4786. 'And his father wept for him' means interior mourning. This is clear from the meaning of 'weeping' as the extremity of grief and sadness, and so as interior mourning. In the ancient Churches the external practices by which, internal things were represented included those of wailing and weeping over the dead. Their wailing and weeping meant interior mourning, although their actual mourning was not interior. One reads the following, for example, about the Egyptians who had set out with Joseph to bury Jacob,

When they came to the threshing-floor of Atad which is at the crossing of the Jordan they wailed there with an exceedingly great and grievous wailing, and he mourned for his father seven days. And the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing-floor of Atad, and they said, This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians. Genesis 50:10-11.

And one reads about David weeping over Abner,

They buried Abner in Hebron, and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept. 2 Samuel 3:32.

10206. 'Or a burnt offering, or a minchah' means that nothing representative of regeneration by means of the truths and forms of good belonging to celestial love should be there. This is clear from the meaning of 'a burnt offering' as that which is representative of purification from evils, of the implanting of goodness and truth and joining together of them, and so of regeneration, dealt with in 10042, 10053, 10057; and from the meaning of 'a minchah' as celestial good, to which a person is brought through regeneration, dealt with in 4581, 9992, 10079, 10137, and also as that which is representative of regeneration, 9993, 9994. From all this it is evident that the words telling them 'not to cause a burnt offering or a minchah to go up' on the altar of incense mean that nothing representative of regeneration by means of the truths and forms of the good of faith and love should be there, only that which was representative of worship of the Lord that springs from them. For regeneration is one thing, worship another; first there is regeneration, and according to the nature of what it brings about in the person there is worship. To the extent that the person has been purified from evils and consequent falsities, and to the extent at the same time that the truths and forms of the good of faith and love have been implanted, worship is acceptable and pleasing. For by worship everything which emanates from love and faith present with a person and which is raised up to the Lord by the Lord should be understood.

Since this phase marks the completion of the process, the altar of incense, by which worship was represented, is described last, for all things follow in the same order as the sequence in which they are described. First the Testimony is described, by which the Lord should be understood; next the ark containing the Testimony, by which the inmost heaven where the Lord dwells is meant; after this the table on which the loaves were placed, by which the good of love from there is meant; then the lampstand with the lamps, by which Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good is meant; next the actual tent, by which heaven and the Church consisting of these entities is meant; at length the altar of burnt offering, by which regeneration by means of truths springing from good is meant; and finally the altar of incense, by which worship springing from all those things in heaven and in the Church is meant.