9422. Sit ye here for us. That this signifies that they should remain in it, is evident from the signification of “sitting here,” namely, in this place, or under the mountain, as being to remain in the external sense. “To sit” in a place denotes to remain in one’s state, and “under the mountain” denotes in the external sense of the Word; for by “sitting” is signified remaining, as will be evident from what follows. By “place” is signified state, and by “Mount Sinai” is signified the Law, or Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, thus the Word (see n. 9420); by its summit, where Jehovah or the Lord was (Exodus 19:20) is signified the highest or inmost of the Law, that is, of the Word (see n. 8827); by all the rest of the mountain that was below the summit is signified the internal of the Law or of the Word, such as it is in heaven; and by what was beneath the mountain, where were the elders and the people, is signified the external of the Law or of the Word, which is its external sense. Thus are represented in the Word the inmost, the interior, and the exterior, of the things signified by “the mountain;” here the inmost, the interior, and the exterior things of the Law or of the Word, for “Mount Sinai” signifies the Law, or the Word (n. 9420). From this it is plain that by “Sit ye here for us,” is signified that they should remain in the external sense.

[2] That it is said “sit” is because “sitting” signifies remaining in a state; for movements from place to place signify changes of state of the interiors, as can be seen from what has been already shown (n. 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381). Consequently “sitting” signifies a permanent abiding in the state of the interiors. Because “sitting” has such a signification, therefore to sit was one of the rituals received among the sons of Israel when they represented a permanent state of the interiors; as in the book of Judges:

The sons of Israel came unto Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Jehovah, and fasted that day until the evening (Judg. 20:26).

The people came to Bethel, and sat there till even before God, and lifted up their voice, and wept with a great weeping (Judg. 21:2).

Here by “sitting” is signified permanence in a state of grief.

[3] From this it can be seen why “sitting” is spoken of, and what it infolds in the following passages, in David:

Jehovah, Thou hast known my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou hast understood my thought afar off (Psalms 139:2).

Thou shalt not go into the house of feasting to sit with them (Jeremiah 16:8).

Then he shall stand and shall feed in the strength of Jehovah his God; and they shall sit (Micah 5:4).

Come down, and sit on the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the earth. Sit thou in silence, and enter into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; she saith in her heart, I shall not sit a widow (Isaiah 47:1, 5, 8).

In like manner in other passages: as “sitting in darkness” (Isaiah 42:7); “sitting in the assembly,” and “sitting alone” (Jeremiah 15:17); “sitting on the right hand and on the left” (Matthew 20:21), denoting to remain in a state of power over others; and “sitting on the right hand of the power of God” (Matthew 26:63-64; Mark 14:62; 16:19), speaking of the Lord, and denoting that the Divine omnipotence shall endure forever.

4882. And went. That this signifies life, is evident from the signification of “going,” as being to live (n. 3335, 3690). That in the internal sense “to go” is to live does indeed appear rather remote or abstracted from the ideas of thought in which man is, and this because man is in space and in time, and has formed the ideas of his thought therefrom, as for instance his idea of going, advancing, journeying, traveling, and moving. As these actions exist in space, and also in time, and as space and time are therefore inwoven in his ideas concerning them, it is difficult for man to apprehend that states of life are signified by them. But when the idea from space and time concerning them is separated or put off, there results the spiritual thing which is signified. For in the spiritual world or in heaven nothing of space or time enters the ideas, but instead what belongs to the state of life (n. 1274, 1382, 2625, 2788, 2837, 3356, 3404, 3827, 4814). It does indeed appear to spirits and angels that they advance and move from place to place, just as it appears to men; but still it is changes of the state of life that produce this appearance; just as it appears to them, as well as to men, that they live from themselves, when yet they do not live from themselves, but from the Divine of the Lord from whom is the all of life. These appearances with the angels are called real, because they appear as if they really were.

[2] I have sometimes spoken with spirits about these appearances; and those who are not in good, and consequently not in truth, are unwilling to hear that it is an appearance that they live of themselves, for they wish to live of themselves. But besides their being shown by living experience that they do not live of themselves, and that progressions from place to place are changes and progressions of the state of life, they were also told that they might be satisfied in not knowing but that they have life from themselves, as they could have no more even if the life in them were really from themselves; but that still it is better to know how the case really is, because then they are in the truth, and if in the truth, they are also in the light of heaven, for the light of heaven is the truth itself which is from the Divine of the Lord; and thus they would neither claim good for themselves, nor would evil adhere to them. The angels are in this truth, not only by knowledge, but also by perception.

[3] That times and spaces in the spiritual world are states of life, and that the all of life is from the Lord, may be seen from the following experience. Every spirit and angel sees the good at the right, and the evil at the left, and this to whatever quarter he turns; the good and the evil so appear to him if he looks toward the east, and so if he looks to the west, or to the south, or the north. This is true of every spirit and angel; so that if two were looking, one toward the east, and the other toward the west, still to both the good would appear on the right, and the evil on the left. The appearance is the same to those who are remote from the spirits who are seen, even though these should be behind them. From this it may be clearly inferred that the all of life is from the Lord, or that the Lord is in the life of everyone; for the Lord appears there as the sun, and on His right are the good, or the sheep, and on his left are the evil, or the goats. Hence it is similar with everyone, because as already said the Lord is the all of life. This cannot but seem a paradox to man, because so long as he is in the world he has ideas from worldly things, and consequently from space and time; whereas in the spiritual world, as said above, the ideas are not from space and time, but from the state of the affections and of the derivative thoughts. From this also it is that spaces and times in the Word signify states.