3819. 'The name of the elder was Leah' means the nature of the affection for external truth; 'and the name of the younger Rachel' means the nature of the affection for internal truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Leah' as the affection for external truth, and of 'Rachel' as the affection for internal truth, both dealt with in 3793; and from the meaning of 'the name' as the nature of, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006. Leah is called 'the elder' because external truth is learned first, and Rachel 'the younger' because internal truth is learned from then on after that; or what amounts to the same, a person first of all feels an affection for external truths, and from then on after that an affection for internal truths. external truths provide the basic outline for internal truths, for they are the general outlines into which particular details are added. Unless a person has a general outline of the idea of a thing he does not make sense of any particular aspect of it. This explains why the literal sense of the Word contains general truths but the internal sense particular truths. General truths are called external, but particular truths internal. And because truths devoid of affection are not truths because there is no life to them, the affections for them are therefore meant when external and internal truths are referred to.

4310. In the internal historical sense 'Jacob called the name of the place Peniel' means a state in which they took on representations. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling the name' as the essential nature, often dealt with already; from the meaning of 'place' as state, dealt with in 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387; and from the meaning of 'Peniel', in this sense, as taking on representations, for representations are the subject in what has gone before and directly follows. The literal meaning of Peniel is explained in the words 'for I have seen God face to face, and my soul is delivered', the spiritual meaning of which is the Lord's presence in that which was represented, dealt with immediately below. So the meaning here is that they took on representations. Names of places, as with the names of persons, and also of actual things, do not have the same meaning in one sense as they do in another. Jacob himself, for example, in the sense of the letter means Jacob himself; in the internal historical sense his descendants, 4281; in the internal spiritual sense the natural man in the case of one who is regenerate; but in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Natural is meant, as has been shown often. This applies to all other names, and so no less to Peniel.