To “dwell” somewhere, then, is significant – it’s much more than just visiting – but is less permanent than living there. And indeed, to dwell somewhere in the Bible represents entering that spiritual state and engaging it, but not necessary permanently. A “dwelling,” meanwhile, represents the various loves that inspire the person who inhabits it, from the most evil – “those dwelling in the shadow of death” in Isaiah 9, for example – to the exalted state of the tabernacle itself, which was built as a dwelling-place for the Lord and represents heaven in all its details. Many people were nomadic in Biblical times, especially the times of the Old Testament, and lived in tents that could be struck, moved and raised quickly. Others, of course, lived in houses, generally made of stone and wood and quite permanent. In between the two were larger, more elaborate tent-style structures called tabernacles or dwellings; the tabernacle Moses built for the Ark of the Covenant is on this model.

1499. That 'Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him, tend they sent him away]' means that facts went away from the Lord is clear from the meaning of 'Pharaoh' as knowledge, and also from the meaning of 'men' as things belonging to the understanding, as shown already in 158. Because the men referred to here are said to belong to 'Pharaoh', or knowledge, they mean such things of the understanding supporting such knowledge. The implication of facts going away from the Lord is as follows: When celestial things are being joined to intellectual truths and these truths are becoming celestial, all things that are empty disperse by themselves. This is how it is with that which is celestial.