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.

7577. 'And there was hail, and at the same time fire running down in the midst of the hail, extremely heavy' means firm beliefs in what is false together with desires for evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'hail' as falsity arising from evil, dealt with above in 7574, at this point firm belief in what is false since it says the hail was 'extremely heavy'; from the meaning of 'fire' as the desire for evil, dealt with just above in 7575; and from the meaning of 'running down in the midst' as being together. Indeed the desire for evil is at the centre, for the falsity emanates from it.

[2] What is being described here is the state of those belonging to the Church who molest the upright in the next life - their state when the things of the Church with them, that is, the forms of good and the truths which they have claimed to believe in, have been laid waste. That is to say, their state is now one in which firm but false beliefs together with evil desires reign; for this is what their state inwardly is like. Those false beliefs and evil desires are inseparable; for when evil takes hold in a person's life, falsity takes hold in his doctrine. When a person's life is taken hold of by evil, the situation may seem to him to be entirely different, for when people claim with their lips to believe in truths drawn from the Word or from the teachings of their Church they fancy that they have a belief in them. It even appears to them as though they do; but in fact they have no such belief if their life is evil. For either they claim with their lips to believe in things which are different from what they really think, or they think something is true because they have been told and persuaded to believe that it is, and this belief they hold on account of their desire for gain and important positions. This means that when they are no longer striving for important positions or seeking after gain that belief falls away, and then those people take hold of falsities that fit in with their evil desires. Falsities fitting in with evil desires are present inwardly with those who lead an evil life, no matter how much they may think that they are not. The truth of this is made thoroughly plain in the next life when everything external has been taken away and those kinds of people have been left to their inner selves. Falsities now erupt, both those which had played a part in their thinking in the world and those which had not evidently done so. For those falsities erupt from the evils which had been part of their life, falsities being nothing other than evils producing reasons to support and justify themselves. From all this one may see what the state of those people in the next life is like, namely a state in which firm beliefs in what is false together with desires for what is evil rule them.