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.

1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

4791. CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GRAND MAN, HERE CONCERNING THE CORRESPONDENCE THEREWITH OF THE TASTE AND THE TONGUE, AND ALSO OF THE FACE.

The tongue affords entrance to the lungs, and also to the stomach, thus it represents as it were the court to spiritual and celestial things—to spiritual because it ministers to the lungs and thence to the speech, to celestial because it ministers to the stomach, which supplies food to the blood and heart. That the lungs correspond to spiritual, and the heart to celestial things, may be seen above (n. 3635, 3883-3896). Wherefore the tongue corresponds in general to the affection of truth, or to those in the Grand Man who are in the affection of truth, and afterwards in the affection of good from truth; and therefore they who love the Word of the Lord, and desire there from the knowledges of truth and of good, belong to this province; but with the difference that there are some who belong to the tongue itself, some to the larynx and the trachea, some to the throat, some to the gums, and some to the lips; for there does not exist even the least thing in man with which there is not correspondence. That they who are in the affection of truth belong to this province as understood in a wide sense, has often been granted me to experience, and this by manifest influx from them, now into the tongue, and now into the lips; and it has also been given me to converse with them, and to observe that there are some who correspond to the interiors of the tongue and of the lips, and others to the exteriors. The operation of those who receive with affection exterior truths only, and not interior, but without rejecting the latter, I felt not into the interiors of the tongue, but into the exteriors.