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.

491. The same things are signified by “sons” and “daughters” in this chapter (verses 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 26, 30), but such as is the church, such are the “sons and daughters” that is, such are the goods and truths; the truths and goods here spoken of are such as were distinctly perceived, because they are predicated of the Most Ancient Church, the principal and parent of all the other and succeeding churches.

9196. 'And a sojourner you shall not afflict and shall not oppress' means that those who wish to receive instruction in the truths and forms of the good of faith must not be molested with falsities of faith or evils of life. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sojourner' as one who wishes to receive instruction in things of the Church, thus who wishes to receive instruction in truths and forms of the good of faith, and who receives them and lives in accordance with them, dealt with in 1463, 8007, 8013 ('a sojourner' has this meaning because 'sojourning' means receiving instruction as well as living, 2025, 3672, 6095); and from the meaning of '[not] afflicting', when it refers to those who wish to receive instruction in the truths and forms of the good of faith, as not molesting with falsities of faith; and from the meaning of '[not] oppressing', when it refers to these same people, as not molesting with evils of life. For those who molest such people with falsities afflict them, and those who molest them with evils oppress them.