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Deuteronomy 23

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1 No man whose private parts have been wounded or cut off may come into the meeting of the Lord's people.

2 One whose father and mother are not married may not come into the meeting of the Lord's people, or any of his family to the tenth generation.

3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their people to the tenth generation may come into the meeting of the Lord's people:

4 Because they gave you no bread or water on your way, when you came out of Egypt: and they got Balaam, the son of Peor, from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to put curses on you.

5 But the Lord your God would not give ear to Balaam, but let the curse be changed into a blessing to you, because of his love for you.

6 Do nothing for their peace or well-being for ever.

7 But have no hate for an Edomite, because he is your brother, or for an Egyptian, for you were living in his land.

8 Their children in the third generation may come into the meeting of the Lord's people.

9 When you go out to war and put your tents in position, keep from every evil thing.

10 If any man among you becomes unclean through anything which has taken place in the night, he is to go out from the tent-circle and keep outside it:

11 But when evening comes near, let him take a bath: and after sundown he may come back to the tents.

12 Let there be a place outside the tent-circle to which you may go;

13 And have among your arms a spade; and when you have been to that place, let that which comes from you be covered up with earth:

14 For the Lord your God is walking among your tents, to keep you safe and to give up into your hands those who are fighting against you; then let your tents be holy, so that he may see no unclean thing among you, and be turned away from you.

15 Do not give back to his master a servant who has gone in flight from his master and come to you:

16 Let him go on living among you in whatever place is most pleasing to him: do not be hard on him.

17 No daughter of Israel is to let herself be used as a loose woman for a strange god, and no son of Israel is to give himself to a man.

18 Do not take into the house of the Lord your God, as an offering for an oath, the price of a loose woman or the money given to one used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods: for these two things are disgusting to the Lord your God.

19 Do not take interest from an Israelite on anything, money or food or any other goods, which you let him have:

20 From men of other nations you may take interest, but not from an Israelite: so that the blessing of the Lord your God may be on everything to which you put your hand, in the land which you are about to take as your heritage.

21 When you take an oath to the Lord, do not be slow to give effect to it: for without doubt the Lord your God will make you responsible, and will put it to your account as sin.

22 But if you take no oath, there will be no sin.

23 Whatever your lips have said, see that you do it; for you gave your word freely to the Lord your God.

24 When you go into your neighbour's vine-garden, you may take of his grapes at your pleasure, but you may not take them away in your vessel.

25 When you go into your neighbour's field, you may take the heads of grain with your hand; but you may not put your blade to his grain.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 9274

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9274. 'And in the seventh you shall let it rest, and let it lie fallow' means the second state, when the member of the Church is governed by good, and so enjoys peace and serenity. This is clear from the meaning of 'the seventh year' or 'the sabbath' as the time when a person is governed by good and is led by the Lord through good, dealt with in 8495, 8510, 8890, 8893; from the meaning of 'letting the land rest', or not sowing it, as not being led by truths as before; and from the meaning of 'letting it lie fallow' as enjoying peace and serenity. Also, the sabbath was representative of a state of peace in which [goodness and truth] are joined together, see 8494; for letting the land rest and lie fallow represented the rest, serenity, and peace enjoyed by those who are governed by good received from the Lord. Regarding the two states of a person who is being regenerated and coming to have the Church within him, the first being a time when he is led by the truths of faith towards the good of charity, and the second being a time when he is governed by the good of charity, see 7923, 7992, 8505, 8506, 8512, 8513, 8516, 8539, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, 8772, 9139, 9224, 9227, 9230.

[2] These two states of a person who is being regenerated and coming to have the Church within him have not been known up to now, the chief reason for this being that members of the Church have not drawn a clear distinction between truth and good, nor therefore between faith and charity. Another reason is that they have had no clear idea of the two powers of mind a person has - the understanding and the will - nor any clear idea that the function of the understanding is to see truths and forms of good, and that of the will to be stirred by affection for them and to love them. Consequently it was not possible for them to know that the first state of a person who is being regenerated consists in learning truths and seeing them, and the second state in willing and loving them, and that a person has made them his own only when he desires and loves those he has learned and seen. For the will is the person's true self, and the understanding is its servant. Had people known these things they could then have known and come to see clearly that a person who is being regenerated is endowed by the Lord with both a new understanding and a new will, and that unless he is endowed with both he is not a new person; for understanding is no more than the seeing of things that a person desires and loves, and so is simply a servant, as has been stated. And if people had known this they could consequently have known that the first state of a person who is being regenerated consists in being led by means of truths towards good, and the second state in being led by means of good. They could have known that in this second state order is turned around, that the person is now led by the Lord, and that therefore the person is now in heaven and so enjoys peace and serenity.

[3] This state is what is meant by the seventh day, by the seventh year, and also by a jubilee - which are the sabbath, and the sabbath of sabbaths - and by the land's resting in those years, in keeping with the following in Moses,

Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its produce; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of sabbaths for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap. Leviticus 25:3-5.

And in reference to a jubilee,

In the year of a jubilee you shall not sow, nor shall you reap what grows of its own accord, nor shall you harvest the unattended 1 vines. Leviticus 25:11, 12.

The person who does not know anything about those two states cannot know either about very many things contained in the Word; for in the Word, especially the prophetical part, the first state is depicted clearly and so is the second. Indeed that person cannot understand the internal sense of the Word, nor even much that is contained in its literal sense, such as the following predictions by the Lord regarding the final period of the Church at the present day, which is there called 'the close of the age', in Matthew,

Then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not return to take his clothes. Matthew 24:16-18.

And in Luke,

On that day, whoever will be on the housetop with his vessels in the house, let him not come down to take them away; and whoever is in the field, let him likewise not return to the things behind him. Remember Lot's wife. Luke 17:31-32.

The second state is described in these places, together with a warning not to go back from it to the first, see 3650-3655, 5895 (end), 5897 (end), 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516.

[4] The fact that those states are distinct and separate from each other is also implied by the following words in Moses,

When you build 2 a new house you shall make a parapet for your roof. You shall not sow your vineyard and your field with mixed seed. You shall not plough with an ox and an ass together. You shall not wear a garment made of wool and flax mixed together. 3 Deuteronomy 22:8-11; Leviticus 19:19.

These laws serve to mean that anyone who is in the state of truth, that is, in the first state, cannot be in the state of good, that is, in the second state, nor vice versa, the reason being that one state is the inverse of the other. For in the first state a person looks from the world to heaven, but in the second from heaven to the world. In the first state truths come from the world by way of the understanding into the will, where they become forms of good because they are loved. But in the second state the forms of good so created come from heaven by way of the will into the understanding, where they appear in the form of faith. This faith is saving faith, because it comes out of the good of love, that is, comes from the Lord by way of the good of love; for this faith is charity in outward form.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, separated

2. literally, make

3. literally, a mixed garment of wool and flax together

  
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Arcana Coelestia # 8505

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8505. 'Today you will not find it in the field' means that [then] there will no longer be any acquiring of good through truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'not finding', when it refers to good that is obtained through truth, as no longer acquiring; and from the meaning of 'the field' as a person, at this point a person's mind in which good is implanted through truth. For a person is called a field because he receives the truths of faith, which are the seeds, and brings forth the fruit of the seeds, that is, forms of good.

[2] What this implies will be stated briefly. Before regeneration a person's actions spring from truth; but through that truth good is acquired, for during this time truth becomes good with him when it becomes part of his will and so of his life. But after regeneration his actions spring from good, and through that good truths are gained. To put it more intelligibly, before regeneration a person's actions spring from a spirit of obedience, but after regeneration from affection. The two states are the antithesis of each other; for in the former state truth is dominant, but in the latter good is dominant. Or, in the former state the person looks downwards or backwards, but in the latter upwards or forwards.

[3] When a person has reached the latter state, that is to say, when his actions spring from affection, he is no longer allowed to look back and do good from truth; for now the Lord is flowing into good, and leading him through that good If in this state he were to look back, that is, to do good from truth, his actions would spring from what is his own; for when a person's actions spring from truth he is guided by self, but when they spring from good he is guided by the Lord. These things are what is meant by the Lord's words in Matthew,

When you see the abomination of desolation, let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not return to take his clothes. Matthew 24:15-18.

And in Luke,

On that day, whoever will be on the housetop with his vessels in the house let him not come down to take them away; and whoever is in the field, let him likewise not return to the things behind him. Remember Lot's wife. Luke 17:31-32.

For more about what these words imply, see the explanations in 3652, 5895 (end), 5897, 7923, and below in 8506, 8510.

Such are the things meant in the internal sense by the words stating that the man[na] will not be found in the field on the seventh day and that some of the people went out to gather it but did not find any.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.