8873. 'You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them' means that no Divine worship must be offered to them. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowing down' as humility, dealt with in 2153, 5682, 6266, 7068; and from the meaning of 'serving' as submissiveness, dealt with in 5164. The reason why Divine worship is meant is that humility and submissiveness are the essentials of worship; for without them worship is not worship, only bodily actions which are an imitation of those made by people engaged in true worship. Such actions have no life at all in them. Life from the Lord flows only into a humble and submissive heart, since it is fitted to receive. And it is fitted to receive because when a heart is truly humble no self-love or love of the world stands in the way. The reason why both expressions are used is that 'bowing down' means worship springing from the good of love, and 'serving' worship springing from the truth of faith.

5682. 'And they bowed, and bowed down' means an expression of humility, exterior and interior. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowing' as an expression of exterior humility, and from the meaning of 'bowing down' as an expression of interior humility. For bowing is something less than bowing down and is therefore an expression of exterior humility, whereas bowing down is something more and is therefore an expression of interior humility. In addition to this, 'bowing' is the humility expressed by truth, that is, by those motivated by truth, and so is the humility of those who are spiritual; but 'bowing down' is the humility expressed by good, that is, by those motivated by good, and so is the humility of those who are celestial. Thus 'bowing also means the expression of exterior humility, and 'bowing down' the expression of interior humility; for those motivated by good are people who are more interior than those motivated by truth. The explanation of the major part of the contents of the internal sense in this section has been confined simply to the meanings of the words that are used, for the reason that they are matters such as have appeared in explanations prior to this.