To “let someone go” can have a couple of different meanings: It can mean allowing them to leave (as in Moses asking Pharaoh to “let my people go”) or it can mean releasing them from a physical hold (Jacob, wrestling with the angel, said he wouldn’t let him go until the angel blessed him). Swedenborg says that in both senses this illustrates having, on one hand, the desire for a new spiritual state, and on the other a reluctance to allow that change to take place.
As with most verbs, the precise meaning depends on context – who’s involved and what the situation is.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3973
- ‘Send me away and let me go to my own place and to my own land’ means that at that time there was in the natural represented by Jacob a strong desire to arrive at a state in which it would be joined to everything Divine in the Rational. This is clear from the representation of ‘Jacob’, who is the speaker, as the good of natural truth, dealt with immediately above in 3972; from the meaning of ‘place’ as state, dealt with in 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387; and from the meaning of ‘land’ in this case as everything Divine in the Rational. For ‘my land’ is used to mean Isaac his father and Rebekah his mother, it being to them that he wished to be sent away and to go. ‘Isaac’ means the Divine Rational as regards good, see 2083, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210, and ‘Rebekah’ Divine truth joined to the Divine good of the Rational, 3012, 3013, 3077. It is evident from the affectional content of the words themselves that a strong desire to be joined to these is meant.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4283
- ‘He said, Let me go, for the dawn is coming up’ means that the temptation came to an end when the joining together was at hand. This is clear from the meaning of ‘letting me go’ – that is to say, ‘give up wrestling with me’ – as the ending of the temptation (for ‘wrestling’ means temptation, see above in 4274; and the fact that it did come to an end is evident from what follows); and from the meaning of ‘the dawn’ as the joining of natural good, meant by ‘Jacob’, to the celestial-spiritual, that is, to the Divine good of truth, also dealt with above in 4275.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4284
- ‘And he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me’ means that a joining together was to take place. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not letting you go’ as the fact that the temptation was not going to come to an end, dealt with immediately above in 4283, and from the meaning of ‘blessing’ as conjunction, dealt with in 3504, 3514, 3530, 3584. From this it is evident that ‘I will not let you gounless you bless me’ means that it would not come to an end until the conjunction was effected, that is, when the joining together was to take place.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4290
- In the internal historical sense ‘he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me’ means that they insisted on being representative, for being insistent is meant by ‘I will not let you’ and the representative of the Church by ‘being blessed’. This particular matter – the insistence of Jacob’s descendants that they should be representative of the Church, though they were no more the elect than any other nation – is not very clear, it is true, from the historical narratives of the Word contained in the sense of the letter. It is not clear because those narratives hold the arcana of heaven within them, which accordingly follow one another in a connected sequence, and also because the actual names there are used to mean spiritual realities, many of which names indeed are used in the highest sense to mean the Lord.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4720
- ‘And the man said, They have travelled on from here, for I heard them saying, Let us go to Dothan’ means that they moved on from the general aspects to the specific details of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘travelled on’ as moving on; from the meaning of ‘from Shechem’, to which ‘from here’ refers here, as from the general aspects of doctrine, 4707, 4716; and from the meaning of ‘Dothan’ as the specific details of doctrine. This meaning of ‘Dothan’ – the specific details of doctrine – cannot be easily demonstrated from other places in the Word because no other mention is made of it apart from that in 2 Kings 6:13, where the narrative states that the king of Syria sent chariots and horsemen and a large army to Dothan to seize Elisha, and that they were struck with blindness and were led by Elisha to Samaria.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5843
- ‘And let the boy go up with his brothers’ means in order that interior truth may be joined to spiritual good. This is clear from the representation of ‘Benjamin’ as new truth, dealt with in 5804, 5806, 5809, 5822, and so interior truth; and from the meaning of ‘going up with his brothers’ as becoming joined once again to his father, that is, to spiritual good, which ‘Israel’ represents.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6517
- ‘And now let me go up, [I beg you,] and bury my father’ means a restoration to life of the Church there by the internal. This is clear from the meaning of ‘burying’ as a restoration to life, dealt with immediately above in 6516; from the representation of Israel, to whom ‘father’ refers here, as the Church, also dealt with above, in 6514; and from the representation of Joseph, the one who says this of himself, as the internal, dealt with in 6499.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6912
- ‘And after that he will send you away’ means the driving away of them, that is to say, of those steeped in falsities, and deliverance, that is to say, of those guided by truths. This is clear from the meaning here of ‘sending’ or ‘sending away’ as being driven away; for those steeped in falsities never send anyone away, and would not do so to all eternity, unless they are driven away. This is the reason why here in the internal sense ‘sending away’ means a driving away and consequent deliverance.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7037
- ‘Send My son away’ means that they should refrain from molestation of the truths of the Church. This is clear from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as falsity molesting the truths of the Church, dealt with in 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692; from the meaning of ‘send away’ as a command that they should refrain; and from the meaning of ‘son’ as those who are guided and governed by spiritual truth and good and have been adopted, dealt with just above in 7035. From all this it is evident that ‘send My son away’ means that they should refrain from molestation of those guided by the truths of the Church.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7501
- ‘For if you refuse to send them away and you still hold them back’ means if they obstinately continued to molest them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘refusing’ as behaving obstinately, and therefore ‘refusing to send away’ is obstinately refusing to leave; and from the meaning of ‘holding back’ as continuing to molest, for those who are molested are held back by the evil spirits who molest them. The situation when this happens – when those who are molested by evil spirits are held back by them – is as follows: When evil spirits attack someone they know how to worm their way into the delights bound up with his desires, and also into the ideas attractive to his basic way of thinking, thus into the objects of his love. And for as long as they have wormed their way in like this they hold back the one they molest like a captive; and he cannot break free, however hard he tries, without Divine help from the Lord. For his love and their worming their way into the delights intrinsic to his love binds him to them. Such is the nature of this art that is practised by evil spirits and genii in the next life. What it is like is also evident from something similar in the world; when one person worms his way into the delights intrinsic to another person’s love he captivates him and also leads him on.
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 7707
- And he did not let go the sons of Israel. That this signifies that they did not leave those of the spiritual church, is evident from the signification of “to let go,” as being to leave; and from the representation of the sons of Israel, as being those who are of the spiritual church (see n. 7474, 7515, 7617).
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 9061
- He shall let him go free for his eye. That this signifies that it can no longer serve the internal man, is evident from the signification of “letting go free,” as being to dismiss from service; and from the signification of “for his eye,” which he had destroyed in the manservant, as being on account of the truth of faith extinguished in the external or natural man; for “the eye” denotes the intellectual, and consequently the truth of faith (see n. 9058, 9059), “to destroy” denotes to extinguish (n. 9060), and a “manservant” denotes the external or natural man (n. 9058).