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.

1815. 'He said to him, I am Jehovah' means the Lord's Internal Man which is Jehovah, from whom perception came. This is clear from what has been stated in various places already, to the effect that the Lord's Internal, that is, whatever the Lord received from the Father, was in Him Jehovah - for He was conceived from Jehovah. That which a person receives from the, father is one thing, while that from the mother is another. From the father a person receives everything that is internal, the soul itself or life being from the father; but from the mother he receives everything that is external. In short, the interior man or spirit itself comes from the father, but the exterior man or body itself from the mother. This anyone may grasp merely from the consideration that the soul itself is inseminated by the father, and starts to clothe itself in the ovum with a tiny body. All else that is subsequently added to it, both in the ovum and in the womb, comes from the mother, for it receives nothing contributing to its growth from anywhere else.

[2] From this it becomes clear that internally the Lord was Jehovah. Since however the external which the Lord received from the mother was to be united to the Divine, or Jehovah - and this, as has been stated, was accomplished by means of temptations and victories - it inevitably appeared to Him that when He spoke to Jehovah, it was as if to another. But in fact He spoke to Himself, that is to say, insofar as He had become joined to Jehovah. The perception which the Lord possessed - being most perfect, far superior to that of every other who has ever been born - sprang from His Internal Man, that is, from Jehovah Himself; and this is meant here in the internal sense by 'Jehovah said to him'.