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.

1362. That Terah was the son of Nahor, and also a nation named from him as its father, and that by him is signified idolatrous worship, has been shown before. That Terah was a nation, may be seen from the fact that the nations which originated from his sons acknowledged him as their father, just as the sons of Jacob, or the Jews and Israelites, and also the Ishmaelites, Midianites, and others, acknowledged Abraham; and the Moabites and Ammonites acknowledged Lot. Although these nations were not named from them, but from their sons, yet when all acknowledge a common father and call themselves his sons-as the sons of Terah, the sons of Abraham, or the sons of Lot-in a general sense a nation is signified by each one of these, as here by Terah, by Abram, by Nahor, and by Lot; for they are the stocks or roots of the nations. So with the descendants of Jacob, who were all named from his twelve sons, and yet were called Jacob and Israel, as also the seed and the sons of Abraham (John 8:33, 39).