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.

9421. 'And he said to the elders' means those restricted to the outward sense alone. This is clear from the meaning of 'the elders' as those restricted to the outward sense alone. The reason why 'the elders' of the Israelite people represent here those restricted to that sense is that the elders were the heads of the people and as such represented the whole people, who were restricted to the outward sense of the Word, without the inward, as has already been shown rather often. For when Moses went up into the mountain he represented the outward holiness of the Word, which is the intermediary or that which is positioned between its inward holiness and the representative which belongs to the outward sense, 9414, 9419. From this it follows that 'the elders' who were to sit beneath the mountain, and so were separated from Moses, represented the outward sense alone; for Moses told them, 'Sit for us in this [place], until we return to you'.