10637. 'Observe that which I command you this day' means, if they carry out those chief things laid down by eternal truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'observing' as, if those who acknowledge the Word do so, for 'Moses' [to whom the command 'Observe' is addressed] represents the Word, as above; and from the meaning of 'that which Jehovah commands this day' as the chief things laid down by eternal truth, for the things that Jehovah commands are Divine Truths, and 'this day' means what is eternal, 2838, 3998, 4304, 6165, 6984, 9939. Those eternal truths are what verses 12-27 below contain in the internal sense. But the matters contained in the external sense are not eternal truths, only laws that the Israelite nation was required to adhere to because of the truths those laws held within them, for they serve to mean and so incorporate those truths. Furthermore the need for that nation to adhere to those laws existed up until the Lord disclosed the inner reaches of the Word; once these had been disclosed the outward laws incorporating them were set aside. For when a person worships the Lord in faith and love for Him, which are internal things, he has no need of the external things serving to mean them; for then those internal things themselves reside with him, and not types and shadows of them. All this was so with the commands that the feast of unleavened bread should be kept in the month of Abib and that during it unleavened bread should be eaten for seven days; that all things opening the womb should be given to God; that whatever opened the womb among asses should be redeemed or else have its neck broken; that the firstborn of sons were to be redeemed; that the feast of weeks should be celebrated, and also the feast of ingathering; that three times in the year every male should be seen before Jehovah; that they should not offer sacrifices with anything made from yeast; and that a kid should not be boiled in its mother's milk. But although obedience to these outward laws has been set aside they are still the holy and Divine things of the Word, because what they hold within them internally is holy.

9656. 'And they shall be paired from below, and at the same time paired up to its head' means a joining together from without and from within. This is clear from the meaning of 'being paired' as being made to act jointly; from the meaning of 'from below' as from without, since the Word portrays what exists outwardly as that which is below, and what exists inwardly as that which is above, 3084, 4599, 5146, 8325 (so that things deep down are more outward and those high up more inward, 2148, 4210, 4599); and from the meaning of 'the head', in the expression 'from below up to the head', as from within. The reason why 'the head' has this meaning is that the head is above the body, and by things above are meant those that are inward, as has just been stated; and in addition to this a person's inward powers are located in the head, for in it reside the beginnings of the senses and motions, and the beginnings are inmost because they are the source from which everything else flows. These beginnings are like wellsprings from which streams of water flow.

[2] This also goes to explain why inward things are portrayed in the Word as 'the head', as in Isaiah,

Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, the branch and the bulrush in one day. Isaiah 9:14.

In the same prophet,

There will not be for Egypt [any] work which the head and tail, branch and bulrush will do. Isaiah 19:15.

This refers to the Church, the inward things of which are 'the head' and the outward ones 'the tail'.

[3] In the same prophet,

On all heads there is baldness; every beard is shaved off. Isaiah 15:2.

'Baldness on heads' stands for the absence of good and truth in inward things, 'beard shaved off' for the absence of good and truth in outward things. In Jeremiah,

You will be put to shame by Egypt, as you were put to shame by Asshur, and your hands will be on your head. For Jehovah has loathed your defences. Jeremiah 2:36-37.

This describes shame on account of the loss of the Church's forms of good and its truths, brought about by factual knowledge and by reasonings based on it, 'Egypt' being factual knowledge and 'Asshur' reasoning based on it. 'Hands on head' stands for covering over inward things owing to shame. Something similar occurs elsewhere in the same prophet,

They were put to shame and subjected to ignominy, and they covered their heads. Jeremiah 14:3-4; 2 Samuel 13:19.