10556. 'And he returned to the camp' means going back to the external in which the interest of that nation lay. This is clear from the meaning of 'the camp' as the external aspect of the Word, the Church, and worship, in which the interest of the Israelite nation lay, dealt with in 10546. Now, when Moses has returned to the camp, he no longer represents the Word but the head of the Israelite nation; for being in the camp with those whose interest lay in external things separated from what was internal means being in a similar state. It was different when he was outside that camp and pitched his tent there, far from the camp. How therefore Moses represents the head of that nation becomes clear from the internal sense of what follows through to the end of the chapter. Because Moses now takes on this representation it says that his minister Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not move away from the midst of the tent, meaning that what is being represented nevertheless continues in the tent that is outside the camp.