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.

491. The same things are signified by “sons” and “daughters” in this chapter (verses 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 26, 30), but such as is the church, such are the “sons and daughters” that is, such are the goods and truths; the truths and goods here spoken of are such as were distinctly perceived, because they are predicated of the Most Ancient Church, the principal and parent of all the other and succeeding churches.

5013. 'See, he has brought us a Hebrew man' means something servile. This is clear from the meaning of 'a Hebrew man', an expression that is used to refer to servitude, dealt with in 1703. The meaning is also plain from what follows below, for there Joseph is called 'a Hebrew slave' and also simply 'a slave' - 'The Hebrew slave whom you have brought to us came to me' verse 17, and 'this is what your slave did to me' verse 19. The principal reason why 'a Hebrew man' here means something servile is that those governed by unspiritual natural truth and good, represented here by 'Potiphar and his wife', do not regard spiritual truth and good, represented here by 'Joseph', as anything other than their slave. So far as both the life and the doctrine of these people are concerned, order is upside down, for with them the natural is lord and the spiritual is slave, whereas, when true order exists, the spiritual is lord and the natural is slave. For the spiritual is prior, more internal and higher, also closer to the Divine, while the natural is posterior, more external and lower, and further removed from the Divine. For this reason both with the individual person and within the Church the spiritual is compared to heaven and also actually called heaven, and the natural is compared to the earth and also actually called the earth. This also explains why, when spiritual people - that is, those with whom the spiritual is lord - are seen in the next life in the light of heaven, they have their heads pointing upwards towards the Lord and their feet downwards towards hell. But when natural people - that is, those with whom the natural is lord - are seen in the light of heaven, they have their feet pointing upwards and their heads downwards; and this is so, even though they are seen differently in their own light, which is a feeble light produced by the evil desires and consequent false notions they are steeped in, 1528, 3340, 4214, 4418, 4531, 4532.

[2] The way natural people look upon spiritual things as so to speak a body of slaves was also represented by the way the Egyptians regarded the Hebrews as nothing else than their slaves; for the Egyptians represented those who are preoccupied with natural knowledge, and so are natural people, whereas the Hebrews represented those who belong to the Church and so are spiritual when considered in relation to the Egyptians. Furthermore the Egyptians thought the Hebrews were of so low or slave-like a degree that it was an abomination to them to eat with Hebrews, Genesis 43:32; also the sacrifices which Hebrews offered were an abomination to them, Exodus 8:26.