8186. 'And I, behold, I am hardening the hearts of the Egyptians' means obstinate resistance by falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'hardening the heart' as obstinacy, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305, 7616; and from the representation of 'the Egyptians' as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8132, 8135, 8148. When the Word says that Jehovah hardens the heart and also that He is responsible for something ill, the meaning in the internal sense, where the truth itself exists unclothed, is that people ruled by falsity and evil are themselves the ones to harden their hearts and to be responsible for the ill that happens to them, see 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7877, 7926.

1283. THE INTERNAL SENSE

The subject now is the Ancient Church in general and the fact that its internal worship in process of time was falsified and adulterated; and so as a consequence was its external worship, for the character of external worship depends on that of internal. The falsification and adulteration of internal worship is meant here by Babel. The fact that the historical events mentioned up to now, apart from those concerning Eber, are not true but made-up may also be seen from the details given in this chapter concerning the tower of Babel - men set out to build a tower whose head was in heaven; their lips were confused so that no one could hear another; it was Jehovah who confused them in this way. This fact may also be seen from the assertion that this was the origin of Babel and yet verse 10 of the previous chapter says that Babel was built by Nimrod. From this it is also clear that Babel does not mean a city, but some real thing, and that here it means worship whose interior features are not holy though its external appear so.