3459. 'And swore, a man to his brother' means confirmation with those who do the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'swearing' or of 'an oath' as confirmation, dealt with in 2842, 3037, 3375, and from the meaning of 'a man to his brother' as the good of truth, or what amounts to the same, one who is governed by that truth - 'man' meaning truth, see 265, 749, 1007, 3134, 3309, and 'brother' good, 2360. For what the good of truth is, see 3295, 3332. This good occurs with those represented here by Abimelech or by the Philistines, of whom Abimelech was the king, that is to say, those who make faith the essential thing of the Church and rank it above charity. No other good exists with such persons than the good of truth. Indeed they extract and draw out of the Word nothing else than references to faith and so to truth. They hardly notice references to good and so to life, and as a consequence they become more firmly convinced by matters of doctrine concerning faith and not by any concerning charity. When they do perform a good action it is one prescribed by matters of doctrine concerning faith. Good prescribed by these is called the good of truth.

[2] The Lord does indeed join Himself to those with whom this good exists, but not in the same way as He does to those who do the good of charity, for love and charity constitute spiritual conjunction, but not so faith except through love and charity. It is for this reason that the words used are not 'they made a covenant with Isaac' but 'they swore, a man to his brother'; for 'a covenant' has reference to good, which is the good of love and charity, whereas 'an oath' has reference to truth, which is the truth of faith, 3375. Also 'dwelling together' meant by 'a feast', 3456, is used in reference to those who do the good of truth. From people such as these in the next life I have been given to know that they have been separated from those who do the good of charity; for the latter are joined more nearly to the Lord than the former, since the former's good is so to speak hard and inflexible, and not communicable, and so is not in heaven but on the threshold of heaven.

2341. 'And he made a feast for them' means dwelling together. This is clear from the meaning of 'a feast'. 'Feasts' are mentioned in various places in the Word, and in those places they mean in the internal sense dwelling together, as in Jeremiah,

The word of Jehovah came to him, You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. Jeremiah 16:8.

In that chapter the prophet is told many things by which he was to represent the necessity for good to have no connection with evil, nor truth to have any with falsity. Among other things he was required 'not to go into the house of feasting', which meant that good and truth were not to dwell together with evil and falsity.

[2] In Isaiah,

Jehovah Zebaoth will make on this mountain a feast of fat things for all peoples, a feast of sweet wines, of fat things full of marrow, of wines well-refined. Isaiah 25:6.

Here 'mountain' stands for love to the Lord, 795, 1430. People with whom that love exists dwell together with the Lord in good and truth, which are meant by 'a feast'. 'Fat things' and those 'full of marrow' are goods, 353, 'sweet and well-refined wines' are truths deriving from goods, 1071.

[3] The feasts made from the consecrated elements when sacrifices were offered represented in the Jewish Church nothing else than the Lord's dwelling together with man within the holy things of love meant by sacrifices, 2187. The same was at a later time meant by the Holy Supper, which the Primitive Church called a feast.

[4] Chapter 21 below refers to Abraham making a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned, in verse 8. This feast represented and therefore meant the dwelling together and initial conjunction of the Lord's Divine itself with His Human Rational. 'Feasts' have the same meaning in the internal sense in other places, as may also be deduced from the fact that feasts are occasions involving a number of people who are all simultaneously filled with love and charity, who are opening their minds to one another, and who are enjoying together the glad feelings that are the expressions of love and charity.