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.

4736. Cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness. That this signifies that they should conceal it meanwhile among their falsities, that is, that they should regard it as false, but still retain it because it was of importance to the church, is evident from the signification of a “pit,” as being falsities (see n. 4728); and from the signification of a “wilderness,” as being where there is no truth. For the word “wilderness” has a wide signification, it means where the land is uninhabited, and thus not cultivated; and when predicated of the church, it denotes where there is no good, and consequently no truth (n. 2708, 3900). Thus by a “pit in the wilderness” are here meant falsities in which there is no truth, because no good. It is said in which there is no truth because no good; for when anyone believes that faith saves without works, truth may indeed exist, but still it is not truth in him, because it does not look to good, nor is it from good. This truth is not alive, because it has in it a principle of falsity, consequently with anyone who has such truth, the truth is but falsity from the principle which rules in it. The principle is like the soul, from which the rest have their life. On the other hand there are falsities which are accepted as truths, when there is good in them, especially if it is the good of innocence, as with the Gentiles and also with many within the church.

5959. 'And ten she-asses carrying grain and bread' means the truth of good and the good of truth, also together with much of a subservient kind. This is clear from the meaning of 'ten' as much, as above in 5958; from the meaning of 'she-asses' as that which is of a subservient kind, as also immediately above in 5958; from the meaning of 'grain' as the good of truth, dealt with in 5295, 5410, in this case the truth of good since it comes from the internal celestial, which is 'Joseph'; and from the meaning of' bread' as the good of that truth, dealt with in 276, 680, 1165, 2177, 3478, 3775, 4111, 4117, 4735, 4976. As regards 'grain' - that here it means the truth of good but elsewhere the good of truth - the situation is this: The meaning is different when an influx from the internal celestial is the subject from when an influx from the internal spiritual is the subject. What flows in from the internal celestial is nothing other than good, which does, it is true, hold truth within it, though that truth is good. But what flows in from the internal spiritual is nothing other than truth, which is called the good of truth once it has been made a matter of life. In this lies the reason why at one point 'grain' means the good of truth, and at another the truth of good - here the truth of good because it flows from the internal celestial, which is 'Joseph'. The reason the female asses carried 'grain and bread' but the male asses 'the good of Egypt' is that the males mean subservient factual knowledge insofar as this has reference to truth, while the females mean the same insofar as it has reference to good. Therefore the burdens carried by the male asses were of a kind appropriate to male asses, and the burdens carried by the female asses of a kind appropriate to female ones. Otherwise there would have been no need to mention that they were 'asses' and 'she-asses', or to say what the former carried and what the latter.