4117. 'And he set his face towards mount Gilead' means good within it. This is clear from the meaning of 'mount' as the celestial element of love, which is good, dealt with in 795, 1430, to which the good meant by 'Jacob' was joined - 'Gilead' meaning the essential nature of it. Since the river was the boundary and, as has been stated, meant the first phase of the joining together, 'mount Gilead', which lay in this part away from the Jordan, means the good involved in that first stage of the joining together.

[2] The land of Gilead where the mountain was situated lay within the confines of the land of Canaan understood in a wide sense. It was situated on this side of the Jordan, and was granted as an inheritance to the Reubenites and the Gadites, and in particular to the half-tribe of Manasseh. And since the inheritances stretched out that far, it is said that it was situated within the confines of the land of Canaan understood in a wide sense. The fact that this territory was granted as an inheritance to those tribes is clear in Moses, Numbers 32:1, 26-41; Deuteronomy 3:8, 10-16; Joshua 13:24-31. For this reason when the land of Canaan was envisaged in its entirety it was said to stretch from Gilead even to Dan, and in another sense from Beersheba even to Dan, for Dan also was a boundary, 1710, 3923. Regarding its stretching from Beersheba even to Dan, see 2858, 2859; and reference to its doing so from Gilead to Dan occurs in Moses,

Moses went up from the plains of Moab onto mount Nebo, the top of Pisgah, which is in the direction of Jericho. There Jehovah showed him the whole land, Gilead even to Dan. Deuteronomy 34:1.

And in the Book of Judges,

Gilead dwelling at the crossing of the Jordan; and Dan, why will he fear ships? Judges 5:17.

[3] Because it was a boundary, 'Gilead' in the spiritual sense means the good that comes first, which is that of the bodily senses, for it is the good or delight of the senses that a person who is being regenerated is introduced into first of all. This is the sense in which 'Gilead' is taken in the Prophets, as in Jeremiah 8:22; 22:6; 46:11; 50:19; Ezekiel 47:18; Obad. verse 19; Micah 7:14; Zechariah 10:10; Psalms 60:7; and in the contrary sense, in Hosea 6:8; 12:11.

1443. The implications of a first perception being meant by 'the oak-grove of Moreh' are as follows: Residing with man there are intellectual concepts, rational concepts, and factual knowledge. The intellectual concepts form the inmost parts of his mind, the rational concepts form the interior parts, and the factual knowledge forms the exterior parts. They are called his spiritual endowments, which occur in the order in which they have been mentioned. The intellectual concepts of the celestial man are compared to 'a garden consisting of trees of every kind'; rational concepts to 'a forest consisting of cedars and other trees like them', such as those that grow in Lebanon; while factual knowledge is compared to 'oak-groves' on account of the interlocking boughs that are a feature of oak trees. The trees themselves meant perceptions - 'the trees of the garden of Eden in the east' meant inmost perceptions, that is, those of intellectual concepts, as shown already in 99, 100, 103; 'the trees of the forest of Lebanon' meant interior perceptions, that is, those of rational concepts, whereas 'oak trees' meant exterior perceptions, that is, those of facts that belong to the external man. This explains why 'the oak-grove of Moreh' means the Lord's first perception, for He was still only a boy and His spiritual powers had not yet developed interiorly. In addition the oak-grove of Moreh was also the place which the children of Israel came to first when they crossed the Jordan and saw the land of Canaan. Of this it is said in Moses,

You shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are not these across the Jordan, beyond the road towards the seeing of the sun, in the land of the Canaanite who dwells in the plain towards Gilgal, beside the oak-groves of Moreh? Deuteronomy 11:29-30.

These words as well mean the first experience of perception, for the entry of the children of Israel represents the entry of those who have faith into the Lord's kingdom.