Spiritual Meaning of GENESIS 16:13-14
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AC 1952. Verses 13, 14. And she called the name of Jehovah who was speaking unto her, Thou God seest me; for she said, Have I also here seen after Him that seeth me? Therefore she called the fountain, The fountain of the Living One who seeth me; behold it is between Kadesh and Bared. " And she called the name of Jehovah who was speaking unto her," signifies the state of the Lord’s interior man when it thought about these things. "Thou God seest me," signifies influx; "for she said, Have I also here seen after Him that seeth me?" signifies influx into the life of the exterior man without the rational as a medium "therefore she called the fountain," signifies the derivative state of‘ truth; "the fountain of the Living One who seeth me," signifies truth thus clearly seen; "behold it is between Kadesh and Bared,"’ signifies its quality.

AC 1953. And she called the name of Jehovah who was speaking unto her. That this signifies the state of the Lord‘s interior man when it thought about these things, is evident from what precedes and what follows, and also from the signification of "calling a name," which is to know what is the quality (n. 144, 145, 1754). This state is described in regard to its quality, or the state in which the Lord was when He thus thought about the rational. The rational could not think this, but the interior or higher man could (n. 1926). For the rational can by no means think about itself in regard to its quality, for nothing can look into itself; but it must be something more internal or higher that thinks about it, for this can look into it. For example: the ear cannot know, and still less perceive the speech that it receives into itself: this is done by a more interior hearing. The ear merely discerns articulate sounds or words: it is the interior hearing that apprehends what is said, and then it is an interior sight or mental view that perceives it, and in this way there is through the hearing a perception of the meaning of the speech. The case is similar with the things of sight: the first ideas received from the objects of sight are material, as they are also called; but there is a sight still more interior that views the objects mentally, and thereby thinks. And such is the case with man’s rational. The rational can by no means look into itself, still less explore its own quality: there must be something more internal that does this; and therefore when a man is able to do it-that is, perceive anything false in his rational, or any truth that shines there, and especially if he is able to perceive anything that is battling and overcoming-he may know that his ability to do this comes from the Lord‘s influx through the internal man. The Lord’s interior man, spoken of above (n. 1926) and meant here, was that which had been conjoined with His internal man, which was Jehovah, and was therefore far above that rational. From that interior man, as in celestial light, He saw and perceived of what quality the rational would become if it were in truth alone, and not in good.

AC 1954. Thou God seest me. That this signifies influx, is evident from what has just been said. Mental view from the higher into the lower, or what is the same, from the interior into the exterior, is termed influx, for it takes place by influx; just as in the case of man‘s interior sight: unless this continually inflowed into his outer sight, which is that of the eye, this latter could not possibly apprehend and discern any object; for it is the interior sight which, through the eye, apprehends the things which the eye sees; and by no means is it the eye, although it so appears. From all this we may also see how much that man is in the fallacies of the senses who believes that the eye sees; when in fact it is the sight of his spirit, which is the interior sight, that sees through the eye.

[2] Spirits who were with me have seen through my eyes things in the world as well as I did (n. 1880); yet some of them who were still in the fallacies of the senses supposed that they had seen through their own eyes; but they were shown that it was not so, for when my eyes were closed they saw nothing in this atmospheric world. It is the very same with man: it is his spirit that sees, not his eye: the spirit sees through the eye. The same thing may be seen from dreams, in which a man sometimes sees as in the day. The case is the very same in regard to this interior sight, or that of the spirit this again does not see from itself, but from a still more interior sight, or that of man’s rational. Nay, neither does this see of itself, but does so from a still more internal sight, which is that of the internal man (n. 1940). And even this does not see of itself, for it is the Lord who sees through the internal man, and He is the Only One who sees because He is the Only One who lives, and He it is who gives man the ability to see, and this in such a manner that it appears to him as if he saw of himself. Such is the case with influx.

AC 1955. For she said, Have I also here seen after Him who seeth me? That this signifies influx into the life of the exterior man without the rational as a medium, is evident from the signification of "seeing after Him that seeth." "To see after Him that seeth" is to see from what is interior, or higher, for in the internal sense that which is within or above is expressed in the sense of the letter by "after," when that which is within or above appears in that which is without or below. It is Hagar who speaks here; and by Hagar, as before shown, is signified the life of memory-knowledges, which belongs to the exterior man. As the first rational originated from this life, the Lord saw the reason for its so doing, and He saw it from His interior man in His exterior man, and did so without the rational as a medium. That the words before us involve arcana, every one can see from the single consideration that no one can know what it is to "see after Him that seeth me," except from an internal sense, in which also there must be such things as cannot be explained to the apprehension, except by means of ideas like those of angels, which do not fall into words, but only into the sense of the words; and this quite apart from the material ideas out of which come the ideas of the sense of the words. Concerning the things before us, which appear so obscure to man, the angels have ideas so clear and distinct, and enriched with so many representations, that were only a small part of them described, they would fill a volume.

AC 1956. Therefore she called the fountain. That this signifies the derivative state of truth, is evident from what has been said; and also from the signification of a fountain," as being truth (explained above, n. 1927). As this truth was not seen in the rational, but below the rational, the word in the original language that is here rendered "fountain" is a different word from that rendered "fountain" above, and from the common word for fountain.

AC 1957. The fountain of the Living One who seeth me. That this signifies truth thus clearly seen, is also evident from what has been already said, namely, that the Lord clearly saw how the case was with the truth of this rational-that it was not good. The Lord‘s interior man, from which He saw this, is called "The Living One who seeth," because it was conjoined with the internal man, which was Jehovah, who alone lives and alone sees (n. 1954).

AC 1958. Behold it is between Kadesh and Bared. That this signifies the quality that is that He saw of what quality this truth was, and thus what the quality of the rational was-is evident from the signification of "Kadesh" and of "Bared." That "Kadesh" signifies truth, and also contentions about truths, has been shown before (n. 1678) but "Bared" signifies what is below, and thus truth in the form of memory-knowledge, from which also comes the rational. (That names in the Word signify actual things, may be seen above, (n. 1876, 1888, 1889, 1224, 1264).

Author:  E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Design:  I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002.

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