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.

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.

4751. 'What profit is there in our killing our brother and concealing his blood?' means that no advantage would be gained, nor any supremacy, if that truth was completely destroyed. This is clear from the meaning of 'what profit?' as no advantage gained, nor any supremacy, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'killing' as destroying, in this case Divine Truth, specifically the Truth regarding the Lord's Divine Human, which 'brother', that is, Joseph, is used to mean; and from the meaning of 'concealing blood' as removing holy truth completely out of sight, 'blood' meaning holy truth, see above in 4735. The implications of all this are made plain in what follows below.

[2] The reason why 'profit' here means not only advantage but also superiority - that is, why 'what profit?' means that no advantage would be gained, nor any superiority - is that what was said was motivated by the desire for gain and by avarice. For the desire for gain and avarice hold within themselves not only the wish to possess the whole world but also, for the sake of gain, to rob and even to kill no matter whom. Indeed one who is minded in this way would kill for little return if laws did not stand in the way to deter him. Furthermore, in the gold and silver he possesses such a person sees himself as one who is very powerful, however much to outward appearance he seems to be anything but powerful. From this it is evident that avarice includes not only love of the world but also self-love, indeed the foulest self-love. But with the disgustingly avaricious the sense of superiority or arrogance is not so obvious to outward appearance - for sometimes they have no interest in wealth for the sake of show, and do not have that kind of self-love which is usually tied up with the pursuit of pleasures. Indeed the disgustingly avaricious take little interest in their body, or in food and clothing for it. Theirs is a wholly earthly love, aiming at nothing else than money which, they believe, makes them, potentially if not actually, superior to all. From this one may see that avarice holds within it the lowest and basest self-love of all, which is why the avaricious in the next life seem to themselves to live among pigs, 939. They are also opposed more than anyone else to all good whatever. They dwell as a consequence in darkness so thick that they cannot by any means see what good is or what truth is. They do not grasp at all the idea that in the human being there is something internal which lives after death, and in their hearts they mock those who say there is.

[3] The Jewish nation was like this from the start, and for that reason nothing internal could be plainly revealed to it, as is evident from the Old Testament Word. They were indeed rooted in this worst kind of self-love, and therefore, if their avarice had not removed them very far away from internal things and as a consequence had not kept them in thickest darkness, they would have defiled interior truths and goods, and in so defiling them would have rendered them profane more than anyone else did. For they are unable to profane them as long as they do not acknowledge them, 1008, 1010, 1059, 2051, 3398, 3402, 3489, 3898, 4289, 4601. This is why the Lord says of them in John,

You are from your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning. John 8:44.

And of Judas Iscariot who represented the Jewish Church He says in the same gospel,

Did I not choose you twelve, but one of you is a devil? John 6:70.

Also when he sold the Lord, Judas' representation was similar to that which Judah has here who said, Come, and let us sell Joseph.