1665. Verse 3 All these were gathered together at the valley of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea.

'All these were gathered together at the valley of Siddim' means that they were immersed in the unclean things that go with evil desires. 'Which is the Salt Sea' means the foul things that accompany derivative falsities.

10608. 'And also no one shall be seen on all the mountain' means that they are entirely remote from that Truth, and so stand outside it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the mountain', at this point Mount Horeb, as heaven in its entirety, thus also Divine Truth. It amounts to the same thing whether you say heaven or Divine Truth, since the angels, of whom heaven consists, are recipients of Divine Truth. The full extent of that mountain was called Horeb, but the higher part in the middle was called Mount Sinai; and this is why 'Horeb' means heaven, or what amounts to the same thing, Divine Truth in its entirety. The inward aspect of that Truth is meant by Mount Sinai, and the outward by the lower parts of the mountain surrounding it. So it is that 'Horeb', when used to include those surrounding parts, means that which is external, see 10543. The interest of the Israelite nation lay in what was external and closed off to anything internal and so in what was external separated from what was internal, or what amounts to the same thing, that nation stood outside anything that had an internal aspect; and this was why the command 'no one shall be seen on all the mountain' was given. The like is meant, in verses 8-10 of the previous chapter, by that nation's standing at the door of the tent in which Moses was and their bowing down to it, see 10545-10555.

[2] Something brief must be stated here to show why it is that Mounts Horeb and Sinai mean heaven and Divine Truth. The belief in the world is that angels live in the region above the sky, where they exist like puffs of wind and have no solid ground on which to stand. The reason why such a notion exists in the minds of very many people is that they have no idea that angels and spirits exist within a form similar to that in which people on earth do, that is, that they have faces, arms and hands, and feet, in short have actual bodies. Still less do people have any idea that they have abodes or dwelling-places, when in fact angels and spirits live among others in exactly the same way as people on a planet do, on land beneath their feet. Celestial angels live on mountains, spiritual angels on rocks, and those who have not yet become angels on plains between mountains or rocks; but hellish spirits live below mountains and rocks. These things have been stated in order that people may know why it is that in the Word mountains, especially Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai, mean heaven. Furthermore the more internal angels inhabit places higher up the mountains; and the higher they are, the more internal and perfect they are. From all this it is evident why Jehovah descended onto the peak of Mount Sinai when He proclaimed the Law, and why Moses was ordered to stand with Him on the top of the mountain. The mountains on earth do not constitute heaven; rather they represent the mountains on which angels in heaven live.