Swedenborg Arcana Caelestia Vol. IV (1750)

is born of good; it has no other origin. A truth is called a truth because it belongs to good and because it confirms that from which it is, that is, good. Hence the signification of "nativities" here. That nativities are of faith, see n. 1145, 1255; and that "to bear" is to acknowledge in faith and act, n. 3905, 3915.

4071. "And I will be with you," signifies that then the Divine would be present. This is evident from the fact that Jehovah spoke, and by Jehovah, the Lord is understood, as above in n. 4068, thus the Divine. To be with the one in whom He is, or who is that [Divine], is Divine. The supreme sense, which is of the Lord, is such that it appears divided in the sense of the letter, but it is one in the internal supreme sense.

4072. Verse 4 to 13. And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock. And he said to them, I see the faces of your father, that he is not at all toward me as yesterday or the day before; and the God of my father was with me. And you know that with all my strength I have served your father. And your father deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, and God did not give him to do evil with me. If he said this, the speckled shall be your wages, then all the flocks brought forth speckled; and if he said this, the ring-streaked shall be your wages, then all the flocks brought forth ring-streaked. And God took away the acquisition of your father, and gave it to me. And it happened in the time of the flock’s heat, that I lifted up my eyes, and I saw in a dream, and behold, the he-goats ascending upon the flock were ring-streaked, speckled, and grisled. And the Angel of God said to me in a dream, Jacob, and I said, Behold me. And he said, Lift up I pray your eyes, and see all the he-goats ascending upon the flock, ring-streaked, speckled, and grisled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar, where you vowed a vow to me; now arise, go forth from this land, and return to the land of your nativity. "And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock," signifies the joining of the affections of truth to the good now understood by Jacob, and the application then when he should depart. "And he said to them, I see the faces of your father, that he is not at all toward me as yesterday or the day before," signifies a change of state in the good signified by Laban. "And the God of my father was with me," signifies that from the Divine were all things that were His own. "And you know that with all my strength I have served your father," signifies that it was by his own power. "And your father deceived me, and changed my wages ten times," signifies the state of good toward Him when He applied from His own Self those things that were of that good, and the frequent change of it. "And God did not give him to do evil with me," signifies that nevertheless he could not hinder Him. "If he said this, the speckled shall be your wages, then all the flocks brought forth speckled," signifies His freedom, and that in His freedom those things were received from the Lord, these being regarding the evils adjoined to goods. "And if he said this, the ring-streaked shall be your wages, then all the flocks brought forth ring-streaked," signifies the same regarding the falsities adjoined. "And God took away the acquisition of your father, and gave it to me," signifies that those things were from the Divine. "And it happened in the time of the flock’s heat," signifies the heat of affection so that they might be joined. "And I lifted up my eyes, and I saw in a dream," signifies the perception of natural good in the obscure. "And behold, the he-goats ascending upon the flock were ring-streaked, speckled, and grisled," signifies the effect, that the natural good understood by Jacob was imbued with such things from that. "And the Angel of God said to me in a dream, Jacob, and I said, Behold me," signifies perception from the Divine, and presence in that obscure state.