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.

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.