9371. THE INTERNAL SENSE.

Verses 1-2. And He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and bow yourselves afar off; and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah; and they shall not come near; and the people shall not come up with him. “And He said unto Moses,” signifies that which concerns the Word in general; “come up unto Jehovah,” signifies conjunction with the Lord; “thou and Aaron,” signifies the Word in the internal sense and the external sense; “Nadab and Abihu,” signifies doctrine from both senses; “and seventy of the elders of Israel,” signifies the chief truths of the church which are of the Word, or of doctrine, and which agree with good; “and bow yourselves afar off,” signifies humiliation and adoration from the heart, and then the influx of the Lord; “and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah,” signifies the conjunction and presence of the Lord through the Word in general; “and they shall not come near,” signifies no separate conjunction and presence; “and the people shall not come up with him,” signifies no conjunction whatever with the external apart from the internal.

2971. The field and the cave that was therein. That this signifies as to the good and the truth of faith, is evident from the signification of “field” as being the church, also the good itself of the church. The celestial, or good, which is of love to the Lord and of charity toward the neighbor, is compared to “ground,” and also to “field;” it is also called “ground” and “field;” because the celestial or good is that which receives the truths of faith, which are compared to seeds and are also called “seeds.” The same is evident also from the signification of a “cave,” as being the truth of faith which is in obscurity (see n. 2935); it is said to be in obscurity because it is with the spiritual (see n. 1043, 2708, 2715).

10467. Verses 21-25 And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Do not let your anger grow hot, O my lord; you know the people, that they [are set] on evil. And they said to me, Make us gods to go before us; for this Moses, that man who caused us to come up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And I said to them, Whoever has gold, pull it away; and they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out. And Moses saw that the people had become undisciplined; for Aaron had caused them to become so undisciplined that those rising up against them would annihilate them ¹ .

'And Moses said to Aaron' means perception from the internal regarding that kind of external. 'What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?' means, Why is it that that nation has so turned itself away from the Divine? 'And Aaron said' means what was perceived. 'Do not let your anger grow hot, O my lord' means, Do not let the internal therefore turn itself away. 'You know the people, that they [are set] on evil' means that that nation's interest lies in what is external separated from what is holy and internal. 'And they said to me' means exhortation. 'Make us gods to go before us' means falsities contained in teachings and worship, thus things of an idolatrous nature. 'For this Moses, that man who caused us to come up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him' means a total unawareness of what other Divine Truth exists in the Word that raises a person from an external level to an internal level and makes the Church. 'And I said to them, Whoever has gold, pull it away' means drawing out of the literal sense [of the Word] such things as are favourable to the delight belonging to external kinds of love and to the major ideas resulting from these. 'And they gave it to me' means bringing together into one, and putting into effect. 'And I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out' means self-love and love of the world, from which that worship sprang and with which it accorded. 'And Moses saw that the people had become undisciplined' means that the internal perceived that this nation had turned away from what was internal and so from what was Divine. 'For Aaron had caused them to become so undisciplined' means that the external things which they loved were the cause of this. 'That those rising up against them would annihilate them' means being left without any power to withstand evils and falsities that come from hell.

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