Arcana Coelestia # 6437
6437. 'And on the crown of the head of the Nazirite among his brothers' means with respect to the exteriors. This is clear from the meaning of 'the crown of the head of the Nazirite' as the exteriors, dealt with below; and from the representation of the sons of Israel, to whom Joseph's 'brothers' refers here, as spiritual truths in the natural, dealt with in 5414, 5879, 5951. Which are also exterior ones when considered in relation to other truths. For the good that resides with the member of the spiritual Church is the good of truth, and this good is an interior one because it resides in the interior part of the natural. The reason why 'the Nazirite' means the exteriors is that Nazirites represented the Lord's Divine Natural, which is the External Divine Human. That this is what Nazirites represented is clear from the fact that naziriteship is identified with the hair, and the holiness of that state lay in the hair. It did so for the sake of the representation already mentioned; for 'the hair' corresponds to and consequently means the natural, see 3301, 5247, 5569-5573. This is also evident from those who took the nazirite vow. They were forbidden to shave their hair during the time of the vow, Numbers 6:5; but afterwards, when the period of their naziriteship had been completed, they had to shave their head at the door of the tent of meeting and cast their hair into the fire under the eucharistic sacrifice, Numbers 6:13, 18. The same thing is further evident from Samson, who was a Nazirite. His strength lay in his hair, Judges 13:3, 5; 16:1-end, see 330. This is why it says in Jeremiah,
Cut off the hair of your naziriteship and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the hills. Jeremiah 7:29.
From all this it is clear that 'the crown of the head of the Nazirite' means the exteriors, for the crown of the Nazirite's head is where his hair is. So much for the arcanum meant in the Word by 'the Nazirites'.
Judges 17
1
There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2
He said to his mother, "The eleven hundred [pieces] of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it." His mother said, "Blessed be my son of Yahweh."
3
He restored the eleven hundred [pieces] of silver to his mother; and his mother said, "I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you."
4
When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred [pieces] of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made of it an engraved image and a molten image: and it was in the house of Micah.
5
The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
6
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
7
There was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he lived there.
8
The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to live where he could find [a place], and he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he traveled.
9
Micah said to him, "Where did you come from?" He said to him, "I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I am looking for a place to live."
10
Micah said to him, "Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten [pieces] of silver per year, a suit of clothing, and your food." So the Levite went in.
11
The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons.
12
Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
13
Then Micah said, "Now know I that Yahweh will do good to me, since I have a Levite to my priest."
