Hands in the Bible represent power, the force with which things are put into action. To be specific, they represent the power of spiritual good -- which is the love of others and serving others -- expressed through spiritual truth -- which is an understanding and knowledge of what it is to love and serve others. This is in contrast to the feet, which represent power on the natural level, and a “rod,” which represents the power of the hand passed down into external or natural ideas. In a few cases in the Bible, hands also represent communication and a drawing together. This is true when people lift their hands to heaven or to Jehovah, and also when the Lord touches children or touches people to heal them.

10454. 'And Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted' means contemplating and discerning what the interiors of that nation were like. This is clear from the meaning of 'hearing' as contemplating and discerning, for the subject now is what that nation was like inwardly, thus what their interiors were like; from the representation of 'Joshua' as the truth of the Word contemplating and discerning (he was Moses' minister, and Moses represented the Word, as shown above, so that his minister represents truth, for all truth belongs to the Word, at this point truth that contemplates, examines, and discerns); and from the meaning of 'the noise of the people as they shouted' as what that nation was like inwardly, thus what their interiors were like. In the Word 'noise' or 'voice' means the inner voice, which is thought, consequently what the interiors are like as regards either truth or falsity, for the one or the other gives rise to the thought, see 219, 220, 3563, 7573, 8813, 9926. But 'shouting' means the utterance of sound, whether that of speaking, singing, or crying out, which emanates from thought or the inner voice. So it is that 'hearing the noise of shouting' means discerning what the interiors are like from the sound that indicates it. For the sound, whether that of speaking, singing, or crying out, emanates from inner affection and thought, both of which are present within the sound and are also discerned by those who listen to it and think about it, to see for example whether it is angry, threatening, friendly, gentle, joyful, gloomy, and so on. In the next life such discernment is so sharp that angels can discern what someone's interiors are like from the sound of just one of the words he uses. This then is what 'hearing the noise of the people as they shouted' is used to mean.