7225. And I uncircumcised in lips. That this signifies that to these I am impure, is evident from the consideration of “being uncircumcised,” as being to be impure, for by circumcision was represented purification from filthy loves, that is, from the loves of self and of the world (n. 2039, 2632, 2799, 4462, 7045), and hence they who were not circumcised and were called “uncircumcised,” represented those not purified from these loves, thus the impure (n. 3412, 3413, 4462, 7045); and from the signification of “lips,” as being things of doctrine (n. 1286, 1288). Thus by “uncircumcised in lips” is signified to be impure in respect to the things which belong to doctrine, for “uncircumcised” is said both of doctrine and of life. Hence the ear is called “uncircumcised” in Jeremiah:

Upon whom shall I speak and testify, and they will hear? Behold their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; behold the Word of Jehovah is become a reproach, they do not want it (Jeremiah 6:10).

And the heart is called “uncircumcised” in the same:

All the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart (Jeremiah 9:26).

Ye bring in the sons of the stranger, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, that they may be in My sanctuary (Ezekiel 44:7).

Then their uncircumcised heart shall be humbled (Leviticus 26:41).

[2] From these passages it is evident that “to be uncircumcised” denotes to be impure; and as everything impure is from impure loves, which are the love of the world and the love of self, therefore by “uncircumcised” is signified that which impedes the influx of good and truth. Where these loves are, the inflowing good and truth are extinguished, for they are contraries, like heaven and hell. Hence by the “uncircumcised ear” is signified disobedience, and by the “uncircumcised heart” the rejection of good and truth, which is especially the case when these loves have fortified themselves with falsity as with a wall.

[3] That Moses, because he stammered, calls himself “uncircumcised in lips,” is for the sake of the internal sense, that thereby might be signified that they who are in falsities, who are represented by Pharaoh, would not hearken to the things that would be said to them from the law Divine, because they who are in falsities call the truths which are of the law Divine, falsities; and the falsities which are contrary to the truths of the law Divine they call truths, for they are wholly in the opposite. Hence by them the truths of doctrine are not perceived otherwise than as impure; even heavenly loves appear to them impure. Moreover, when they approach any heavenly society, they have an offensive smell, and when they are sensible of it, they suppose that it emanates from the heavenly society, although it is from themselves; for an offensive smell is not perceived except near its opposite.

3413. And filled them with dust. That this signifies by means of earthly things, that is, by the loves of self and of gain, is evident from the signification of “dust,” as being that which is of this nature (n. 249). The meaning is that those called “Philistines” (that is, those who are not in life but in doctrine) obliterate interior truths by earthly loves, which are the love of self and of gain; from these loves they were called the “uncircumcised” (n. 2039, 2044, 2056, 2632). For they who are in these loves cannot but fill the wells of Abraham with dust (that is, obliterate the interior truths of the Word by earthly things), because from these loves they cannot possibly see spiritual things (that is, the things which are of the light of truth from the Lord); for these loves induce darkness, and darkness extinguishes this light. For as before said (n. 3412), on the approach of the light of truth from the Lord, they who are in doctrine only, and not in life, are in total darkness and stupor, and even become angry, and in every way busy themselves to dissipate truths; for the love of self and of gain is of such a nature that it cannot endure the near approach of anything of truth from the Divine. Nevertheless such persons can glory and take pride in the fact that they know truths, nay, they preach them from a kind of zeal; but it is the fires of those loves that kindle and arouse them, and their zeal is merely a fervor thence derived, as is sufficiently evident from the fact that they can preach against their own veriest life with a like zeal or fervor. These are the earthly things by which the Word itself, which is the fountain of all truth, is blocked up.