4129. 'And Laban pitched with his brothers in mount Gilead' means the state of the good existing to some extent in that joining together. This is clear from the representation of 'Laban' as the good now separated from the good represented by 'Jacob'; from the meaning of 'pitching' as the state involving that good (the phrase 'pitching his tent' is not used because it was not a state of holy love except insofar as the two kinds of good were to some extent so joined together); from the meaning of 'brothers' as the forms of good with which the good meant by 'Laban' is grouped together, dealt with above in 4121; and from the meaning of 'mount Gilead' as the first stage and the last of the joining together, dealt with above in 4117. From this it is evident that 'Laban pitched with his brothers on mount Gilead' means the state of the good existing to some extent in that joining together.

[2] Anything more that is embodied within the matters that have now been explained cannot be presented intelligibly in the same way except by reference to the occurrences which take place in the next life when the Lord links communities of spirits and angels to man or separates them from him. The actual process by which they are linked or separated is determined by the order as it exists there. The stages of this process have been described fully in this chapter, but because man has no knowledge of them at all it would be declaring mere arcana if they were to be explained individually. Some have been discussed above where the joining and the separation of communities residing with one who is to be regenerated have been the subject. But it is enough if one knows that the arcana of that process are contained here in the internal sense, so many and of such a nature in fact that not even a thousandth part can be explained fully and intelligibly.

4121. 'And he took his brothers with him' means forms of good replacing those which it had lost. This is clear from the meaning of 'brothers' as forms of good, dealt with in 2360, 3160, 3303, 3459, 3803, 3815. In the internal sense 'brothers' means people who are governed by the same kind of goodness and truth, that is, they share the same affection for these. Indeed all in the next life are grouped together in different communities on the basis of their affections; and those so grouped together in any community constitute a brotherhood. They do so not because they call themselves brothers but because they are such through their being joined to one another. In the next life it is goodness and truth that lie behind that which on earth is called a blood-relationship and a relationship by marriage, and for this reason the latter correspond to that goodness and truth. Indeed regarded in themselves forms of goodness and truth acknowledge no other father than the Lord, for they exist from Him alone, and therefore all who are governed by forms of goodness and truth exist in a brotherly relationship with one another. Yet degrees of affinity exist, determined by the particular nature of each form of goodness or truth. In the Word these degrees are meant by brothers, sisters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandsons, granddaughters, and many other names for relatives in a family.

[2] On earth however these names are given to people because they have the same parents, no matter how much these people differ from one another in affection. But that kind of brotherly relationship and affinity is dissolved in the next life, and unless on earth they have been governed by the same affection they all enter different brotherly relationships. Such people, it is true, do as a general rule come together initially, but in a short while they are parted. For in the next life it is not money that holds people together but, as has been stated, affections, the nature of which are plain to see as if in clear daylight, as also is the nature of the affection which one person has had for another. Since affections are so plain to see there, and since everyone's affection attracts him towards the community that is his, the association with one another of people whose mental dispositions have not been in agreement is therefore broken. In that case all ties of brotherly relationship and of friendship possessed by the external man are eliminated in both parties, while those which had existed with the internal man remain. The reason why 'he took his brothers with him' means forms of good replacing those which it had lost is that when one community is being separated from another, as stated above in 4077, 4110, 4111, it moves towards another and so towards other forms of good which replace the former.