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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

7441. 'behold, I send onto you, and onto your servants, and onto your people, and into your houses, noxious flying insects' means that malevolent falsity will be present in every single aspect. This is clear from the meaning of 'Pharaoh, his servants, and his people' as every single part of the natural mind, dealt with in 7396, and when 'into the houses' is added, an entry into the interior parts of that mind as well is meant, as above in 7407; and from the meaning of 'noxious flying insects' as falsities arising out of the evil that was meant by the previous wonder, thus malevolent falsities. Exactly which falsities therefore are meant here by 'noxious flying insects', and what type they belong to, is evident from the evils they spring from. And those evils were evils that exist on the outermost levels of the natural mind, thus on those of the senses, see above in 7419. The falsities which spring from them belong to the same sort.

[2] The same falsities are what are also meant by 'the flies of Egypt' in Isaiah,

It will happen on that day, that Jehovah will whistle for the fly that is in the furthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Asshur. They will come and all of them will rest in rivers of desolations, and in the clefts of rocks. Isaiah 7:18-19.

'The fly in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt' is falsities which reside in the outermost parts of the natural mind, thus on the level of the senses nearest to the body. These falsities are compared to an insect like that sort of insect because on that level they are exactly like insects that fly in the air, obscure the things on more internal levels, and inflict harm on them. For the things which are there are for the most part figments of the imagination; they are illusions giving rise to reasonings that are like buildings founded on nothing but air. Mention of this kind of noxious flying insect occurs again only in David, in Psalms 78:45 and Psalms 105:31, where also the reference is to Egypt. It should be recognized that flying creatures in the Word all mean things that are connected with the understanding, consequently truths or in the contrary sense falsities, 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 988, 3219, 5149. But the lowest sort of flying creatures, which are insects, mean truths, or in the contrary sense falsities, which are quite low-grade and obscure, as those are which belong properly to the level of the senses. For unless they receive light from the more internal levels, gloom and darkness completely envelop them; for they are nearest to the body and therefore close to earthly things that form the base on which heavenly things rest, and are immersed in thick darkness.