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.

6918. And garments. That this signifies lower memory-knowledges corresponding thereto, is evident from the signification of “garments,” as being lower memory-knowledges (see n. 2576, 5248). “Garments” have this signification because they clothe interior things.

1073. And he was uncovered in the midst of his tent. That this signifies things thereby perverted, is evident from the signification of “uncovered” that is, naked. For he is called “uncovered and naked from the drunkenness of wine” in whom there are no truths of faith, and still more so is he in whom they are perverted. The truths of faith themselves are compared to garments which cover the goods of charity, or charity itself; for charity is the body itself, and therefore truths are its garments; or what amounts to the same thing, charity is the soul itself and the truths of faith are as the body, which is the clothing of the soul. The truths of faith are also called in the Word “garments” and a “covering” and therefore it is said in the twenty-third verse th (Genesis 9:23) at Shem and Japheth took a garment and covered the nakedness of their father. Spiritual things relatively to celestial are as a body that clothes the soul, or as garments that clothe the body; and in heaven they are represented by garments. In this verse, because it is said that he lay uncovered, it is signified that he stripped himself of the truths of faith by desiring to investigate them by means of the things of sense and by reasonings therefrom.

The like is signified in the Word by lying naked from drunkenness with wine, as in Jeremiah:

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup shall pass through unto thee also; thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked (Lamentations 4:21).

And in Habakkuk:

Woe unto him that maketh his companion drink, and also maketh him drunken, in order to look upon their nakednesses (Habakkuk 2:15).