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.

5248. And changed his garments. That this signifies as to what is of the interior natural, by putting on what is suitable, is evident from the signification of “changing,” as being to remove and reject; and from the signification of “garments,” as being what is of the interior natural (of which presently); hence it follows that what was suitable (signified by the new “garments”) was put on. “Garments” are often mentioned in the Word, and thereby are meant things beneath or without, and that cover things above or within; and therefore by “garments” are signified man’s external, consequently his natural, because this covers his internal and spiritual. Specifically by “garments” are signified truths that are of faith, because these cover the goods that are of charity. This signification has its origin from the garments in which spirits and angels appear clothed. Spirits appear in garments devoid of brightness, but angels in garments that are bright and are as it were made of brightness, for the very brightness around them appears as a garment, as appeared the raiment of the Lord when He was transfigured, which was “as the light” (Matthew 17:2), and was “white and flashing” (Luke 9:29). From their garments also the quality of spirits and angels can be known in respect to the truths of faith, because these are represented by garments, but truths of faith such as they are in the natural; for such as they are in the rational appears from the face and its beauty. The brightness of their garments comes from the good of love and of charity, which by shining through causes the brightness. From all this it is evident what is represented in the spiritual world by the garments, and consequently what is meant by “garments” in the spiritual sense. But the garments that Joseph changed, that is, put off, were the garments of the pit or prison, and by these are signified things fallacious and false, which in a state of temptations are excited by evil genii and spirits; and therefore by his “changing his garments” is signified rejection and change in respect to what is of the interior natural, and the garments he put on denoted such things as would be suitable, and therefore the putting on of things suitable is signified. See what has before been said and shown concerning garments: that what is celestial is not clothed, but what is spiritual and natural (n. 297); that “garments” denote truths relatively lower (n. 1073, 2576); that changing the garments was a representative of holy truths being put on, whence also came the changes of garments (n. 4545); that rending the garments was representative of mourning over truth lost and destroyed (see n. 4763 and what is signified by him that came in, not having on a wedding garment (n. 2132).

4252. Verses 9-12. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah, who says to me, Return to your land, and to the place of your nativity, and I will deal well with you; I am not worthy of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown to Your servant, for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he comes and smites me, the mother with the children. ¹ And You have said, I will certainly deal well with you and I will make your seed like the sand of the sea which cannot be counted for multitude.

'Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah' means the holiness of preparation and arrangement. 'Who says to me, Return to your land, and to the place of your nativity, and I will deal well with you' means to become joined to Divine Good and Truth. 'I am not worthy of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown to Your servant' means an expression, in that state, of humbleness before good and before truth. 'For with just my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I have become two camps' means that from having little He now had much. 'Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him' means the state of truth in relation to good, in which truth has made itself first. 'Lest he comes and smites me, the mother with the children' means that it is about to perish. 'And You have said, I will certainly deal well with you' means that it would nevertheless obtain life then. 'And I will make your seed like the sand of the sea which cannot be counted for multitude' means the fruitfulness and multiplication then.

4252[a]. '[Jacob] said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah' means the holiness of preparation and arrange meet. This is clear from the meaning of 'the God of my father Abraham' as the Lord's Divine itself, dealt with in 3439, and from the meaning of 'the God of my father Isaac' as His Divine Human, dealt with in 3704, 4180. And because each of these is 'Jehovah', the words used are 'O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah'. Here however the holiness is meant which proceeds from the Divine, for all holiness begins there. The reason why holiness is meant is that all this was within the natural, represented by 'Jacob', and good, represented by 'Esau', had not yet been joined in the natural to truth. For the subject now is the state when good is received, at this point the state of preparation and arrangement to receive it. Jacob's prayer does not embody anything else, and therefore the words he used mean the holiness of preparation and arrangement.

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