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.

8728. 'And they will judge the people at all times' means unceasing dependence on the level above. This is clear from the meaning of 'judging' as the arrangement of truths, dealt with above in 8685, at this point the arrangement of them into descending levels, each dependent on the level above; for the rulers who were to judge the people were to be the arbiters in place of Moses in small matters. The meaning in the internal sense is that truths following one another in order from more internal to more external levels are subordinated to the truth coming directly from God; and they are accordingly a channel through which the Lord acts indirectly. But in the sense focusing specifically on persons, the subordination of angels and angelic communities one below another is meant, and their dependence on those immediately above; for they are the channel through which the Lord acts indirectly and governs people on earth. It is not however the angels who govern but the Lord through them, see 8718, 8719. To take this matter further, it should be recognized that some things also come from the angels themselves who are present with a person. But all the goodness and the truth that become the components of the person's faith and charity, that is, of his new life, come from the Lord alone, even that which comes from Him through the angels. Likewise from Him springs the whole order in which truths are arranged in constantly descending levels for that purpose. The things which come from the angels themselves are the kinds of things that accord with the person's affection. They are not in themselves forms of good; nevertheless they serve to introduce the forms of good and the truths coming from the Lord. As regards the meaning of 'at all times' as unceasing, this is clear without explanation.