In the ancient world cities were nearly nations unto themselves – they existed within walls, with their own laws and customs, generally centered on the common purpose of trade. This is not as much the case in the modern world, but we still tend to divide ourselves city by city in terms of sports teams, accents, music and culture, and still tend to generalize the character of people from other cities. It follows, then, that in the Bible cities represent various doctrines – collections of inter-related ideas about spiritual reality. Such doctrines can be based on anything from the Lord’s true teachings – the New Jerusalem seen by John in Revelation – to the falsity and heresy of Sodom and various cities obliterated by the people of Israel at God’s command. On the most personal level, a city can also represent the natural mind of one person – which makes sense since we each to some extent have our own doctrine and our own set of ideas and beliefs.

3689. Verses 10-11 And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went to Haran. And he came upon a place, and spent the night there because the sun had gone down. And he took one of the stones of the place and placed it as his headrest, and lay down in that place.

'Jacob went out from Beersheba' means life more remote from matters of doctrine that are Divine. 'And went to Haran' means closer to that degree of good and truth. 'And he came upon a place' means a state. 'And spent the night there because the sun had gone down' means life enveloped in obscurity. 'And he took one of the stones of the place' means the truths belonging to that state. 'And placed it as his headrest' means a very general communication with the Divine. 'And lay down in that place' means the serenity of that state.