10543. 'At Mount Horeb' means within the external things of worship, the Church, and the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'Mount Horeb' as Divine Truth present in external things. For Horeb was the mountainous region surrounding Mount Sinai, and 'Mount Sinai' means Divine Truth; consequently 'Horeb', being the mountainous region round about, means Divine Truth present in external things. For what is in the middle and higher than the outlying parts around it means that which is internal, and therefore what is around and below it means that which is external.

'Mount Sinai' means Divine Truth, see 8805, 9420.

The middle means that which is internal, 1074, 2940, 2973, 5897, 6084, 6103, 9164, and so does what is high, 2148, 4210, 4599, 9489, 9773, 10181.

What is round about means that which is external, 2973, and so does what is below.

Since the people's interest lay in external things and not in what was internal, when the Law was declared from Mount Sinai they stood in Horeb at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain was fenced off all the way round to prevent the people from touching it, Exodus 19:12-13, 21, 23-24; 20:21; Deuteronomy 4:10-12. The external of worship, the Church, and the Word is spoken of because the external of one is the external of another; for worship is performed by the Church, and the Church's truths and forms of good, and its worship, are derived from the Word. Those therefore who are interested in only the external things of worship and the Church are interested in only the external things of the Word.

4210. 'Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain' means worship founded on good that stems from love. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sacrifice' as worship, dealt with in 922, 923, 2180, and from the meaning of 'the mountain' as good that stems from love, 795, 796, 1430. 'A sacrifice' means worship because sacrifices and burnt offerings were the major features of all worship in the later representative Church, which was the Hebrew Church. They also used to sacrifice on mountains, as is clear from various places in the Word, because 'mountains' on account of their height meant the things which were high, such as those are which belong to heaven and are called heavenly; and having this meaning they also meant, in the highest sense, the Lord, whom they called the Most High. It was the outward appearance that led them to think in this way, for the things that are interior give the appearance of being higher, as heaven does with man. Heaven is interiorly within him, and yet he supposes it to be on high. This is the reason why, when the expression 'high' is used in the Word, that which is interior is meant in the internal sense.

[2] In the world people inevitably take heaven to be on high. One reason why they do so is that the word 'heaven' is used for the visible expanse which encircles them on high and another is that man is a dweller within time and space and so thinks from ideas derived from these. And a further reason is that few are aware of what anything interior may be, and fewer still are aware that neither place nor time exist there. This is why the mode of expression employed in the Word is one that accords with the ideas present in man's thought. If it had not accorded with those ideas but with angelic ideas man would have perceived nothing at all, but everyone would have stood wondering what it was and whether it was anything at all, and so would have rejected it as being devoid of anything intelligible.