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.

4257. Lest he come and smite me, the mother upon the sons. That this signifies that it is about to perish, is evident without explication. “To smite the mother upon the sons” was a form of speech among the ancients who were in representatives and significatives, signifying the destruction of the church and of all things that are of the church, either in general or in particular with the man who is a church. For by “mother” they understood the church (see n. 289, 2691, 2717), and by “sons” the truths that are of the church (see n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 3373). Hence “to smite the mother upon the sons” denotes to perish altogether. Man also perishes altogether when the church and what belongs to the church in him perishes, that is, when the affection of truth, which is properly signified by “mother,” and which produces the church in man, is destroyed.

8982. 'And [she has borne him] sons or daughters' means truths and forms of good which are derived from that good. This is clear from the meaning of 'sons' as truths, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257; and from the meaning of 'daughters' as forms of good, dealt with in 489-491, 2362, 3024. The fact that they are derived truths and forms of good is self-evident, because 'the woman', the mother from whom they were born, means spiritual good, 8981, and 'generations' means derivatives in the internal sense, 1330, 3263, 3279.