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.

9026. 'And he does not die' means, and it is not wiped out. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' as ceasing to be such, dealt with in 494, 6587, 6593, and therefore as being wiped out, at this point not being wiped out. Since the internal sense deals here with the agreement of the truths of faith with things stated in the literal sense of the Word, and since things stated in the literal sense of the Word cannot be wiped out, being truths on the lowest level of order, no reference is made here to a man who is struck and as a result dies, only to a man who is struck but does not as a result die. For things stated in the literal sense of the Word can, it is true, be weakened but they cannot be wiped out; and also after they have been weakened they can be separated, and then be restored by the use of explanations. This is what is meant by the regulations regarding a man who, having been struck by a companion, rises up and walks on his staff.

[2] A person who probes into the inner contents of the Word can see that there was some hidden reason - a reason beyond human understanding unless this is enlightened by the light of heaven - why the Lord stipulated that the striker should be guiltless if the one who had been struck rose from his bed and walked outside on his staff; and especially why the Lord stipulated that no vengeance should be taken on someone if he strikes his slave but the slave does not die within a day or two, because he is his silver (in spite of the fact that it is the taking of human being's life, for one who is a slave is still a human being). But the hidden reason why the Lord made these stipulations is not evident except with the aid of the internal sense, in which the Church's truths derived from the Word are the subject. What can happen to these truths is similar, for by a man quarrelling with and striking his companion, and also by a man striking his male or female slave, are meant the kinds of things to which those actions correspond in the spiritual sense, which are being explained here. Among the Israelite nation it was a representative Church that was established, that is, a Church in which the inner realities of heaven and the Church were to be represented by means of outward things. Therefore things were stipulated, indeed commanded, such as would cease to have any validity as laws once the Lord had disclosed and revealed the inner realities of the Church. Since then people have been required to lead an inward life, which is a life of faith and charity, as well as an outward life shaped by inner realities.