9421. 'And he said to the elders' means those restricted to the outward sense alone. This is clear from the meaning of 'the elders' as those restricted to the outward sense alone. The reason why 'the elders' of the Israelite people represent here those restricted to that sense is that the elders were the heads of the people and as such represented the whole people, who were restricted to the outward sense of the Word, without the inward, as has already been shown rather often. For when Moses went up into the mountain he represented the outward holiness of the Word, which is the intermediary or that which is positioned between its inward holiness and the representative which belongs to the outward sense, 9414, 9419. From this it follows that 'the elders' who were to sit beneath the mountain, and so were separated from Moses, represented the outward sense alone; for Moses told them, 'Sit for us in this [place], until we return to you'.