2973. 'Which was in all its borders round about' means exterior cognitions. This is clear from the meaning of 'borders' and of 'round about' as things that are exterior, dealt with in 2936. Thus here '[every] tree which was in the borders round about' means exterior cognitions. Exterior cognitions have to do with the religious observances and matters of doctrine which constitute the external things of the Church, whereas interior cognitions have to do with matters of doctrine which constitute the internal things of the Church. What the external things of the Church are, and what the internal, has been stated several times already.

[2] Furthermore in various places in the Word mention is made of the middle or the midst and of the regions encircling it, as when the land of Canaan is referred to, 'the middle' is used to describe where Zion and Jerusalem are, while the areas encircling describe where the nations are who are round about. 'The land of Canaan' represented the Lord's kingdom, 'Zion' the celestial part of it and 'Jerusalem' the spiritual, and there Jehovah or the Lord had His dwelling-place. The things that were round about, even to the borders, represented celestial and spiritual things spread out and derived in order from there. Where the furthest boundaries lay, there the representatives of celestial and spiritual things ended. Those representatives had their origin in the things that existed in the Lord's kingdom in heaven, where the Lord as the Sun is in the middle, from where all celestial flame and spiritual light radiate. Those nearest to Him dwell in the brightest light, while those who are more remote dwell in less light, and those who are the most remote in the least bright. At this point lie the borders where hell, which is outside heaven, begins.

[3] With celestial flame and spiritual light the position is that the existence of celestial things which are forms of innocence and love, and spiritual things which are forms of charity and faith, is proportional to the heat and light that is received, for those things are the source of all heat and light in heaven. This then is why 'the middle' means that which is inmost, and the encircling regions that which is outermost; and the spacing of the things that radiate in order from the inmost to the outermost is determined by their degree of innocence, love and charity. It is similar with each individual community of heaven. Those members in the middle are the best of its kind, and the love and charity of that kind becomes correspondingly less as these become more remote, that is, as such love and charity exist with members away from the middle.

[4] It is also similar with man. The inmost part of him is where the Lord resides with him, and from there governs the outlying parts. When a person permits the Lord to bring order to the outlying parts so that these correspond to the inmost parts, his state is such that he can be received into heaven, and the inmost, the interior, and the external parts of him act as one. But if the person does not permit the Lord to bring order to those outlying parts so that they correspond, he moves away from heaven, as far away as he is from permitting the Lord to bring that order to them. The fact that man's soul resides in the middle or inmost part of his being and the body in the outlying region or outermost parts is well known, for the body is that which surrounds and clothes his soul or spirit.

[5] With those in whom celestial and spiritual love reigns, good from the Lord flows in by way of the soul into the body, as a consequence of which the body becomes full of light, but with those in whom bodily and worldly love reigns, good from the Lord cannot flow in by way of the soul into the body. Instead their interiors are engulfed in darkness, as a consequence of which the body too becomes full of darkness, according to the Lord's own teaching in Matthew,

The lamp of the body is the eye. If the eye is sound, the whole body is full of light. If the eye is evil, the whole body is full of darkness. If therefore the light is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:22-23.

'The eye' means the understanding part, which belongs in the soul, 2701.

[6] But matters are worse still with people whose interiors are 'darkness' while their exteriors seem to be 'full of light'. They are such as outwardly pretend to be angels of light but inwardly they are devils. They are referred to as 'Babel'. These people, when the things that are round about are destroyed, are carried headfirst into hell. This was represented by the city of Jericho whose walls fell down, and the city was given to destruction, after the priests had gone round it seven times with the ark, and had sounded their trumpets, Joshua 6:1-17. The same is meant in Jeremiah,

Set yourselves against Babel round about, all you who bend the bow. Raise a shout over her round about, she has given her hand, her foundations have fallen, her walls have been destroyed. Jeremiah 50:14-15.

From this it is now evident what 'round about' means. Reference is also made several times in the Word to 'the encircling regions', as in Jeremiah 21:14; 46:14; 49:5; Ezekiel 36:3-4, 7; 37:21; Amos 3:11; and elsewhere. By 'the encircling regions' is meant the things that are exterior, concerning which, in the Lord's Divine mercy, more will be said elsewhere.

10453. 'And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets' means the outward sense of the Word and the inward - which come from the Divine - and Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'the tablets' as the Word in its entirety, dealt with immediately above in 10452, but at this point the outward form of the Word, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'the work of God' as its coming from the Divine; from the meaning of 'the writing' as the inward form of the Word, also dealt with below, so that 'the writing of God' is the inward form of the Word coming from the Divine, and thus is Divine Truth; and from the meaning of 'engraved on the tablets' as the inward impressed on and so contained within the outward.

[2] The reason why the tablets here mean the outward form of the Word is that they are distinguished here from the writing, which is its inward form; but when they are not distinguished from the writing they mean the inward and the outward forms of the Word together, thus the Word in its entirety, as above in 10452. They are distinguished here because these tablets were broken, but nevertheless the same words were afterwards inscribed by Jehovah on the other tablets which were hewn by Moses. The outward form of the Word is its literal sense, the inward form is its internal sense. The former - the literal sense - is meant by 'the tablets', because this sense is like a tablet or level surface on which the internal sense is inscribed.

[3] The breaking by Moses of the tablets which were the work of God, when he saw the calf and the dances, and the hewing by Moses, as commanded by Jehovah, of other tablets, which then had the same words inscribed on them (so that the tablets were no longer the work of God but the work of Moses, though the writing was still the writing of God), hold an arcanum unknown up to now. The arcanum is that the literal sense of the Word would have been different if the Word had been written among another people, or if the character of the Israelite people had not been such as it was. For the literal sense of the Word is all about that people since the Word was written among them, as is evident from both the historical sections and the prophetical parts of the Word. They were a people steeped in evil because they were idolatrous at heart; yet in order that the internal sense and the external sense might be in agreement that people had to be highly acclaimed, and to be called God's people, a holy nation, and a peculiar treasure. Consequently the simple, who would be taught by means of the outward sense of the Word, would believe that that nation was all those things, as that nation itself also believes, and indeed as the majority in the Christian world do at the present day. Most of the things furthermore that present themselves in and constitute the outward sense of the Word were ones that were permitted on account of their hardness of heart, such as those referred to in Matthew 19:8 and also others which need not be mentioned here.

[4] Since therefore the literal sense of the Word came to be what it was because of what those people were like, the tablets which were the work of God were broken and others, as commanded by Jehovah, were hewn by Moses. But since they nevertheless had the same holy and Divine content within them the same words as were on the first tablets were inscribed by Jehovah on them, as is evident from the following verses in Moses,

Jehovah said to Moses, Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. And Jehovah wrote on those tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Words. Exodus 34:1, 4, 28.

And elsewhere,

At that time Jehovah said to me, Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. And Jehovah wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Words. Afterwards Jehovah gave them to me. Deuteronomy 10:1-4.

[5] The fact that Jehovah did not acknowledge that people as His own people - even though they were called such so that the inward sense would accord with the outward - but as Moses' people is clear from the present chapter,

Your people have corrupted themselves, whom you caused to come up out of the land of Egypt. Go! lead the people to what I have spoken of to you. Exodus 32:7, 34.

And further on,

And Jehovah spoke to Moses, Go up, you and the people whom you have caused to come up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I will send an angel before you, for I will not go up in your midst because you ¹ are a stiff-necked people. Exodus 33:1-3.

[6] The like is meant by Moses' being put in the hole of the rock, and his not being allowed to see Jehovah's face, but only His back parts, Exodus 33:22-23. The like is also meant, when the skin on Moses' face shone, by his putting a veil onto his face whenever he talked to the children of Israel, Exodus 34:30-35. What the character of that people would be is foretold by Jehovah to Abram, when he wanted his seed to inherit the land of Canaan, where it is stated that after Abram had parted down the middle the three year old heifer, the three year old she-goat, and the three year old ram, which served for entering into a covenant,

A deep sleep came over Abram, and behold, a dread of a great darkness was coming over him. And when the sun went down there was thick darkness, and behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. Genesis 15:8, 9, 12, 17.

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