4578. 'And God went up from over him in the place where He talked to him' means the Divine within that state. This is clear from the meaning of 'God going up from over him' as the Divine, for 'going up' implies a raising up to more interior aspects, and when used in connection with the Lord, to whom 'God' refers here, a raising up to the Divine, 4539; and from the meaning of 'the place where He talked to him' as that state. 'Place' means state, see 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, and therefore 'the place where He talked to him' means the state that He was passing through.

3388. 'For she was good-looking' means that it could be received without difficulty because of its being called Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'good-looking' as something which because of its form is pleasing and so is received without difficulty. The subject is those who possess matters of doctrine concerning faith but who do not have from good any perception of truth, only a conscience regarding what is true which consists simply of what their parents and teachers have told them. These are they who are called 'the men of the place (which is Gerar)', 3385, 3387. With these people the first stage in the confirmation of such truth is reached, in that it is called Divine, for now they immediately have a concept of that which is holy, and this contributes an overall confirmation to every single thing they are told even though they do not grasp it. Nevertheless what they are told must come within their ability to grasp those things. It is not enough for a person to know that something exists; he also wishes to know something about it, and the nature of it if any confirmation of it is to reach the understanding part of his mind, and come back from there. If that wish is not present something may indeed be introduced into the memory, but it remains there as no more than something dead, like a meaningless sound, and unless some confirmatory evidence from whatever source drives it home it slips away like the remembrance of something that merely made a sound.