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Deuteronomy 5

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1 And Moses sent for all Israel, and said to them, Give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I give you today, and give attention to them so that you may keep and do them.

2 The Lord our God made an agreement with us in Horeb.

3 The Lord did not make this agreement with our fathers but with us, who are all living and present here today.

4 The word of the Lord came to you face to face on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire,

5 (I was between the Lord and you at that time, to make clear to you the word of the Lord: because, through fear of the fire, you did not go up the mountain;) saying,

6 I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.

7 You are to have no other gods but me.

8 You may not make for yourselves an image in the form of anything in heaven or on earth or in the waters under the earth:

9 You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters;

10 And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws.

11 You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on his lips for an evil purpose will be judged as a sinner by the Lord.

12 Keep the Sabbath day as a holy day, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God.

13 On six days do all your work:

14 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day do no work, you or your son or your daughter, or your man-servant or your woman-servant, or your ox or your ass or any of your cattle, or the man from a strange country who is living among you; so that your man-servant and your woman-servant may have rest as well as you.

15 And keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God took you out of that land by his strong hand and his stretched-out arm: for this reason the Lord has given you orders to keep the Sabbath day.

16 Give honour to your father and your mother, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God; so that your life may be long and all may be well for you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

17 Do not put anyone to death without cause.

18 Do not be false to the married relation.

19 Do not take the property of another.

20 Do not give false witness against your neighbour;

21 Or let your desire be turned to your neighbour's wife, or his house or his field or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is your neighbour's.

22 These words the Lord said to all of you together on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire, out of the cloud and the dark, with a great voice: and he said no more; he put them in writing on the two stones of the law and gave them to me.

23 And after hearing the voice which came out of the dark while the mountain was burning with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your chiefs came to me,

24 And said, The Lord has let us see his glory and his power, and his voice has come to us out of the fire: today we have seen that a man may go on living even after hearing the voice of God.

25 Why then is death to be our fate? For if the voice of the Lord our God comes to us any more, death will overtake us, and we will be burned up in this great fire.

26 For what man is there in all the earth, who, hearing the voice of the living God as we have, out of the heart of the fire, has been kept from death?

27 Do you go near: and after hearing everything which the Lord our God has to say, give us an account of all he has said to you, and we will give ear, and do it.

28 Then the Lord, hearing your words to me, said to me, The words which this people have said to you have come to my ears: what they have said is well said.

29 If only they had such a heart in them at all times, so that they might go in fear of me and keep my orders and that it might be well for them and for their children for ever!

30 Now say to them, Go back to your tents.

31 But as for you, keep your place here by me, and I will give you all the orders and the laws and the decisions which you are to make clear to them, so that they may do them in the land which I am giving them for their heritage.

32 Take care, then, to do whatever the Lord your God has given you orders to do; let there be no turning away to the right hand or to the left.

33 Go on walking in the way ordered for you by the Lord your God, so that life may be yours and it may be well for you, and your days may be long in the land of your heritage.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7673

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7673. 'Stretch out your hand' means an exercising of power. This is clear from the meaning of 'stretching out' as that which is connected with the exercising of control, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'hand' as power, dealt with in 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 5544, 6292, 6947, 7011, 7188, 7189, 7518. The reason why 'stretching out the hand' means the exercising of power is that there is power in the hand or arm when it is stretched out. When therefore Jehovah is said to stretch out His hand or arm, boundless or infinite power in action is meant. This explains why Jehovah told Moses on so many occasions, when miracles were to be performed, to stretch out his hand or his rod; for example,

Stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, and they will be blood. Exodus 7:19.

Stretch out your hand over the rivers, and cause frogs to rise up. Exodus 8:1-2. 1

Stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land, and it will then be lice. Exodus 8:11, 12. 2

Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and there will be hail. Exodus 9:22-23.

Such words would never have been used but for the meaning of 'stretching out the hand' in the highest sense as Jehovah's almighty power.

[2] The same thing is meant by Joshua's being told to stretch out his javelin, described in his book as follows,

Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand towards Ai. When therefore Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand towards Ai, the ambush rose up quickly out of their place and ran, as soon as he stretched out his hand, and came to the city and took it. Joshua did not withdraw his hand which he had stretched out together with the javelin until all the inhabitants of Ai had been utterly destroyed. Joshua 8:18-19, 26.

Being representative of God's almighty power, this too, like all other representative actions when they were commanded in those times, had force.

[3] There are a number of other places in which almighty power is described when it says that Jehovah 'stretches out His hand', or else His 'outstretched hand' or His 'outstretched arm' is spoken of. It is described by Jehovah stretching out His hand in Isaiah,

The anger [of Jehovah] has been roused against His people, and He has stretched out His hand over them and struck them, and the mountains were shaken. Isaiah 5:25.

In Ezekiel,

I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him. Ezekiel 14:9, 13.

In the same prophet,

I will stretch out My hand against you, and give you as plunder to the nations. Ezekiel 25:7.

I will stretch out My hand over Edom, and cut off from it man and beast. I will stretch out My hand over the philistines, and cut off . . . Ezekiel 25:13, 16.

Other places like these are Ezekiel 35:3; Isaiah 31:3; Zephaniah 1:4; 2:13. The use of 'outstretched hand' to describe almighty power occurs in Isaiah,

Jehovah's outstretched hand is over all the nations; who will turn it back? Isaiah 14:26, 27.

In Jeremiah,

I will fight with you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, and in anger and in fury. Jeremiah 21:5.

In Isaiah,

Still His hand is outstretched. Isaiah 9:12, 17; 10:4.

The use of 'outstretched arm' occurs in Jeremiah,

I have made the earth, man, and beast by My great strength and by My outstretched arm. Jeremiah 27:5.

In the same prophet,

You have made heaven and earth by Your great power and Your outstretched arm; there is no matter 3 that is too impossible for You. Jeremiah 32:17.

Here it is self-evident that 'outstretched arm' means almighty power. The same applies to many other places in which the expression 'by a strong hand and an outstretched arm' is used, such as Deuteronomy 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 9:29; 11:2; 26:8; 1 Kings 8:42; 2 Kings 17:36; Jeremiah 32:21; Ezekiel 20:33, 34.

[4] There are places too in which Jehovah is said to 'stretch out the heavens', and in these places also 'stretching out' means almighty power; that is to say, He expands the limits of heaven and fills those who are there with life and wisdom, as in Isaiah,

Jehovah is He who stretches out the heavens like a thin veil, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Isaiah 40:22.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah is He who stretches out the heavens, spreads out the earth, gives breath 4 to His people upon it, and spirit to those who walk on it. Isaiah 42:5.

In Jeremiah,

. . . He who makes the earth by His power, prepares the world by His wisdom, and stretches out the heavens by His intelligence. Jeremiah 51:15.

In Zechariah,

Jehovah is He who stretches out the heavens, and founds the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. Zechariah 12:1.

There are still more places besides these, such as Isaiah 44:24; 45:12; Psalms 104:2.

From all this one may now see why Moses was commanded to stretch out his hand and rod, that miracles were performed when he did so, and that 'stretching out the hand' for that reason means the exercising of power, and in the highest sense almighty power.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1Exodus 8:5-6 in English Bibles

2Exodus 8:16-17 in English Bibles

3. or word

4. literally, soul

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