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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

 

Treasures on the back of camels

  

'Treasures on the backs of camels,' as in Isaiah 30:6, 7, signifies knowledges pertaining to the natural principle.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 3048)

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Arcana Coelestia #4431

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4431. The son of Hamor the Hivite. That this signifies from the ancients, is evident from the signification of a “son,” who here is Shechem, as being interior truth, of which just above (that a “son” denotes truth see n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 3373, 4257); and from the representation of Hamor, as being the father of this truth, thus meaning from the ancients; for the truth that was interior in the representatives and rituals emanated from the church of ancient time. For this reason Hamor is also named “the Hivite,” for the Hivite nation was that by which such truth among the ancients was signified, because the Hivites had been in such truth from ancient time, and hence it is that Hamor is here called “the Hivite.” For by all the nations in the land of Canaan some good or truth of the church of ancient time was signified, because the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial, was there (n. 4116). But afterwards these nations, like all the other nations among whom the church had been, turned aside to things idolatrous, and therefore by the same nations idolatries also are signified. Yet because the Hivites had from ancient time signified interior truth, and because they were one of the better disposed nations, with whom iniquity was not so far consummated (that is, the truth of the church was not so far extinguished as with others), the Gibeonite Hivites were of the Lord’s providence preserved, by means of a covenant made with them by Joshua and the princes (Josh. 9:15). That they were Hivites may be seen in Joshua 9:7; 11:19. From all that has been said it is now evident whence it is that interior truth from the ancients is signified by “Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite.”

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