8712. 'And you are to appoint them rulers of thousands' means first and foremost truths in the first degree below truth coming directly from God. This is clear from the meaning of 'rulers' as first and foremost truths, dealt with in 1482, 2089, 5044, ¹ at this point truths springing from good since those rulers were to serve under Moses, who represents God's truth going forth from Divine Good, that is, from the Lord; and from the meaning of 'thousands' as those in the first degree. For 'a thousand' means many people or, in the abstract sense, many things; it also means where there are many things, or those who govern many and are consequently in a higher-ranking degree than those who govern few. Here therefore those in the first degree are meant, for those in a lower degree were rulers of hundreds, fifties, and tens. The fact that 'a thousand' in the internal sense is not a thousand but many things, see 2575.

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