The meaning of "scatter" in the Bible is relatively literal, but it is used in regard to spiritual things, not natural ones. So to "scatter" a group of people represents breaking up a system of ideas represented by that group and thus to weaken and ultimately destroy it.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 1309, 1328, 2547, 6361, 7130, 7520, 8226 [2]; The Apocalypse Explained 863 [8])

7520. 'And let Moses scatter them in the direction of heaven' means that those falsities were to be demonstrated to the inhabitants of heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ashes' as falsities, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'scattering in the direction of heaven' as demonstrating them to the inhabitants of heaven. The meaning of 'scattering' as demonstrating is self-evident, for by that action something is made visible; and 'heaven' is used to mean in the internal sense the angelic heaven. What is meant at this point is evident from what has been stated immediately above in 7519 - that the truth from God, which 'Moses' represents, was to demonstrate and make known to heaven the falsities which are a product of the evil desires of those who molest. This caused heaven to be present, and as a result of its presence the kinds of things among the evil which are meant by 'sores breaking out into pustules' were manifested. The fact that 'the ashes [of a furnace]' (favilla) means falsity can be substantiated from places where [other kinds of] ashes (cinis) are mentioned, for these have a similar origin and therefore have a similar meaning to the ashes [of a furnace], such as in Isaiah 44:15, 20; 58:5; Jeremiah 6:26; Ezekiel 27:30; 28:18; Jonah 3:6; Psalms 102:9-10; Job 2:8; 30:19.