8796. 'Or to touch the border of it' means that there must be no extension even to intermediate parts. This is clear from the meaning of 'the border' as intermediate parts, for the Lord's celestial kingdom, which is the inmost or third heaven, is separated from the spiritual kingdom, which is the second or middle heaven, by intermediate parts. The celestial kingdom flows through these into the spiritual kingdom, but not the latter into the former; for all influx takes place by way of intermediate parts from interiors into exteriors, but not from exteriors into interiors, 5259, 5779. From all this it is evident that the intermediate parts are borders, and that not even the edges of the good of the celestial kingdom can be reached by those belonging to the spiritual kingdom, 2718, 3833, 6500, 8521. So it is that 'taking care not to touch the border of the mountain' means that there must be no extension to celestial communities who have the love of good, or even to intermediate parts.

6500. 'And wept on him' means sorrow. This is clear without explanation. The sorrow meant in the internal sense here by 'weeping' is not because of death, as the external sense implies, but sorrow because the good of the spiritual Church is not able to be raised above the natural. For the Lord, who is flowing in constantly by way of the internal, wishes to make that good more perfect and draw it closer to Himself; but in spite of this that good cannot be raised to the prime degree of good, which is that of the celestial Church, 3833. This is because the member of sorrow the spiritual Church dwells in obscurity, compared with one who belongs to the celestial Church. He engages in reasoning about truths to establish whether they are truths; or he goes about substantiating what is called doctrine, an activity he engages in without any perception of whether what he substantiates is true or not. And once he has substantiated something for himself he fully believes it to be true, even though it may be false. For nothing is incapable of being substantiated, since that kind of activity is the work of cleverness, not of intelligence, let alone wisdom. Falsity can be substantiated more readily than truth, because it encourages evil desires and accords with the illusions of the senses. Since the member of the spiritual Church is like this he cannot possibly be raised above the natural. This then is the reason for the sorrow meant by 'Joseph wept on him'.