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Deuteronomy 23

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1 He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the assembly of Jehovah.

2 A bastard shall not enter into the assembly of Jehovah; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Jehovah.

3 An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Jehovah; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Jehovah for ever:

4 because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.

5 Nevertheless Jehovah thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but Jehovah thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because Jehovah thy God loved thee.

6 Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever.

7 Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a sojourner in his land.

8 The children of the third generation that are born unto them shall enter into the assembly of Jehovah.

9 When thou goest forth in camp against thine enemies, then thou shalt keep thee from every evil thing.

10 If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of that which chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp:

11 but it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall bathe himself in water; and when the sun is down, he shall come within the camp.

12 Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:

13 and thou shalt have a paddle among thy weapons; and it shall be, when thou sittest down abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:

14 for Jehovah thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.

15 Thou shalt not deliver unto his master a servant that is escaped from his master unto thee:

16 he shall dwell with thee, in the midst of thee, in the place which he shall choose within one of thy gates, where it pleaseth him best: thou shalt not oppress him.

17 There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.

18 Thou shalt not bring the hire of a harlot, or the wages of a dog, into the house of Jehovah thy God for any vow: for even both these are an abomination unto Jehovah thy God.

19 Thou shalt not lend upon interest to thy brother; interest of money, interest of victuals, interest of anything that is lent upon interest:

20 unto a foreigner thou mayest lend upon interest; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon interest, that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in all that thou puttest thy hand unto, in the land whither thou goest in to possess it.

21 When thou shalt vow a vow unto Jehovah thy God, thou shalt not be slack to pay it: for Jehovah thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.

22 But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee.

23 That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt observe and do; according as thou hast vowed unto Jehovah thy God, a freewill-offering, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.

24 When thou comest into thy neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat of grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel.

25 When thou comest into thy neighbor's standing grain, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thy hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbor's standing grain.

   

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Sons of Israel

  

'The camp of the sons of Israel' represents the church.

(Odkazy: Conjugial Love 431)

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Conjugial Love # 431

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431. 7. So, too, uncleanness in the church, and cleanness in it. The reason is that the church is the Lord's kingdom on earth, corresponding to His kingdom in heaven; and the Lord also joins the two together so that they are united. Moreover, the Lord distinguishes between the people who are in it, as He does between heaven and hell, setting them apart in accordance with their loves. People who are caught up in the shameless and obscene delights of licentious love draw to themselves spirits of a like character from hell, while people who abide in the modest and chaste delights of conjugial love are affiliated by the Lord with angels of a like character from heaven. When the angels associated with the latter are present in a person near deliberate and purposeful adulterers, they smell the foul odors mentioned above (no. 430) and withdraw a little.

[2] Because of the correspondence between filthy loves and piles of excrement and dirt, the children of Israel were commanded to carry a stake with them by which to cover their excrement, lest Jehovah their God, walking in the midst of their camp, see the nakedness of the thing and turn away (Deuteronomy 23:13-14). This was commanded, because the camp of the children of Israel represented the church, and those unclean elements corresponded to the lascivious delights of licentious lusts; and Jehovah God's walking in the midst of their camp symbolically meant His presence in the company of angels. They were to cover those things for the reason that all those places are covered and closed over in hell where companies of such spirits live; which is why it is added, lest He see the nakedness of the thing. I was granted an opportunity to see that all places in hell are closed over; and also to experience that, when they were opened (which happened when a new demon was entering), such a foul-smelling odor arose from them that it made my stomach ill. Moreover, what is astonishing, those stenches are as delightful to them as piles of excrement are to pigs.

It is apparent from this how the statement should be interpreted, that uncleanness in the church springs from licentious love, and that cleanness in it springs from conjugial love.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.