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.

5569. As there is a correspondence of the bones and the skins, so there is of the hairs; for these push forth from roots in the skins. Whatever has a correspondence with the Grand Man is possessed by angels and spirits; for each one as an image represents the Grand Man; therefore the angels have hair arranged becomingly and in order. Their hair represents their natural life and its correspondence with their spiritual life. That “hair” signifies the things of natural life, may be seen above (n. 3301); and also that “to poll the hair” is to accommodate natural things so that they may be becoming and thus comely (n. 5247).

9952. 'And with these you shall clothe Aaron your brother' means such a state of Divine Good in the spiritual kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'to clothe' as to bring about the state of whatever reality is represented by garments, in this instance the state of Divine Truth in the spiritual kingdom. For 'Aaron' represents the Lord in respect of Divine Good, and so also Divine Good that comes from the Lord, dealt with in 9806, and 'his garments' the Lord's spiritual kingdom lying adjacent to His celestial kingdom, 9814. The meaning of 'to clothe' as to bring about the state which is represented by garments that are put on has its origin in representatives in the next life. Spirits there and angels all appear wearing garments, each wearing ones that accord with the state of the truth that governs him, thus each wearing ones that accord with his power of understanding that harmonizes with the power of will within it. The reason why this should be so is that a person's understanding serves to clothe his will, the understanding being formed from truths, and the will from forms of good, and that good is what is clothed, 5248. So it is that in the Word truths are meant by 'garments', see 165, 1073, 4545, 4763, 5954, 6378, 6914, 6917, 9093, 9814, and that this has its origin in representatives in the next life, 9212, 9216, 9814.