624. It is clear that a state which is not a state of the Church is the subject here from the fact that in this verse and those that follow in chapter the name God is used, whereas in previous verses it was Jehovah. When the Church does not exist the name God is used, but when it does exist, it is Jehovah; for example in Genesis 1, when the Church did not exist, He was called God, but in the next chapter when it did, He was called Jehovah God. 'Jehovah' is the holiest of names, and belongs to the Church alone. Not so 'God', for no nation was without gods. Consequently the same holiness was not attached to the name God. Nobody was allowed to utter the name Jehovah except him who had knowledge of the true faith; but anyone was allowed to utter the name God.

7225. 'And I am uncircumcised in the lips' means that to them I am impure. This is clear from the meaning of 'being uncircumcised' as being impure, for circumcision represented purification from filthy kinds of love, that is, from self-love and love of the world, see 2039, 2632, 2799, 4462, 7045, and therefore those who had not been circumcised and were called 'the uncircumcised' represented those who had not been purified from those kinds of love and so were impure, 3412, 3413, 4462, 7045; and from the meaning of 'the lips' as matters of doctrine, dealt with in 1286, 1288, so that 'uncircumcised in the lips' means being impure in those things which are matters of doctrine. For the expression 'uncircumcised' is used in reference to doctrine as well as to life. The ear is therefore spoken of as being uncircumcised in Jeremiah,

On whom shall I speak and testify and they will hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, the Word of Jehovah has become a reproach; they have no wish for it. Jeremiah 6:10.

And the heart is spoken of as being uncircumcised, in the same prophet, All the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. Jeremiah 9:26.

In Ezekiel,

You are bringing in the sons of the foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary. Ezekiel 44:7, 9.

In Moses,

At that time their uncircumcised heart will be humbled. Leviticus 26:41.

[2] From these quotations it is evident that 'uncircumcised' means impure; and since all impurity springs from the impure kinds of love, which are love of the world and self-love, 'uncircumcised' means that which hinders the inflow of goodness and truth. Where those kinds of love are present inflowing goodness and truth are annihilated, for they are contrary to one another, as heaven and hell are. Therefore 'an uncircumcised ear' means disobedience, and 'an uncircumcised heart' a rejection of goodness and truth, which takes place especially when those kinds of love have fortified themselves with falsity like a wall around them.

[3] When Moses, being a stammerer, calls himself 'uncircumcised in the lips' it is on account of the internal sense. The expression is used so as to mean that those steeped in falsities, who are represented by 'Pharaoh', are not going to listen to things that might be told them from the law of God. And the reason why is that those steeped in falsities call truths belonging to the law of God falsities, and falsities that are contrary to the truths belonging to the law of God they call truths; for they are of an utterly contrary frame of mind. This being so, they view the truths taught by doctrine as altogether impure; and heavenly kinds of love are likewise seen by them as impure. And when they approach any community in heaven they emit a dreadful stench, which they imagine, when they become aware of it, to be emanating from that heavenly community, when in fact it is coming from themselves. For they are unaware of a stench until they are alongside that which is the opposite of it.