4129. 'And Laban pitched with his brothers in mount Gilead' means the state of the good existing to some extent in that joining together. This is clear from the representation of 'Laban' as the good now separated from the good represented by 'Jacob'; from the meaning of 'pitching' as the state involving that good (the phrase 'pitching his tent' is not used because it was not a state of holy love except insofar as the two kinds of good were to some extent so joined together); from the meaning of 'brothers' as the forms of good with which the good meant by 'Laban' is grouped together, dealt with above in 4121; and from the meaning of 'mount Gilead' as the first stage and the last of the joining together, dealt with above in 4117. From this it is evident that 'Laban pitched with his brothers on mount Gilead' means the state of the good existing to some extent in that joining together.

[2] Anything more that is embodied within the matters that have now been explained cannot be presented intelligibly in the same way except by reference to the occurrences which take place in the next life when the Lord links communities of spirits and angels to man or separates them from him. The actual process by which they are linked or separated is determined by the order as it exists there. The stages of this process have been described fully in this chapter, but because man has no knowledge of them at all it would be declaring mere arcana if they were to be explained individually. Some have been discussed above where the joining and the separation of communities residing with one who is to be regenerated have been the subject. But it is enough if one knows that the arcana of that process are contained here in the internal sense, so many and of such a nature in fact that not even a thousandth part can be explained fully and intelligibly.