9420. 'And Moses went up into the mountain of God' means in the direction of heaven. This is clear from the meaning of Mount Sinai, to which 'the mountain of God' refers here, as the law or Divine Truth which comes from the Lord, thus the Word as it exists in heaven, and therefore also heaven itself, dealt with in 8399, 8753, 8793, 8805. The reason why the revelation took place on a mountain and why that mountain is called 'the mountain of God' is that 'the mountain' means the heavenly attribute of love, which is good, and consequently means heaven, and in the highest sense the Lord, 795, 796, 2722, 4210, 6435, 8327, and 'the mountain of God' means Divine Truth springing from the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love, 8758. For the Lord is called 'God' in the Word by virtue of Divine Truth, and 'Jehovah' by virtue of Divine Good, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921(end), 4295, 4402, 7010, 7268, 8192, 8301, 8988, 9167. This is why the words the mountain of God are used.

[2] The fact that 'Mount Sinai' means the law or Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, and so means the Word, and in the highest sense the Lord, is clear in David,

The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped [rain] before God. This Sinai [trembled] before God, the God of Israel. The chariots of God are myriad on myriad, ¹ thousands of peacemakers; the Lord is within them, Sinai is within the sanctuary. Psalms 68:8, 17.

'The earth' and 'the heavens' are the external and the internal dimensions of the Church, see 1733, 2117, 2118 (end), 3355, 4535, and 'a chariot' is doctrinal teachings, 2760, 5321, 8146, 8148, 8215, so that 'the chariots of God' are matters of doctrine or God's truths as they exist in heaven. From all this it is evident that 'this Sinai before God, the God of Israel' and 'Sinai within the sanctuary' mean the law or Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, and in the highest sense the Lord in heaven. In the Book of Judges,

O Jehovah, when You went forth from Seir, when You set out from the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, the clouds indeed dropped water, the mountains flowed down before Jehovah, this Sinai before Jehovah. Judges 5:4-5.

'This Sinai' again stands for Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good. Similarly in Moses,

Jehovah came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon them; He shone from Mount Paran, and came out of myriads of holiness. From His right hand came a fiery law for them. Deuteronomy 33:2.

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3246. 'And to the concubines' sons, whom Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts' means that places in the Lord's spiritual kingdom were allotted to spiritual people adopted by the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'the concubines' sons' as those who are spiritual, to be dealt with below; from the representation of 'Abraham' here as the Lord's Divine Human (so that the words 'whom Abraham had' mean that they - those who were spiritual - were adopted by the Lord's Divine Human); and from the meaning of 'the gifts which Abraham gave them' as allotted places in the Lord's spiritual kingdom.

[2] From what has been shown several times already about those who constitute the Lord's spiritual kingdom and who are called the spiritual, as in 3235 and elsewhere, it becomes clear that they are not sons of the marriage itself of good and truth, but of a certain covenant not so conjugial. They are indeed descended from the same father but not from the same mother, that is, from the same Divine Good but not from the same Divine Truth. Indeed with those who are celestial, since they are the product of the marriage itself of good and truth, good exists and truth rooted in that good. They never make investigations into what the truth may be but have a perception of it from good. Nor in conversation do they say more than this regarding what is true, 'Yes, that is so', in keeping with the Lord's teaching in Matthew,

Let your words be Yes, yes; No, no; anything beyond this is from evil. ¹ Matthew 5:37.

But those who are spiritual, since they are the product of a covenant not so conjugial, do not have any perception from which they can know what is true. Instead they call that the truth which parents and teachers have told them to be the truth. Consequently with them there is no marriage of good and truth. Nevertheless that which they believe to be the truth for the reason just given is adopted by the Lord as truth when goodness of life exists with them; see 1832. This now explains why the spiritual are here called 'the concubines' sons', which is used to mean all the sons of Keturah mentioned already, and also those descended from Hagar, dealt with shortly below in verses 12-18.

[3] In former times - to enable both those who are celestial and those who are spiritual to be represented in marriages - a man was allowed to have a concubine in addition to a wife. That concubine was given to the husband by his wife (uxor), in which case the concubine was called his wife (mulier), or was said to have been given to him as a wife (mulier), as when Hagar the Egyptian was given to Abraham by Sarah, Genesis 16:3, when the servant-girl Bilhah was given to Jacob by Rachel, Genesis 30:4, and when the servant-girl Zilpah was given to Jacob by Leah, Genesis 30:9. In those cases they are called 'wives' (mulier), but elsewhere concubines, as is Hagar the Egyptian in the present verse, Bilhah in Genesis 35:22, and even Keturah herself in 1 Chronicles 1:32.

[4] The reason why those men of old had concubines in addition to a wife, as not only Abraham and Jacob did, but also their descendants, such as Gideon, Judges 8:31; Saul, 2 Samuel 3:7; David, 2 Samuel 5:13; 15:16; Solomon, 1 Kings 11:3, was that they were permitted to do so for the sake of the representation. That is to say, the celestial Church was represented by the wife, and the spiritual Church by the concubine. They were permitted to do so because they were the kind of men with whom conjugial love did not exist; so that to them marriage was not marriage but merely copulation for the sake of begetting off-spring. With such persons those permissions were possible without any harm being done to love or consequently to the conjugial covenant. But such permissions are never possible among people with whom good and truth are present and who are internal people, or potentially so. For as soon as good and truth, and internal things, exist with the human being, such permissions come to an end. This is why Christians are not allowed, as the Jews were, to take a concubine in addition to a wife, and why such is adultery. Regarding the adoption of those who are spiritual by the Lord's Divine Human, see what has been stated and shown already on the same subject in 2661, 2716, 2833, 2834.

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