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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

1049. (Verse 6) And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints. That this signifies a religious persuasion inducing insanity from the falsities of evil from which violence is offered to Divine truths, is evident from the signification of the woman, as denoting the religious persuasion which, in a general sense, is meant by Babylon, as above, n. 1042; and from the signification of being drunken, as denoting to be insane in spiritual things from the falsities of evil (concerning which see above, n. 376, 1035), and from the signification of the blood of the saints, as denoting Divine truths; in the present case, violence offered to them, because it is implied that blood was shed. That blood signifies Divine truth may be seen (n. 30, 328, 329, 476, 748). And that the shedding of blood signifies the offering of violence to Divine truths (n. 329). It is said, the blood of the saints, because the Divine truths of the Word are called holy, and because by saints, in the spiritual sense, are not meant saints, but holy things. For the spiritual sense of the Word is without the idea of person, place, and time; its natural sense is different.

[2] How those two senses differ from each other may be plainly seen in many passages of the Word, as in this, where it is said that the woman was seen drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the witnesses or martyrs of Jesus. By which words, in the natural sense, is meant that Babylon shed the blood of the saints, and the blood of those who testified concerning the Lord. Whereas by those words, in the spiritual sense, is meant that Babylon offered violence to Divine truths, and also to the testification of the Lord. That this sense is contained in those words may also be seen or concluded from this, that the modern Babylon has not killed the saints, or the witnesses of the Lord; for it adores the saints idolatrously, and the Lord with supreme although external sanctity, but the Pope with internal sanctity.

It is therefore evident that these are not the things to be understood, but that something more interior lies concealed in these words; that is, that they have offered violence to Divine truths, and also to the Lord's Divine power; for they have offered violence to Divine truths by falsifying, adulterating, and profaning the Word; that they have offered violence to the Lord's Divine power by transferring it to themselves, is well known.

Continuation concerning Profanation:-

[3] It was said that the most grievous kind of profanation is, when the truths of the Word are acknowledged in faith, and confirmed in the life, and a man afterwards recedes from faith and lives wickedly, or if he does not recede from faith, yet still lives wickedly. He, however, is not guilty of profanation who in childhood, and even to adolescence, is in faith and in a life according thereto, and, afterwards, in manhood recedes from faith and from the life of faith. The reason is, that the faith of childhood is that of the memory, and the faith of his teacher in him, whereas the faith of manhood is that of the understanding, and thence a man's own.

This faith may be profaned if a man recedes from it and lives contrary to it, but not the former. For nothing enters a man's life and affects it, but what comes into the understanding and thence into the will; and a man does not think from his own understanding and act from his own will until he arrives at adult age. Before this he thought merely from knowledge, and acted only from obedience. These do not become part of his life, and therefore cannot be profaned. In a word, whatever a man thinks, speaks, and does, from the understanding, the will assenting to it, belongs to his life, or becomes part of his life; and this, if it is holy, is profaned by his receding from it.

But the profanations of this kind are more grievous and lighter according to the quality of the truth and of the faith therefrom, and according to the quality of the good and of the life therefrom, and according to the quality of the recession from them; there are, therefore, many specific differences in this profanation.