9371. THE INTERNAL SENSE.

Verses 1-2. And He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and bow yourselves afar off; and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah; and they shall not come near; and the people shall not come up with him. “And He said unto Moses,” signifies that which concerns the Word in general; “come up unto Jehovah,” signifies conjunction with the Lord; “thou and Aaron,” signifies the Word in the internal sense and the external sense; “Nadab and Abihu,” signifies doctrine from both senses; “and seventy of the elders of Israel,” signifies the chief truths of the church which are of the Word, or of doctrine, and which agree with good; “and bow yourselves afar off,” signifies humiliation and adoration from the heart, and then the influx of the Lord; “and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah,” signifies the conjunction and presence of the Lord through the Word in general; “and they shall not come near,” signifies no separate conjunction and presence; “and the people shall not come up with him,” signifies no conjunction whatever with the external apart from the internal.

490. In the Word “daughters” frequently denote goods; as in David:

Kings’ daughters were among thy precious ones; at thy right hand doth stand the queen in the best gold of Ophir; the daughter of Tyre with a gift; the king’s daughter is all glorious within; of eyelet work of gold is her raiment; instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons (Psalms 45:10-17), where the good and beauty of love and faith are described by the “daughter.” Hence churches are called “daughters” by virtue of goods, as the “daughter of Zion” and the “daughter of Jerusalem” (Isaiah 37:22, and in many other places); they are also called “daughters of My people” (Isaiah 22:4), the “daughter of Tarshish” (Isaiah 23:10), the “daughter of Sidon” (verse 12), and “daughters in the field” (Ezekiel 26:6, 8).

1296. Come, let us make bricks. That this signifies falsities which they fashioned for themselves, is evident from the signification of “brick.” In the Word, “stone” signifies truth, and therefore “brick,” because it is made by man, signifies falsity; for brick is stone artificially made. That “brick” has this signification may be further seen from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

I have spread out My hands all the day unto a refractory people, that walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense upon bricks (Isaiah 65:2-3).

“Burning incense upon bricks” denotes worship from things fabricated and false; and therefore they are said to walk after their own thoughts. Again:

For the elation and pride of heart of Ephraim and of the inhabitant of Samaria, that say, The bricks have fallen down, but we will build with hewn stone (Isaiah 9:9-10).

“Ephraim” denotes an intelligent person who falls into perversities, and calls or makes to be true things that are false, or “bricks;” “hewn stone” denotes what is fabricated.

In Nahum:

Draw thee water for the siege, strengthen thy fortresses, go into the mud and tread the clay, repair the brick kiln. There shall the fire devour thee, and the sword shall cut thee off (Nahum 3:14-15).

Here “to tread the clay” denotes falsities; “to repair the brick kiln denotes the derivative worship; “the fire” is the punishment of cupidities; “the sword” is the punishment of falsities.

In Ezekiel:

Take thee a brick, and set it before thee, and grave upon it a city, even Jerusalem (Ezekiel 4:1);

and he was commanded to besiege it, in which prophetic matter there is involved that the worship was falsified. That “brick” signifies falsity, may be still further seen from the signification of “stone,” which is truth, concerning which presently.