3160. 'And Laban answered, then Bethuel, and they said, From Jehovah has this thing come; we cannot speak to you bad or good' means acknowledgement that it was the Lord's alone. This could be shown by an explanation of the internal sense of all the individual words; yet the inference to be drawn is evident without any such explanation. 'From Jehovah has this thing come' clearly means that it is from the Lord, because the name 'Jehovah' mentioned so many times in the Old Testament is used to mean no one other than the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 1815, 2156, 2329, 2921, 3023, 3035. The embodiment of arcana within these words may be known from the consideration that here it was Laban - the brother - who answered, and then Bethuel - the father - not the father and the mother; and that the virgin herself did not answer until after that. The reason for this is that Laban as her brother represents the affection for good in the natural man, 3129, 3130, and Bethuel the origin of the affection for good. The affection for good and the affection for truth in the natural man are related to each other as brother and sister. But the affection for truth once summoned from the natural man into the rational man and joined to good there is as a married woman.

[2] The arcanum embodied here in Laban and Bethuel's manner of reply - that is, in the brother speaking first, then the father - is that when good from the rational man flows into the natural man, it does not flow directly into the truth there but into the good, and then by way of the good into the truth. Unless that good flows in as described, the affection for truth cannot come into being. The affection for good in the natural man is that which acknowledges, and so is the first to consent, for a direct communication exists between rational good and natural good, but no direct communication between rational good and natural truth. Regarding the parallelism that exists between them, see 1831, 1832. Here two ancient customary sayings occur - 'from Jehovah has the thing come' meaning that it was done by Jehovah, and also 'we cannot speak to you bad or good' meaning that people did not dare either to deny or to affirm. Reference to the acknowledgement being the Lord's alone follows next.

2751. Bunched together - up above, in front of my left eye - there were spirits such as during their lifetime had in secret and with much cunning plotted against others. They were adulterers who, having arrived there only recently, were still in the world of spirits. It was their custom to send out from their bunch, in this direction and in that, some of their number, so that they might plot not only against conjugial love, but also against what is good and true, and most of all against the Lord. Those sent out come back to them and report what they have heard; and in this way they all take counsel. Thinking I was a spirit, because I spoke using the language of spirits, they also sent one to me. When this emissary spoke he said things that were completely scandalous, mostly against the Lord, so that he himself consisted so to speak of nothing but scandals. Aware of which bunch and what scum he was from I replied that he should refrain from uttering such things. As regards the Lord, I said, I knew without any shadow of doubt that He was one with the Father; that the whole of heaven was His; that all innocence, peace, love, charity, mercy, and also all conjugial love were derived from Him, as well as everything good and true; all of which things were Divine. And I knew that Moses and the Prophets, that is, every single detail of the Word in its internal sense, had reference to Him, and that all the religious observances of the Jewish Church were representative of Him. Since I was so certain of these matters as to have no doubt at all, what more could he want? On hearing all this, with shame he went away. He was told these things in order that he might report them to the adulterers who constituted that wicked bunch from which he had been sent.