8709. 'And you are to see out of all the people' means the choice of subservient truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' here as choosing; and from the meaning of 'the people' as that which has reference to truths, dealt with in 1259, 1260, 3581, 4619, at this point truths subservient to the truth going forth directly from God, represented by 'Moses', 7010, since the rulers he was to choose were to be subservient to him. For the meaning of 'the rulers' as subservient truths, see below.

1260. Since 'nations' in the Most Ancient Church and in the Ancient Church meant goods or good persons, therefore also in the contrary sense they mean evils or evil persons Similarly with 'peoples'; since these meant truths, therefore also in the contrary sense they mean falsities. For in a corrupted Church good is turned into evil, and truth into falsity, as a consequence of which the meaning of nations and peoples in that contrary sense occurs many times in the Word, as in Isaiah 13:4; 14:6; 18:2, 7; 30:28; 34:1-2; Ezekiel 20:13; and in many other places.