9373. Come up unto Jehovah. That this signifies conjunction with the Lord, is evident from the signification of “coming up,” as being to be raised toward interior things (see n. 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007), consequently also to be conjoined (n. 8760). That it denotes conjunction with the Lord, is because by “Jehovah” in the Word is meant the the Lord, (n. 1343, 1736, 1793, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6280, 6303, 6905, 8274, 8864, 9315). A secret which also lies hidden in the internal sense of these words, is that the sons of Jacob, over whom Moses was the head, were not called and chosen; but they themselves insisted that Divine worship should be instituted among them (according to wh at has been said in n. 4290, 4293); and therefore it is here said, “and He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah,” as if not Jehovah, but another, had said that he should come up. For the same reason in what follows it is said that “the people should not go up” (verse 2); and that “Jehovah sent not His hand unto the sons of Israel who were set apart” (verse 11); and that “the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the sons of Israel” (verse 17); and lastly that Moses, being called the seventh day, “entered into the midst of the cloud.” For by “the cloud” is meant the Word in the letter (n. 5922, 6343, 6752, 6832, 8106, 8443, 8781); and with the sons of Jacob the Word was separated from its internal sense, because they were in external worship without internal, as can be clearly seen from the fact that now, as before, they said, “all the words which Jehovah hath spoken we will do” (verse 3); and yet scarcely forty days afterward they worshiped a golden calf instead of Jehovah; which shows that this was hidden in their hearts while they were saying with their lips that they would serve Jehovah alone. But nevertheless those who are meant by “the called and the chosen” are those who are in internal worship, and who from internal worship are in external; that is, those who are in love to and faith in the Lord, and from this in love toward the neighbor.

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.

6423. 'And he will sit in the strength of his bow' means that he is protected by the militancy of the truth of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'sitting' as being protected, for one who 'sits in the strength of his bow' is protected; and from the meaning of 'bow' as doctrine, dealt with in 2686, 2709. The strength that doctrine possesses resides in truth, for doctrine without truth in it has no strength. Regarding truth, that it possesses power and strength, see 878 (end), 3091, 4931, 4934, 4977, 6344. The reason why truth has 'strength' is that good acts by means of truth; for the nature of good is such that nothing at all evil or false can draw near it. Nor thus can any member of the hellish crew do so; that crew flees far away when good draws near, or when an angel governed by good does so. However, in order to fight that crew from hell present with a person and to protect him in every way, and in order also to protect spirits recently arrived from the world, as well as those on the lower earth, good acts by means of truth; for in that way it can draw near.

[2] How much power is contained in truth has been made clear to me from things I have been allowed to see in the next life. A certain person governed by natural truth, because he had been concerned for what was right when he had lived in the world, passed through many hells, from which he talked to me and described them. Such power and strength were present in him that hellish spirits were not at all able to molest him, so that he was protected as he passed from one hell to another, which is something people who are not guided by truth cannot possibly do. From all this one may see that 'he will sit in the strength of his bow' means that he is protected by the truth of doctrine. The fact that the militancy of truth provides such protection follows from what has gone before, where it says that the archers shoot at him and hate him.