10329. 'See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, belonging to the tribe of Judah' means those in whom the good of love is present, among whom the Church is to be established. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling by name' as choosing such persons, that is to say, ones who are suitable, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Bezalel' as those in whom the good of love is present. The reason why these are represented here by Bezalel is that he came from the tribe of Judah, and this tribe means those in whom celestial good is present, which is the good of love to the Lord, and in the abstract sense, without reference to persons, it means the good of celestial love. For this meaning of Judah and his tribe, see 3654, 3881, 6363, 6364, 8770. But what Uri and Hur, Bezalel's father and grandfather, represent is clear from the manner in which celestial good is begotten. It is begotten by teachings that present what is true and good on a celestial level. So those teachings are meant by these two men, 'Hur' representing teachings that present the truth, see 9424.

[2] People who keep their minds fixed solely on the literal sense of the Word, which they do more resolutely in the historical sections than in the prophetical parts, may be astonished when they are told that such things are meant by the names of those two men; but people who are acquainted with the essential nature of the Word will not be astonished. For in every detail the Word has a spiritual content. Within the actual names of persons and places that are mentioned in the Word there would be nothing spiritual if they did not serve to mean things of the Church and of heaven; for those things are spiritual. From this it follows that the two names used here likewise mean spiritual things.

Names in the Word serve to mean spiritual things or realities, see 1224, 1264, 1888, 4442, 5095, 5225, 6516.

Names do not pass into heaven, only the realities meant by them, 1876, 10216, 10282.

[3] The reason why 'calling by name' in the spiritual sense means choosing such persons as are suitable is that the word 'name' considered without reference to an actual person means the essential nature of something, as becomes clear from places in the Word in which 'name' occurs.

'Name' means the essential nature of something, see 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3004-3011, 3421, 6674, 6887, 8274, 8882, 9310.

The verb 'call' without the noun 'name' has a similar meaning, 3421, 3659, while 'calling by name' means choosing, 8773.

[4] Two men are named here who were called by Jehovah to carry out the work that Moses was commanded on Mount Sinai - Bezalel from the tribe of Judah, and Aholiab from the tribe of Dan. 'Bezalel' means those in whom the good of celestial love is present, 'Aholiab' those in whom the good and truth of faith exist. Those in whom the good of celestial love is present are in the inmost part of heaven and the Church, whereas those in whom the good and truth of faith exist are in the last and lowest part of them. Thus these two men mean all persons in their entirety among whom the Church may be established; for the first and the last, or the inmost and the outermost, mean all persons or all things. For the subject in what immediately follows is the Church that is to be established; and this is why these two, by whom are meant all among whom the Church could be established, are mentioned by name. For the meaning of the first and the last as all persons and all things, see 10044; and for that of Aholiab from the tribe of Dan as those in whom the good of faith exists, and so who are in the last and lowest part of heaven or the Church, see in what follows below.

From all this it now evident that 'I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, belonging to the tribe of Judah' means those in whom the good of love is present, among whom the Church is to be established.

5095. 'To the king of Egypt' means which were subordinate to the interior natural. This is clear from the representation of Pharaoh or 'the king of Egypt' in this chapter as a new state of the natural man, dealt with in 5079, 5080, consequently as the interior natural since this had been made new. As to what the interior natural is, and the exterior natural, see immediately above in 5094. The nature of the internal sense of the Word in the historical sections and in the prophetical parts must be stated briefly. When the historical sense mentions a number of persons - as when Joseph, Pharaoh, the chief of the attendants, the cupbearer, and the baker are mentioned here - various things are indeed meant by them in the internal sense, yet only as all these exist in one person. The reason for this is that names mean different spiritual things, as they do here: 'Joseph' represents the Lord as regards the celestial-spiritual from the rational and also within the natural, 'Pharaoh' represents Him as regards the new state of the natural man, that is, as regards the interior natural, 'the cupbearer and the baker' as regards the things that belong to the external natural. Such is the nature of the internal sense. The same is so in other places, for example when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are mentioned; in the sense of the letter they are three different persons, but in the highest sense all three represent the Lord - 'Abraham' the Divine itself, 'Isaac' His Divine Intellectual, ¹ and 'Jacob' His Divine Natural. The same may be seen in the Prophets where sometimes the text consists of mere names, either of persons or of kingdoms or of cities; yet all of them together present and describe a single entity in the internal sense. Anyone unaware of this may be easily misled by the sense of the letter into visualizing a variety of things, with the result that the idea of a single entity disappears.

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