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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

3031. 'Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?' means whether it could nevertheless be joined to the Divine good of the Rational. This becomes clear from what has been stated already about Abram and about the land he came from, see 1343, 1356, 1992, 2559. From these paragraphs it is evident that the land from which Abram came was Syria, where the second Ancient Church existed, called the Hebrew Church after its founder Eber, 1238, 1241, 1327, 1343. But around the time of Abram this Church too had fallen away from the truth, some households so far away from it that they did not know Jehovah at all but worshipped other gods. This is the land which is meant here and to which the servant was referring when he asked whether he was required to take Abraham's son 'to the land from which you came'. Consequently 'the land' here means an affection which is not compatible with truth. This being the meaning of 'the land', 'taking his son there', or what amounts to the same, taking a woman for him and remaining with her there, means joining an affection incompatible with truth to the Divine good of the Rational. But this could not be done, as Abraham declares in his reply which follows.