9811. 'Nadab and Abihu' means in respect of the Divine Spiritual that springs from it. This is clear from the representation of Aaron's sons as Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, dealt with above in 9807. The Divine Spiritual is Divine Truth emanating from the Divine Celestial, thus what is Divine and the Lord's as it is received in the middle or second heaven. That which is received there is represented by Aaron's two older sons, since it emanates and is so to speak born from the celestial good present in the inmost heaven, like a son from his father. But Aaron's two younger sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, represent - as long as the older ones Nadab and Abihu were alive - what is Divine in the lowest heaven, which follows on immediately from the previous or middle heaven. That is, the younger sons represent the Divine Natural, dealt with in the very next paragraph.

491. The same things are meant by 'sons and daughters' in verses 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 26, 30, of this chapter, but the character of a Church determines that of its 'sons and daughters', or goods and truths. Here they are truths and goods that men perceived most clearly, for they have regard to the Most Ancient Church, the head and forefather of all other Churches that followed after it.