Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3809

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3809. 'And brought him to his house' means to their being joined together. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing to the house' as taking to oneself, for in the internal sense a person himself is called 'a house', see 3128, 3242, 3538. He is so called by virtue of good, which strictly speaking is 'the house', 2233, 2331, 3652, 3720. In this case therefore a bringing to the good represented by 'Laban' is meant. That being so, 'bringing to his house' here means a joining together. This verse in the internal sense describes the whole process by which natural good meant by 'Jacob' is joined to a parallel good meant by 'Laban'. The following five phases constitute that process: Mutual acknowledgement, agreement, affection, an initial stage to a joining together, and actual joining together. Mutual acknowledgement was meant by 'Rachel ran and told her father' and by 'Laban heard the news about Jacob his sister's son', dealt with in 3804 3805: agreement by 'Laban ran to meet him', dealt with in 3806: affection by 'Laban embraced him', dealt with in 3807: the initial stage to a joining together by 'he kissed him', dealt with in 3808: and the joining together by 'he brought him to his house', dealt with in this paragraph.


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