4641. 'These are the generations of Esau' means the derivatives within the Lord's Divine Natural Good. This is clear from the meaning of 'generations' as derivatives, that is to say, derivatives of good and truth, dealt with in 1330, 3263, 3279, 3860, 3868, 4070, and from the representation of 'Esau' as the Lord's Divine Natural Good, dealt with in 3302, 3322, 3494, 3504, 3576, 3599. This Good is the subject now in this chapter. But because its nature is such that it does not come within the range of understanding which any man possesses, and scarcely within that of any angel, mere names are therefore used to describe this Good. The Lord's Divine Natural Good represented by 'Esau' is that which was Divine and which He had from when He was born; for He had been conceived from Jehovah and therefore had what was Divine even from birth. It existed in Him as His soul and was consequently the central core of His life.

[2] Outwardly this had been clothed with what He took upon Himself from His mother. But since that which He took from her was not good but essentially evil, He cast this out by means of His own power, in particular by means of the conflicts that came with temptations. Then after that He joined this Human which He made new within Himself to the Divine Good which He had had from when He was born. 'Jacob' represented the good which He acquired to Himself by His own power and which has been the subject in the chapters immediately before the present one. This acquired good is what He joined to the Divine Good; and in this way He made the entire Human within Him Divine. The Good which 'Esau' represents was coming in by an internal route, through rational good directly into the Natural. But the good which 'Jacob' or 'Israel' represents was coming in by an external route to be met by the Divine coming through rational good, though indirectly through the truth of the Rational into the Natural. 'Isaac' represents the rational good, and 'Rebekah' the rational truth; see what has been stated already concerning them in 3334, 3573, 4563 (end).