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.

2233. That a “house” denotes those who are in goods, is evident from the signification of a “house,” as being good (see n. 710, 1708, 2048). By a “house,” or those born in the house, in the abstract sense goods are in like manner signified, but as applied to man they denote all who are in good.

7873. And on all the gods of Egypt I will do judgments. That this signifies their falsities, which are to be damned, is evident from the signification of “gods,” as being falsities (of which presently); and from the signification of “doing judgments,” as being to be damned; for to judge, or do judgments, is either for life or for death; for life it denotes salvation, for death it denotes damnation. In the Word “gods” are often mentioned. When the angels are so called, truths are signified (see n. 4295, 4402, 7268); hence in the opposite sense by “the gods of the nations,” are signified falsities (n. 4402, 4544). That truths are called “gods” is because truth proceeds from the Divine Itself, and in itself is Divine; consequently they who receive it are called “gods”—not that they are gods, but that the truth which is with them is Divine. Hence it is that in the original tongue God is called “Elohim,” in the plural. The Divine Itself is the Divine good, but that which proceeds from it is the Divine truth, which fills the universal heaven. As then “god” denotes truth, therefore in the opposite sense it denotes falsity.