9373. Come up unto Jehovah. That this signifies conjunction with the Lord, is evident from the signification of “coming up,” as being to be raised toward interior things (see n. 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007), consequently also to be conjoined (n. 8760). That it denotes conjunction with the Lord, is because by “Jehovah” in the Word is meant the the Lord, (n. 1343, 1736, 1793, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6280, 6303, 6905, 8274, 8864, 9315). A secret which also lies hidden in the internal sense of these words, is that the sons of Jacob, over whom Moses was the head, were not called and chosen; but they themselves insisted that Divine worship should be instituted among them (according to wh at has been said in n. 4290, 4293); and therefore it is here said, “and He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah,” as if not Jehovah, but another, had said that he should come up. For the same reason in what follows it is said that “the people should not go up” (verse 2); and that “Jehovah sent not His hand unto the sons of Israel who were set apart” (verse 11); and that “the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the sons of Israel” (verse 17); and lastly that Moses, being called the seventh day, “entered into the midst of the cloud.” For by “the cloud” is meant the Word in the letter (n. 5922, 6343, 6752, 6832, 8106, 8443, 8781); and with the sons of Jacob the Word was separated from its internal sense, because they were in external worship without internal, as can be clearly seen from the fact that now, as before, they said, “all the words which Jehovah hath spoken we will do” (verse 3); and yet scarcely forty days afterward they worshiped a golden calf instead of Jehovah; which shows that this was hidden in their hearts while they were saying with their lips that they would serve Jehovah alone. But nevertheless those who are meant by “the called and the chosen” are those who are in internal worship, and who from internal worship are in external; that is, those who are in love to and faith in the Lord, and from this in love toward the neighbor.

2018. I will set up My covenant between Me and thee. That this signifies union, is evident from the signification of a “covenant,” as being union (explained before, n. 665, 666, 1023, 1038); which union has been treated of in this chapter, and many times before; and it has been shown that Jehovah, who here speaks, was in the Lord, because He was one with Him from first conception and from birth; for the Lord was conceived from Jehovah, and hence His internal was Jehovah. This has been further illustrated by what is similar in man (n. 1999), namely, that his soul is one with his body, or his internal with his external, although they are distinct from each other, and sometimes so distinct that the one fights with the other, as is wont to be the case in temptations, in which the internal reproves the external and desires to reject the evil that is in it; and still they are conjoined, or are a one, because both soul and body belong to the same man. Take for example one whose thought differs from what he shows in his looks, speaks with his mouth, and acts by his gesture. There is in him an interior which is at variance with the external, but still they are one; for the thought is the man’s as much as are the external looks, mouth, and gestures; but there is a union when the look, the speech of the lips, and the gestures accord with the thought. So much for illustration.