9388. 'And built an altar under the mountain' means a representative sign of the Lord's Divine Human in respect of Divine Good from Him. This is clear from the meaning of 'an altar' as a representative sign of the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with in 921, 2777, 2811, 4489, and therefore the chief representative of worship of the Lord, 4541, 8935, 8940; and from the meaning of 'the mountain' as the good of love, dealt with in 4210, 6435, 8327, 8658, 8758, in this instance the Divine Good of love which emanates from the Lord, since it was Mount Sinai, where the Lord was then. 'Mount Sinai' means Divine Good united to Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, see 8805.

4116. 'And crossed the river' means a state in which a joining together takes place. This is clear from the meaning of 'the river', which in this case is the Euphrates, as a joining together, namely a joining to the Divine. The reason 'the river' has this meaning here is that it was the boundary separating the land of Canaan from that region, and all the boundaries of the land of Canaan were representative of and consequently meant spiritually that which came last and yet first - last because that was where it came to an end, and first because it was where it began. For all boundaries are such that they come last for those who are going out of the country but first for those who are coming in. Because Jacob was at that point coming in, that river was the first boundary that he crossed, and so means a joining together - in the highest sense a joining to the Divine; for 'the land of Canaan' in the internal sense means the Lord's heavenly kingdom, 1607, 3481, and in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Human, 3038, 3705. From all this one may see what is meant here by 'he crossed the river'. For all things in the land of Canaan were representative, with distances, positions, and boundaries determining their individual representations, see 1585, 3686; thus the rivers which served as boundaries, such as the river of Egypt, the river Euphrates, and the river Jordan, were representative, 1866.