4213. 'And stayed the night in the mountain' means serenity. This is clear from the meaning of 'staying the night' as having peace, dealt with in 3170, and so as serenity. It was also the practice for those who entered into a covenant to spend the night together in one place, because staying the night in one place meant that no enmity existed any longer. The meaning in the internal sense is the existence of serenity and peace, for those who have been joined together as regards good and truth experience serenity and peace. The expression 'in the mountain' is therefore used here because 'a mountain' means good stemming from love and charity, 4210, it being this good that confers peace. What peace and serenity are, see 92, 93, 1726, 2780, 3170, 3696, 3780.

4210. 'Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain' means worship founded on good that stems from love. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sacrifice' as worship, dealt with in 922, 923, 2180, and from the meaning of 'the mountain' as good that stems from love, 795, 796, 1430. 'A sacrifice' means worship because sacrifices and burnt offerings were the major features of all worship in the later representative Church, which was the Hebrew Church. They also used to sacrifice on mountains, as is clear from various places in the Word, because 'mountains' on account of their height meant the things which were high, such as those are which belong to heaven and are called heavenly; and having this meaning they also meant, in the highest sense, the Lord, whom they called the Most High. It was the outward appearance that led them to think in this way, for the things that are interior give the appearance of being higher, as heaven does with man. Heaven is interiorly within him, and yet he supposes it to be on high. This is the reason why, when the expression 'high' is used in the Word, that which is interior is meant in the internal sense.

[2] In the world people inevitably take heaven to be on high. One reason why they do so is that the word 'heaven' is used for the visible expanse which encircles them on high and another is that man is a dweller within time and space and so thinks from ideas derived from these. And a further reason is that few are aware of what anything interior may be, and fewer still are aware that neither place nor time exist there. This is why the mode of expression employed in the Word is one that accords with the ideas present in man's thought. If it had not accorded with those ideas but with angelic ideas man would have perceived nothing at all, but everyone would have stood wondering what it was and whether it was anything at all, and so would have rejected it as being devoid of anything intelligible.