10546. 'And pitched it for himself outside the camp, far from the camp' means remote from the external things in which the interest of that actual nation lay. This is clear from the meaning of 'pitching the tent' as providing, arranging, and setting in order the things that belong to the Church and worship, for 'the tent' means the holiness of the Church, worship, and the Word, dealt with immediately above in 10545, so that 'pitching it' means providing, arranging, and setting those things in order; and from the meaning of 'the camp' as the heavenly order which heaven and the Church arise from and conform to. And since all the truths and forms of good of heaven and the Church are elements of that order, that which contains them is also meant. The reason why these elements are meant by 'the camp' is that by 'the children of Israel' who made up the camp all truths and forms of good in their entirety are meant. But when the children of Israel worshipped the calf instead of Jehovah their camp had a contrary meaning, namely hellish order and also that which contains the falsity and evil that compose hell. Whether you speak of the external things of worship and the Church without anything internal or you speak of hell, it amounts to the same thing; for people whose worship is external and not at all internal are ruled by self-love and love of the world, and self-love and love of the world come from hell. From this it is evident why 'Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp' - for 'the tent', as has been stated above, meant the holiness of worship, the Church, and the Word - and why those words mean remote from the external things in which the interest of the Israelite nation lay.

'The camp' means heavenly order, and 'encamping' means arranging good and truth into heavenly order, see 4236, 8103(end), 8130, 8131, 8155, 8193, 8196.

[2] Consequently 'the camp' means heaven and the Church, in that they contain that good and truth, 10038, and in the contrary sense hell, 10458.

Also, the external side of worship and of the Church separated from the internal constitutes hell, 10483, 10489, because people whose interest lies in external things separated from what is internal never receive any Divine influx at all, 10429, 10472, and are therefore incapable of possessing any faith in the Lord or love to Him, 10396, 10400, 10411.

They look solely in the direction of their own loves, thus in the direction of hell, 10422, and consequently worship self as their god, 10407, 10412.

The interest of the Israelite nation lay in external things separated from what was internal, see in the places referred to in 9380, and also what is said in 9373, 9381, 10396, 10401, 10407, 10492, 10498, 10500, 10533.

9346. 'Lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me' means lest evils turn away forms of good from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the inhabitants of the land, to whom the words 'lest perhaps they cause to sin' refer, as evils, as above; from the meaning of 'sinning' as turning away, dealt with in 5474, 5841, 7589; and from the meaning of 'you against Me' as [turning away from] forms of good from the Lord. For the children of Israel, to whom 'you' refers here, mean those governed by good, and so mean forms of good, 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833, 9340, and Jehovah, to whom 'Me' refers here, means the Lord, dealt with in 9194, 9199, 9315, and in the places referred to in these paragraphs. The reason why evils turn away forms of good from the Lord is that evils and forms of good are opposites or contraries, and two opposites or contraries cannot exist together, since they loathe and clash with each other. This becomes perfectly clear from the consideration that evils spring from hell but forms of good from heaven, and hell is totally remote from heaven, not as to distance since there is no distance in the next life, but as to state. Those therefore who live in the state that is hell's cannot be transferred to the state that is heaven's, for the evils residing with them repel the forms of good residing with those in heaven. This is the meaning of Abraham's words to the rich man,

Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass across from here to you cannot, nor can those who are there pass across to us. Luke 16:26.

'A great gulf' is the opposite and contrary natures of their states of life. From all this it is evident how to understand the explanation that evils turn forms of good away from the Lord; that is to say, those immersed in evils not only fail to receive forms of good, which with everyone flow in unceasingly from the Lord, but also completely turn them away. For this reason a person cannot by any means receive the good of heaven until he refrains from evils.