6541. 'And the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing-floor of Atad' means a discernment of the grief by the good of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing as discerning, dealt with in 2150, 3764, 4727, 5400; from the meaning of 'inhabitant' as good, dealt with in 2268, 2451, 2712, 3613; from the meaning of 'the land', here the land of Canaan in which the Canaanites were inhabitants, as the Church, dealt with in 1413, 1437, 1607, 1866, 3038, 3481, 3705; from the meaning of 'the mourning' as grief, dealt with immediately above in 6539, 6540; and from the meaning of 'the threshing-floor of Atad' as the initial state, which is one of introduction, dealt with in 6537, 6538. From all this it is evident that 'the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing-floor of Atad' means a discernment of the grief by the good of the Church.

5400. 'And [Jacob] saw' means the things that constitute faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as those things that constitute faith, dealt with in 897, 2325, 2807, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421. When it has no link whatsoever with such things as exist in the world, sight - that is, spiritual sight - is nothing else than a perception of truth, that is, of such things as constitute faith. Therefore 'seeing' has no other meaning in the internal sense; for the internal sense emerges when everything of a worldly nature is set aside; for the internal sense concerns itself with the kinds of things that belong to heaven.

[2] The light of heaven which enables one to see there is Divine Truth received from the Lord. This appears before angels' eyes as light a thousand times brighter than the light at midday in the world; and because it holds life within it, that light therefore brings sight to angels' understanding at the same time as it does so to their eyes, imparting a discernment of truth to them which is regulated by the amount and the nature of good present within them. Because this chapter deals in the internal sense with those things that constitute faith, that is, with the truths known to the Church, the verb 'saw' is used at the very beginning of the chapter, 'saw' meaning the things that constitute faith.