israel, they do not have anything of true marriage in them until they have had truth implanted in their good. Before this happens a marriage does, it is true, exist, but it is not pure because up to then no marriage of goodness and truth exists in their interiors. So it is that 'not going near a woman' in the internal sense means being purified in respect of the good of faith. For the subject in the present chapter is good which has not as yet had truth implanted in it, and in subsequent chapters the actual implanting.

3132. 'And so it was, when he saw the nose-jewel and the bracelets on his sister's hands' means when it recognized Divine Good and Divine Truth within the power of the affection for truth, meant by 'a sister'. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as recognizing, dealt with in 2150, from the meaning of 'a nose-jewel' as Divine Good, dealt with in 3103, 3104, from the meaning of 'bracelets' as Divine Truth, also dealt with in 3103, 3105, from the meaning of 'hands' as power, dealt with in 878, 3091, and from the meaning of 'a sister' as the affection for truth, dealt with in 2508, 2524, 2556. From these paragraphs it is evident that 'seeing the nose-jewel and the bracelets on his sister's hands' means recognizing Divine Good and Divine Truth within the power of the affection for truth.

[2] The truth of the matter is that Divine Good and Divine Truth joined together within the Lord constitute the Divine marriage itself, from which the heavenly marriage springs, which in a similar way is a marriage of good and truth. From this too conjugial love springs, see 2727-2759. Consequently when a marriage is the subject in the Word the heavenly marriage is meant in the internal sense, which is the marriage of good and truth, and in the highest sense the Divine marriage which exists within the Lord. For this reason nothing else is meant here by the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah. The marriage itself exists when good and truth have been joined together, but the betrothal of the two, or the state preceding the marriage, when one is being introduced into the other. But it is the state preceding the betrothal that is described here. In this state, as it is in the power of a [marriageable] girl to become betrothed, and subsequently as a wife to be joined to a husband, so it is in the power of the affection for truth to be introduced into Divine Truth and so to be joined to Divine Good. What is more, in the initial affection for truth and after that in every affection for it, with the Lord, Divine Good itself and Divine Truth itself were inmostly present because Jehovah Himself was present there. This was the source of the power which is the subject here.