9371. THE INTERNAL SENSE.

Verses 1-2. And He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and bow yourselves afar off; and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah; and they shall not come near; and the people shall not come up with him. “And He said unto Moses,” signifies that which concerns the Word in general; “come up unto Jehovah,” signifies conjunction with the Lord; “thou and Aaron,” signifies the Word in the internal sense and the external sense; “Nadab and Abihu,” signifies doctrine from both senses; “and seventy of the elders of Israel,” signifies the chief truths of the church which are of the Word, or of doctrine, and which agree with good; “and bow yourselves afar off,” signifies humiliation and adoration from the heart, and then the influx of the Lord; “and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah,” signifies the conjunction and presence of the Lord through the Word in general; “and they shall not come near,” signifies no separate conjunction and presence; “and the people shall not come up with him,” signifies no conjunction whatever with the external apart from the internal.

1183. What is signified in particular by “Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar,” cannot so well be seen, because they are not mentioned in other parts of the Word, except Calneh (in Amos 6:2) but they are varieties of such worship. But as regards the land of Shinar in which these worships were, that external worship wherein is what is profane is signified by it in the Word is evident from its signification in the following chapter (Genesis 11:2), and also in Zechariah 5:11 and, especially in Daniel, where these words occur:

The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, with part of the vessels of the house of God, and he carried them into the land of Shinar, into the house of his god and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god (Daniel 1:2),

by which is signified that holy things were profaned: “the vessels of the house of God,” are holy things; “the house of the god of Babel, in the land of Shinar,” is profane things, into which the holy things were brought. Although these incidents are historical, yet they involve these arcana, as do all the historical facts of the Word. The same is further evident from the profanation of the same vessels (Daniel 5:3-5). If sacred things had not been represented by them, no such events would have taken place.

7010. And thou shalt be to him for God. That this signifies the Divine truth which proceeds from the Lord immediately, is evident from the representation of Moses, as being the Lord as to Divine truth (see n. 6752). That it denotes the Divine truth which proceeds immediately from the Lord, is signified by that he was “to Aaron for God;” for by “God” in the Word is meant the Lord as to Divine truth, and by “Jehovah,” the Lord as to Divine good. That in the Word the Lord is called “God” where truth is treated of, but “Jehovah” where good is treated of, see n. 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921, 4402: That the angels are called “gods” from the truths in which they are from the the Lord, (n. 4402): And that in the opposite sense the “gods of the nations” denote falsities (n. 4402, 4544).