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.

912. (Verse 16) And he that sat on the cloud thrust in the sickle upon the earth, and the earth was reaped. That this signifies the collection of the good and their separation from the evil, and that the church was by this means devastated, is evident from the signification of Him who sat on the cloud, as denoting the Lord as to the Word, which is Divine truth; from which, and according to the reception of which, judgment is effected. And from the signification of the earth, as denoting the church (concerning which see above, n. 29, 304, 417, 697, 741, 752, 876). And from the signification of the earth being reaped, as denoting that the church was devastated. For by harvest is signified the last state of the church, as was shown above (n. 911). Therefore by the earth being reaped is signified that the church is no more, or that it was devastated, because there were no longer any good and the truth therefrom, these being signified by the corn of the harvest. It is here said, that the earth was reaped by Him who sat on the cloud, but it is by man; as in many other passages, where devastation is attributed to the Lord, although it proceeds from man. For man, according to his first idea, according to which the Word exists in the sense of the letter, sees no otherwise.

That the separation of the good and the evil, when the Last Judgment was at hand, was thus accomplished, is evident from what has been said above upon this subject, namely, that when the good were separated from those who were inwardly evil, but could outwardly live a moral life like the Christian [life], and had therefore made to themselves heavens, as it were, in the world of spirits; then, the bond being broken with the good, they came into their own evils, which they had inwardly cherished. This is why the church, which appeared to be such only in externals, was devastated with them. For their being able to live a moral life, in externals, like the Christian, was solely from their conjunction with the good, and from the closing of the interiors which are of the will meanwhile.

But upon this subject see what is said in the small work concerning the Last Judgment; also in several passages above, and also in the Appendix to that work, in which it will be further treated of. For unless these things were expounded in their series, they could be understood only obscurely.