2767. It came to pass after these words. That this signifies after the things just accomplished, is evident without explication. The things which have been treated of are those respecting Abimelech and Abraham, that they made a covenant in Beersheba, and lastly that Abraham raised up a grove in Beersheba, by which was signified that human rational things were adjoined to the doctrine of faith, which is in itself Divine. Here now the Lord's temptation as to the rational, which is signified by Isaac, is treated of; for by temptations the Lord made His Human Divine, and thus His rational, in which the human commences (n. 2106, 2194), by chastising and expelling all in the rational that was merely human, or the maternal human. This is the connection of the things of the preceding chapter with those in this chapter; whence it is said, "It came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham."
