7668. 'Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah' means that those guided by truths that have been corroborated will be left alone, in order that they may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the command 'go' as the intimation that they will be left alone, as above in 7658; from the meaning of 'young men' as corroborated truths, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'serving Jehovah' as worshipping the Lord, as above in 7654, 7664. The reason why 'young men' means those guided by truths that have been corroborated is that by sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' are meant aspects of intelligence and wisdom in their true order. Such aspects instead of those male persons are understood in heaven; for those in heaven possess spiritual ideas which are such that images from the purely natural order or the world cannot enter them without being instantly sloughed off and transformed into the kinds of images that are more in keeping with the wisdom of heaven and with angelic thought. This is why 'sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' cannot in the spiritual sense mean those male persons, only corresponding spiritual realities, which are aspects of intelligence and wisdom. The fact that these are meant is plainly evident from the internal sense of the places in the Word where they are mentioned.

[2] In the Word 'young men' is used to mean those who have intelligence, or - on the level of abstract ideas on which angels think - intelligence itself. And since intelligence is meant by them, so is firmly established truth since this belongs to intelligence. Also the expression which is used here in the original language to denote young men is derived from strength and power, which truth receives from good, and so which firmly established truth receives. And this name is therefore applied to the Lord in Zechariah,

O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the (young) man, My neighbour. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered. Zechariah 13:7.

These words were spoken in reference to the Lord, see Matthew 26:31. And also in Jeremiah,

How long do you wander around, O estranged daughter? Jehovah has created a new thing on the earth, a woman has surrounded a (young) man. Jeremiah 31:22.

[3] Another word for 'young men in the original language stands for intelligence, and so for the truth that belongs to it, in Amos,

I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with captured horses. ¹ Amos 4:10.

'The way of Egypt' stands for perverted factual knowledge, young men who have been killed' for truths which have as a result been destroyed, and 'captured horses' for an understanding that has been led into error.

[4] In the same prophet,

They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. Amos 8:12-13.

'The beautiful virgins' stands for the affection for truth, 'the young men' for intelligence, and 'fainting from thirst' for being deprived of truth; and this is why it says 'they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it'. The fact that neither beautiful virgins, nor young men, nor fainting because of thirst are meant here is self-evident.

In Jeremiah,

Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street, young men from the lanes. Jeremiah 9:11.

In the same prophet,

How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of My joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. Jeremiah 49:25-26; 50:30.

In the same prophet,

Hear now, all peoples, see my sorrow; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. Lamentations 1:18.

In these places 'young men' stands for the truths that belong to intelligence.

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7629. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-6 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh; for I have made his heart stubborn, and the heart of his servants, in order that I may set these My signs in the midst of him; and in order that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son's son the deeds which I have performed in Egypt, and My signs which I have set among them, and that you may know that I am Jehovah. And Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, and said to him, Thus says Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, How long do you refuse to humble yourself ¹ before Me? Send My people away, and let them serve Me. For if you refuse to send My people away, behold, tomorrow I am bringing locusts into your border. And they will cover the surface of the land, and one will not be able to see the land; and they will devour the residue of what escaped and was left to you from the hail, and will devour every tree growing up for you out of the field. And your houses will be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians - which ² your fathers and your fathers' fathers have not seen, from the day they have been on the ground even to this day. And he looked away and went out from Pharaoh.

'And Jehovah said to Moses' means a command. 'Go to Pharaoh' means the presence of the truth from God with the molesting ones. 'For I have made his heart stubborn, and the heart of his servants' means that they remained obstinate, all in common with one another. 'In order that I may set these My signs in the midst of him' means in order that the evil may recognize that they are ruled by evil, and the good may be enlightened regarding the state of those within the Church who lead an evil life. 'And in order that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son's son the deeds which I have performed in Egypt' means in order that those guided by truth and governed by good may know what happens to the ones belonging to the Church who molest the upright. 'And My signs which I have set among them' means in order that they may be enlightened regarding the state of those belonging to the Church who lead an evil life. 'And that you may know that I am Jehovah' means in order that it may thereby be made known to them that the Lord is the only God. 'And Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh' means the presence of God's truth. 'And said to him' means discernment. 'Thus says Jehovah the God of the Hebrews' means a command from the Lord who is the God of the Church. 'How long do you refuse to humble yourself before Me?' means disobedience. 'Send My people away, and let them serve Me' means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship the Lord. 'For if you refuse to send them away means should they fail to leave ... 'Behold, I am bringing locusts into your border' means that falsity will take possession of their outermost parts. 'And they will cover the surface of the land' means the lowest levels of the natural mind. 'And one will not be able to see the land' means a darkening of the whole natural mind as a result. 'And they will devour the residue of what escaped and was left to you from the hail' means the consumption of all things that have any element of truth in them. 'And will devour every tree growing up for you out of the field' means thus the consumption of all the religious knowledge that they get from the Church. 'And your houses will be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians' means that falsity will reign in every single thing in the natural from the inner part of it to the outermost. 'Which your fathers and your fathers' fathers have not seen, from the day they have been on the ground even to this day' means that since ancient times no such falsity had existed in the Church as existed there now. 'And he looked away and went out from Pharaoh' means deprivation of discernment, and separation.

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