4153. And Laban came into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two handmaids, and found them not. That this signifies that in their holy things there were not such truths, is evident from the signification of a “tent,” as being what is holy (see n. 414, 1102, 2145, 2152, 3210, 3312, 4128), here, holy things, because they were the tents of Jacob, Leah, and the handmaids. That the truths in question were not there, is signified by his not finding the teraphim there. (That in a good sense “teraphim” are truths, may be seen above, n. 4111.) By Jacob is represented the good of the natural; by Leah, the affection of external truth; and by the handmaids, external affections, as shown above; and as the truths which are here in question were not external, but internal, they were not found in the tents of these persons (that is, in their holy things), but were in Rachel’s tent, that is, in the holy of the affection of interior truth; for by Rachel is represented the affection of interior truth.

2145. He was sitting at the door of the tent. That this signifies the holy which at that time appertained to Him, namely, the holy of love-which is signified by the day growing hot, as explained in what follows-is evident from the signification of a “tent,” as being what is holy (see n. 414, 1102, 1566, where also the reason of this signification of “tents” is explained). As the Lord was then in the perception which is signified by the oak-groves of Mamre, which is a lower rational perception, but yet is a perception more internal than that which is signified by the oak-grove of Moreh (concerning whichsee n. 1442-1443 it is here represented and therefore signified by His sitting at the door of the tent, that is, at the entrance to what is holy. How the case is with perceptions, as being less or more interior, may be illustrated by the perceptions of the most ancient people, from whom I have heard that the more they were in memory-knowledges from the things which are objects of hearing and sight, the lower were their perceptions; but that the more they were uplifted above them to the celestial things of charity and love, the more interior their perceptions were, because they were then nearer to the Lord.