3940. Verses 14-16 And Reuben went in the days of the wheat harvest and found dudaim in the field, and brought them to Leah his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, Give me now some of your son's dudaim. But she said to her, Is it a small thing for you to have taken my husband? And will you take also my son's dudaim? And Rachel said, Therefore he will lie with you this night [in return] for your son's dudaim. And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, You must come [in] to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's dudaim. And he lay with her that night.

'Reuben went in the days of the wheat harvest' means faith in regard to its state of love and charity. 'And found dudaim in the field' means the essentials of conjugial love that are present within the truth and good of charity and love. 'And brought them to Leah his mother' means application to the affection for external truth. 'And Rachel said to Leah' means perception by the affection for interior truth, and the desire for it. 'Give me now some of your son's dudaim' means for the things belonging to conjugial love, to which it might be joined mutually and reciprocally. 'But she said to her, Is it a small thing for you to have taken my husband?' means the existence of conjugial desire. 'And will you take also my son's dudaim?' means that in that case the conjugial element linking natural good to external truth would be taken away. 'And Rachel said' means consent. 'Therefore he will lie with you this night [in return] for your son's dudaim' means that external truth should be joined to natural good. 'And Jacob came from the field in the evening' means the good of truth in a state of good, yet also in obscurity such as envelops the natural. 'And Leah went out to meet him' means a desire on the part of the affection for external truth. 'And said, You must come [in] to me' means that it might be joined to that good. 'For I have surely hired you with my son's dudaim' means that this had accordingly been seen to and agreed beforehand. 'And he lay with her that night' means the actual joining together.