According to Swedenborg, to “send away” means creating a separation of spiritual states. This phrase is used a great deal in Exodus, when Moses repeatedly calls on Pharaoh to send the Children of Israel away to worship the Lord. In that case, Pharaoh and the Egyptians represent those who use scientific knowledge to attack spiritual ideas (or our own tendency to do the same thing to ourselves). It is difficult to enter a state of worship when you’re in the midst of such a spiritual struggle; you need to be “sent away” so the two states can be separate.
Passages from Swedenborg:
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 ‘sendingaway’ means a driving away and consequent deliverance.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7092
- ‘Send My people away’ means that they should leave off molesting them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ – when addressed to Pharaoh, who represents falsity that molests the Church’s truths – as leaving off molestation; and from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘My people’ refers here, as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637.
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 (Elliott) n. 7654
- ‘Send the men away, and let them serve Jehovah their God’ means that it is advisable to leave them, in order that they may worship the Lord their God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; and from the meaning of ‘serving Jehovah’ as worshipping the Lord their God, as before in 7500, 7540, 7641.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7460
- ‘And Pharaoh said, I will send you away to sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness’ means that they would leave them and not molest them, in order that they might worship their God in freedom. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving and so not molesting; and from the meaning of ‘sacrificing to Jehovah God’ as worshipping their God, dealt with above in 7458. Their being in freedom follows, for it says that they would offer sacrifice in the wilderness, consequently not in a place nearby, as previously. In a place nearby means not being in freedom, see 7454, 7456.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7439
- ‘Send My people away and let them serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship their God in freedom. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘My people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7075, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223; and from the meaning of ‘serving Jehovah’ as worshipping. That they should worship in freedom is evident from what follows in verses 21-23, and also from the consideration that all worship which is truly worship must take place in freedom.
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. 7768
- ‘When he sends everything away he will surely drive you out from here’ means that they will leave them completely, and will loathe and shun their presence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending everything away ‘as leaving completely; and from the meaning of ‘surely driving you out’ as loathing and shunning those belonging to the spiritual Church whom they have molested. For anyone who loathes another’s presence shuns it too, and also drives him away from himself. The reason why they now loathe and shun those who belong to the spiritual Church is that inflowing goodness and truth now torment them.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7593
- ‘And I will send you away, and you will not continue to remain’ means that they would leave them and no longer hold them back. This is clear from the representation of Pharaoh, who says these things about himself, as those who engage in molestation, dealt with often; from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; and from the meaning of ‘not continuing to remain’ as being held back no longer.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5962
- ‘And he sent his brothers away, and they went’ means a concealment from view. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away as removing them from himself, consequently his ceasing for that reason to be present with them any longer; and from the meaning of ‘going’ or going away as living, also living further away from, and abandoning too, dealt with in 3335, 3416, 3690, 4882, 5493, 5696, thus becoming concealed from view.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3182
- ‘They sent away Rebekah their sister’ means separation from the affection for Divine truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as being separated, and from the representation of ‘Rebekah their sister’ as the affection for Divine truth, dealt with above in 3077, 3179 – ‘a sister’ meaning truth, see 1495, 2508, 2524, 2556, 3160.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8648
- ‘After he had sent her away’ means a separation existing up to now in respect of the state of those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as a separation.
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.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7349
- ‘Thus says Jehovah, Send My people away in order that they may serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the Church in order that in freedom they may worship their God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending’ as leaving; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘My people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7075, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223; and from the meaning of ‘serving Me’ as worshipping their God. The reason for saying ‘worship in freedom’ is that no worship was possible where falsities were molesting them; and a further reason is that all worship that is truly worship must take place in freedom, 1947, 2875, 2876, 2880, 2881, 3145, 3146, 3158, 4031.