Arcana Coelestia #4117
4117. And set his faces toward the mountain of Gilead. That this signifies good therein, is evident from the signification of a “mountain,” as being the celestial of love, that is, good (n. 795, 1430), with which there was conjunction. “Gilead” signifies its quality. As the river was the boundary, and as before said the first of conjunction was there, therefore the “mountain of Gilead,” which was on the hither side of the Jordan, signifies the good with which this first of conjunction took place.
[2] The land of Gilead, where the mountain stood, was within the limits of the land of Canaan as understood in a broad sense. It was on the hither side of the Jordan, 1 and passed as an inheritance to the Reubenites and the Gadites, and especially to the half tribe of Manasseh; and as the inheritances extended thus far, it is said that it was within the limits of the land of Canaan as understood in a broad sense. That it passed as an inheritance to them, is evident in Moses (Numbers 32:1, 26-41; Deuteronomy 3:8, 10-16; Josh. 13:24-31). Therefore when the land of Canaan was presented in one complex, it was said, “from Gilead even unto Dan,” and in another sense, “from Beersheba even unto Dan,” for Dan also was a boundary (n. 1710, 3923). As regards the expression “from Beersheba even unto Dan,” see above (n. 2858, 2859). “From Gilead even unto Dan” is found in Moses:
Moses went up from the plains of Noah upon Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho; and Jehovah showed him all the land of Gilead even unto Dan (Deuteronomy 34:1-2);
and in the book of Judges:
Gilead dwelleth in the passage of the Jordan; and Dan, why shall he fear the ships? (Judg. 5:17).
[3] Because Gilead was a boundary, it signified in the spiritual sense the first good, which is that of the senses of the body; for it is the good or the pleasure of these into which the man who is being regenerated is first of all initiated. In this sense is “Gilead” taken in the Prophets, as in Jeremiah 8:20, 8:22; 22:6; 46:11; 50:19; Ezekiel 47:18; Obad. 1:19; Micah 7:14; Zech. 10:10; Psalms 60:7; and in the opposite sense in Hos. 6:8; 12:12.
Footnotes:
1. That is, on the side next Syria, where Jacob at present was, and thus was really “beyond Jordan,” in the ordinary sense of the expression. [REVISER.]
Deuteronomy 3:10-16
10
all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
11
(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; isn't it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, after the cubit of a man.)
12
This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead, and its cities, gave I to the Reubenites and to the Gadites:
13
and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, gave I to the half-tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim.
14
Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day.)
16
To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and the border [of it], even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;
