4786. And his father wept for him. That this signifies interior mourning, is evident from the signification of "weeping," as being grief and sadness to the last degree, thus interior mourning. Among the externals by which internals were represented in the ancient churches was wailing and weeping over the dead, by which was signified interior mourning (although the mourning itself was not interior), as we read concerning the Egyptians who went with Joseph to bury Jacob:
When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is in the passage of Jordan, they wailed there with a very great and sore wailing; and he made a mourning for his father seven days. And the inhabitant of the land, the Canaanite, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, and they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians (Gen. 1:10-11);
and concerning David's 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 Sam. 3:32).
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