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Arcana Coelestia #9373

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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.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.

Commentary

 

Raiment

  

'Soft raiment,' as in Matthew 11:9, represents the internal sense of the Word.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 9372)

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Arcana Coelestia #5392

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5392. Who exactly constitute the province of the Intestines in the Grand Man will become clear to some extent from those who correlate with the stomach. For the intestines are a continuation of the stomach, and the functions performed by the stomach increase in them and are intensified right through to the end of the intestines - to the colon and rectum. The spirits in the latter are therefore close to the hells which are called the excrementitious ones. In the region of the stomach and intestines are those on the lower earth. Because these have brought with them from the world forms of uncleanness clinging to their thoughts and affections, they are therefore detained for a while in that region until such forms of uncleanness have been wiped away, that is, cast away to the side. Once these have been cast away to the side those people can be raised up to heaven. People on the lower earth are not yet in the Grand Man, for they are like food which has been sent down into the stomach but which, until it has been purged, is not introduced into the bloodstream and so into the body. People contaminated with even worse earthly defilements are below those in the region of the intestines; but the actual excrement passed by the intestines corresponds to the hells called the excrementitious hells.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.