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.

2233. That a “house” denotes those who are in goods, is evident from the signification of a “house,” as being good (see n. 710, 1708, 2048). By a “house,” or those born in the house, in the abstract sense goods are in like manner signified, but as applied to man they denote all who are in good.

9539. 'The rings shall be close to the rail, as houses for the poles' means the power from this. This is clear from the meaning of 'the rail' which 'the rings shall be close to' as the joining in outermost parts to truth from the Divine, dealt with in 9534; from the meaning of 'the rings' as the receptacle of it, also dealt with above, in 9536; and from the meaning of 'the poles' as power, dealt with in 9496. The expression 'as houses' is used because the subject is celestial good and the power of its receptacle, that good being meant by 'the bread of faces' and its receptacle by 'the table' on which the loaves were laid. 'Houses' furthermore means that good in the outermost parts. For the meaning of 'house' as good, see 2233, 2234, 2559, 3652, 3720, 4982, 7848, 7929.