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.

6915. And it shall be that when ye go, ye shall not go empty. That this signifies life no longer in need in respect to the things of the natural mind, is evident from the signification of “going,” as being life (see n. 3335, 4882, 5493, 5605, 6904); and from the signification of “not going empty,” as being life no longer in need. That “emptiness” denotes where there is no truth may be seen above (n. 4744), thus it denotes where there is spiritual need. That it denotes need in respect to the things of the natural mind is plain from what precedes, namely, that they who are of the spiritual church, who are represented by the sons of Israel, were infested by those who were in false memory-knowledges, who are signified by the “Egyptians,” consequently as to the things of the natural mind, for the things of this mind are called memory-knowledges. These also especially infest the spiritual, for their thought is within such knowledges, and but little above them (see n. 6865).

9005. 'She shall go out for nothing, for no silver' means alienation from that [spiritual truth], without truth joined to it. This is clear from the meaning of 'going out' - out of servitude and from concubinage - as abandonment by the man, her master, and so alienation; and from the meaning of 'for nothing, for no silver' as without truth joined to it, 'silver' meaning truth, see 1551, 2954, 5658, 6112, 6914, 6917, 8932. The nature of all this is clear from what has been shown just above in 9003 namely this: A natural affection joined to a spiritual truth, meant by 'a female slave betrothed to a son', cannot survive at all unless it is sustained by the spiritual. Therefore if the affection is not sustained by this, the connection between them is broken and it is consequently alienated. The reason why this happens without the truth from the spiritual joined to that natural affection is that this affection goes on to be linked to another [truth]; but this cannot happen while truth from elsewhere is the source of its life. All this is meant by the words under consideration here because the situation with relationships in the spiritual world is such.