4989. And she said, Lie with me. That this signifies that it desired conjunction, is evident from the signification of "lying with me," as being conjunction (that is, of good spiritual natural, which now is "Joseph," with truth natural not spiritual, which is his "lord's wife"), but unlawful conjunction. The conjunctions of good with truth, and of truth with good, are described in the Word by marriages (see n. 2727-2759, 3132, 3665, 4434, 4837); and hence unlawful conjunctions are described by harlotries. And so here the conjunction of truth natural not spiritual with good spiritual natural is described by his lord's wife being desirous to lie with Joseph. Between these no conjunction is possible in internals, but only in externals, in which there is an apparent conjunction, but it is only an affinity. For this reason also she caught him by his garment, and he left the garment in her hand; for by "garment" in the internal sense is signified what is external, by which there is an apparent conjunction, or by which there is an affinity, as will be seen below at verses 12, 13.
[2] That these things are signified cannot be seen so long as the mind or thought is kept in the historicals; for then nothing is thought of but Joseph, Potiphar's wife, and the flight of Joseph when he had left his garment. But if the mind or thought were kept in those things which are signified by Joseph, by Potiphar's wife, and by a garment, it would then be perceived that some unlawful spiritual conjunction is here described; and the mind or thought can be kept in the things which are signified, provided it is believed that the historic Word is Divine, not from the mere history, but from the fact that within the history there is what is spiritual and Divine; and if this were believed, it would be known that the spiritual and Divine therein are concerning the good and truth of the Lord's church and kingdom, and in the supreme sense concerning the Lord Himself. When a man comes into the other life, as he does immediately after death, if he is one of those who are taken up into heaven, he will then know that he retains nothing of the historicals of the Word, and indeed knows nothing about Joseph, nor about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but only about the spiritual and Divine things which he had learnt from the Word and had applied to his life. Such things therefore are what are inwardly contained in the Word, and are called its internal sense.