2319. 'The two angels' means the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding to which judgement belongs. This is clear both from the meaning of 'angels' in the Word and from the fact that the expression 'two angels' is used here. In the Word 'angels' means some Divine essential in the Lord, though which essential becomes clear from the train of thought, as shown already in 1925. That here the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding are meant is evident from the consideration that the three men who stayed with Abraham meant the Divine itself, the Lord's Divine Human, and His Holy proceeding, 2149, 2156, 2288. From this, and from the fact that they are called 'Jehovah' in verse 24, and also from the meaning of 'angels', 1925, it is plain that 'the two angels' is here used to mean the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding.

2149. 'Behold, three men standing over him' means the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Holy proceeding. This becomes clear without explanation, for everyone knows that a Trinity exists, and that this Trinity is a Unity. That it is a Unity is quite evident in this chapter, as in verse 3 that follows where it is said, 'He said, My Lord, if now I have found grace in your eyes, do not now pass from over your servant', ¹ words that were addressed to the three men. In addition to this it is said -

In verse 10, And He said, 'I will certainly return to you.

In verse 13, And Jehovah said to Abraham.

In verse 15, He said, 'No, but you did laugh'.

In verse 17, And Jehovah said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am going to do?'

In verse 19, 'For I know him'.

In verse 20, And Jehovah said.

In verse 21, 'I will go down and I will see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which has come up to Me; and if not, I will know'.

In verse 23, Abraham said, 'Will You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?' In verse 25, 'Far be it from You to do such a thing, far be it from You'.

In verse 26, And Jehovah said, 'If I find fifty righteous persons, I will spare the whole place for their sakes'.

In verse 27, 'I have undertaken to speak to my Lord'.

In verse 28, 'Will You for five destroy the whole city?' And He said, 'I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there'.

In verse 29, He spoke to Him yet again. He said, 'I will not do it for the sake of the forty,.

In verse 30, 'Let not my Lord be incensed'. He said, 'I will not do it if I find thirty there'.

In verse 31, 'I have undertaken to speak to my Lord'. He said, 'I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty'.

In verse 32, 'Let not now my Lord be incensed. And He said, 'I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten'.

In verse 33, And Jehovah departed, when He had finished speaking to Abraham.

From all these places it becomes clear that the three men who appeared to Abraham meant the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Holy proceeding, and that in itself the Trinity is a Unity. The subject at this point in the internal sense is Jehovah's appearing to the Lord and the Lord's perceiving this, though not by means of an appearing such as was made to Abraham, for the event of the three men seen by Abraham is historically true, but it represents Divine perception or a perception received from the Divine which the Lord had when He was in the human. This perception is dealt with in what follows.

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