Bethel
![Fresco depicting Jacob's Dream in Palazzo Farnese, Caprarola Fresco depicting Jacob's Dream in Palazzo Farnese, Caprarola](/bundles/ncbsw/media/Fresco_Jacobs_Ladder_in_Palazzo_Farnese_Caprarola.webp)
When Jacob had his famous dream, of a staircase leading to heaven, he named the place "Bethel," which is Hebrew for "the house of God."
That literal meaning is reflected in the spiritual meaning: The Writings tell us that "Bethel" represents the knowledge and understanding we can have about the Lord's divine love, the perfect love which He has for all of us, the perfect love which is His essence. When we know about the Lord's love and have some understanding of it, that gives it a "house" inside us, a way for it to grow inside us and affect our own loves.
In Genesis 28:17, Bethel signifies the Lord's kingdom in the lowermost order. (Arcana Coelestia 3720)
In Amos 3:14, Bethel signifies the divine good. (Arcana Coelestia 2832[10])
"Bethel" has the opposite sense later in the Old Testament, after Jeroboam set up golden calves there and made it a center of idol-worship. Then it represented worship springing from evil loves.
Arcana Coelestia # 4508
4508. 'And all their wealth' means all factual knowledge which they had acquired for themselves. This is clear from the meaning of 'wealth' as factual knowledge, as may be seen from many places in the Word. For spiritual wealth, and so the wealth that is meant in the spiritual sense, is nothing other. Insofar as such wealth consists in actual knowing, it is factual knowledge. In the Lord's kingdom, and therefore in the Church, that knowledge exists in place of material wealth, as will be substantiated in the Lord's Divine mercy from other places in the Word.