7225. 'And I am uncircumcised in the lips' means that to them I am impure. This is clear from the meaning of 'being uncircumcised' as being impure, for circumcision represented purification from filthy kinds of love, that is, from self-love and love of the world, see 2039, 2632, 2799, 4462, 7045, and therefore those who had not been circumcised and were called 'the uncircumcised' represented those who had not been purified from those kinds of love and so were impure, 3412, 3413, 4462, 7045; and from the meaning of 'the lips' as matters of doctrine, dealt with in 1286, 1288, so that 'uncircumcised in the lips' means being impure in those things which are matters of doctrine. For the expression 'uncircumcised' is used in reference to doctrine as well as to life. The ear is therefore spoken of as being uncircumcised in Jeremiah,

On whom shall I speak and testify and they will hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, the Word of Jehovah has become a reproach; they have no wish for it. Jeremiah 6:10.

And the heart is spoken of as being uncircumcised, in the same prophet, All the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. Jeremiah 9:26.

In Ezekiel,

You are bringing in the sons of the foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary. Ezekiel 44:7, 9.

In Moses,

At that time their uncircumcised heart will be humbled. Leviticus 26:41.

[2] From these quotations it is evident that 'uncircumcised' means impure; and since all impurity springs from the impure kinds of love, which are love of the world and self-love, 'uncircumcised' means that which hinders the inflow of goodness and truth. Where those kinds of love are present inflowing goodness and truth are annihilated, for they are contrary to one another, as heaven and hell are. Therefore 'an uncircumcised ear' means disobedience, and 'an uncircumcised heart' a rejection of goodness and truth, which takes place especially when those kinds of love have fortified themselves with falsity like a wall around them.

[3] When Moses, being a stammerer, calls himself 'uncircumcised in the lips' it is on account of the internal sense. The expression is used so as to mean that those steeped in falsities, who are represented by 'Pharaoh', are not going to listen to things that might be told them from the law of God. And the reason why is that those steeped in falsities call truths belonging to the law of God falsities, and falsities that are contrary to the truths belonging to the law of God they call truths; for they are of an utterly contrary frame of mind. This being so, they view the truths taught by doctrine as altogether impure; and heavenly kinds of love are likewise seen by them as impure. And when they approach any community in heaven they emit a dreadful stench, which they imagine, when they become aware of it, to be emanating from that heavenly community, when in fact it is coming from themselves. For they are unaware of a stench until they are alongside that which is the opposite of it.

7045. 'And cut off the foreskin of her son' means the removal of filthy kinds of love, as a result of which the internal is laid bare. This is clear from the meaning of 'cutting off' as removing; from the meaning of 'the foreskin' as earthly and bodily love which defiles spiritual and celestial love, dealt with in 3412, 4462; and from the meaning of 'son' as the truth which the representative Church possesses. For the meaning of 'son' as truth, see 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 3773; and the reason why the truth which that Church possesses is meant here is that 'Zipporah' represents that Church and calls him 'her son'. She also uses him to show the actual nature of that nation and consequently the actual nature of its worship. 'The foreskin' means filthy kinds of love for the following reason: The loins and genital organs correspond to conjugial love, 5050-5062; and since they correspond to conjugial love they also correspond to every kind of celestial and spiritual love, 686, 4277, 4280, 5054. The foreskin therefore corresponds to the kinds of love that are very much external, which are called bodily and earthly loves. If these loves are devoid of the internal kinds of love that are called spiritual and celestial loves, they are filthy, as they were with that nation which had externals without an internal. The words 'without an internal' are used, and by this is meant no acknowledgement of truth and no affection for good, thus no faith and no charity; for these are qualities that belong to the internal man and from them spring ways of exercising charity, which are external forms of good. The Lord speaks of that internal, when it is devoid of faith and charity and yet full of evils and falsities, as that which is 'empty', in Matthew 12:43-45. This is what 'external without an internal' serves to describe. So then 'the foreskin' means the kinds of love that are very much external; therefore when those kinds of love have been removed, meant by Zipporah's cutting off the foreskin, the actual nature of them is seen, and the internal is accordingly laid bare.