Exodus 23
1
Thou shalt not take up a false report: put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
2
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to wrest [justice]:
3
neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause.
4
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
5
If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, thou shalt forbear to leave him, thou shalt surely release [it] with him.
6
Thou shalt not wrest the justice [due] to thy poor in his cause.
7
Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.
8
And thou shalt take no bribe: for a bribe blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
9
And a sojourner shalt thou not oppress: for ye know the heart of a sojourner, seeing ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
10
And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the increase thereof:
11
but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, [and] with thy oliveyard.
12
Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the sojourner, may be refreshed.
13
And in all things that I have said unto you take ye heed: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.
14
Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
15
The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out from Egypt); and none shall appear before me empty:
16
and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field.
17
Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord Jehovah.
18
Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning.
19
The first of the first-fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in it mother's milk.
20
Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
21
Take ye heed before him, and hearken unto his voice; provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him.
22
But if thou shalt indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
23
For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: and I will cut them off.
24
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars.
25
And ye shall serve Jehovah your God, and he will bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
26
There shall none cast her young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.
27
I will send my terror before thee, and will discomfit all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
28
And I will send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
29
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee.
30
By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
31
And I will set thy border from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand: and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
32
Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
33
They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me; for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.
Apocalypse Explained # 496
496. Verse 5. And the angel took the censer and filled it from the fire of the altar, signifies the conjunction of celestial love and spiritual love. This is evident from the signification of a "censer," as being spiritual good (of which above, n. 491, and therefore also spiritual love, since all good is of love; also from the signification of "the fire of the altar," as being celestial love, for "fire" signifies in the Word love in both senses, namely, celestial love and infernal love. "The fire of the altar" signifies celestial love, because the altar of burnt-offering, upon which was the fire, was the chief representative of the worship of the Lord from that love (See above, n. 490); and because this love of the Lord is perpetual, therefore it was appointed that a fire should burn continually upon the altar, and that they should take of that fire in the censers for burning incense, which was done to represent the conjunction of celestial love with spiritual love.
[2] That a fire should burn continually upon the altar is evident from Moses:
And the fire upon the altar shall be kept burning, and shall not be put out; and the priest shall kindle wood on it every morning, and shall arrange on it the burnt-offering and he shall burn on it the fats of the peace-offerings. The fire shall be kept burning continually upon the altar, it shall not be quenched (Leviticus 6:12, 13).
This represented that the Lord's Divine love is unceasing and eternal.
[3] That they should take from the fire of the altar in the censers for burning incense see also in Moses:
Aaron shall take burning coals of fire from off the altar before Jehovah in a censer; and he shall put the incense upon the fire before Jehovah (Leviticus 16:12, 13).
And that Aaron took fire from off the altar, and put incense on it, by which expiation was made for the people (Numbers 16:46, 47).
This represented that all propitiation and expiation were from the Lord's Divine love, as also that everything that has that love in it is heard and received by the Lord; and the rising of the smoke of the incense represented also hearing and reception.
[4] And because Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and their company, took fire from the altar and burned incense, and thence their censers were sanctified:
It was commanded that after they had been swallowed up by the earth, their censers, which were of brass, should be gathered up, and the fire be scattered yonder, and the censers be beaten into plates for covering the altar (Numbers 16:36-39).
This also represented the holiness of the Lord's Divine love. And as incense-offerings were holy from the fire of the altar, so incense-offerings with strange fire were profane, therefore:
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were consumed by fire from heaven, because they offered incense with strange fire (Leviticus 10:1, 2).
Incense offering from strange fire represented worship from love other than Divine, and worship from any other love is profane.
[5] These passages have been cited to make known that "the fire of the altar" signifies the Lord's Divine love, which love in heaven is called Divine celestial love and Divine spiritual love; Divine celestial love is in the Lord's celestial kingdom, and Divine spiritual love is in the Lord's spiritual kingdom. For there are two kingdoms, into which all the heavens are divided, the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom; Divine celestial love constitutes the celestial kingdom, and Divine spiritual love the spiritual kingdom. (That all the heavens are divided into these two kingdoms, see in the work on Heaven and Hell n.20-28; and that these two loves constitute these two kingdoms, or all the heavens, n. 13-19.) But it must be noted that the Lord's Divine love in the heavens is called celestial and spiritual from its reception by the angels, and not from its being divided in itself; also that spiritual love springs from celestial love as an effect from its effecting cause, and as truth from good; for the good of spiritual love is in its essence the truth of the good of celestial love. For this reason these two kingdoms are conjoined with each other and are one in the Lord's sight. But this has been said for those who love to search into interior things. That "fire" signifies love in both senses will be seen confirmed from the Word in what follows.
