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Exodus 10

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1 And the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh: for I have made his heart and the hearts of his servants hard, so that I may let my signs be seen among them:

2 And so that you may be able to give to your son and to your son's son the story of my wonders in Egypt, and the signs which I have done among them; so that you may see that I am the Lord.

3 Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you be lifted up in your pride before me? let my people go so that they may give me worship.

4 For if you will not let my people go, tomorrow I will send locusts into your land:

5 And the face of the earth will be covered with them, so that you will not be able to see the earth: and they will be the destruction of everything which up to now has not been damaged, everything which was not crushed by the ice-storm, and every tree still living in your fields.

6 And your houses will be full of them, and the houses of your servants and of all the Egyptians; it will be worse than anything your fathers have seen or their fathers, from the day when they were living on the earth till this day. And so he went out from Pharaoh.

7 And Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long is this man to be the cause of evil to us? let the men go so that they may give worship to the Lord their God: are you not awake to Egypt's danger?

8 Then Moses and Aaron came in again before Pharaoh: and he said to them, Go and give worship to the Lord your God: but which of you are going?

9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds; for we are to keep a feast to the Lord.

10 And he said to them, May the Lord be with you, if I will let you and your little ones go! take care, for your purpose clearly is evil.

11 Not so; but let your males go and give worship to the Lord, as your desire is. This he said, driving them out from before him.

12 And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out over the land of Egypt so that the locusts may come up on the land for the destruction of every green plant in the land, even everything untouched by the ice-storm.

13 And Moses' rod was stretched out over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and all the night; and in the morning the locusts came up with the east wind.

14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, resting on every part of the land, in very great numbers; such an army of locusts had never been seen before, and never will be again.

15 For all the face of the earth was covered with them, so that the land was black; and every green plant and all the fruit of the trees which was untouched by the ice-storm they took for food: not one green thing, no plant or tree, was to be seen in all the land of Egypt.

16 Then Pharaoh quickly sent for Moses and Aaron, and said, I have done evil against the Lord your God and against you.

17 Let me now have forgiveness for my sin this time only, and make prayer to the Lord your God that he will take away from me this death only.

18 So he went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord.

19 And the Lord sent a very strong west wind, which took up the locusts, driving them into the Red Sea; not one locust was to be seen in any part of Egypt.

20 But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go.

21 And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out to heaven, and all the land of Egypt will be dark, so that men will be feeling their way about in the dark.

22 And when Moses' hand was stretched out, dark night came over all the land of Egypt for three days;

23 They were not able to see one another, and no one got up from his place for three days: but where the children of Israel were living it was light.

24 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses, and said, Go and give worship to the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be kept here: your little ones may Go with you.

25 But Moses said, You will have to let us take burned offerings to put before the Lord our God.

26 So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to give till we come to the place.

27 But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would not let them go.

28 And Pharaoh said to him, Go away from me, take care that you come not again before me; for the day when you see my face again will be your last.

29 And Moses said, You say truly; I will not see your face again.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7711

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7711. 'And there will be thick darkness over the land of Egypt' means total deprivation of truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of 'thick darkness' as total deprivation of truth and good. Various places in the Word mention 'darkness' (tenebrae) and also at the same time 'thick darkness' (caligo), and in those places 'darkness' has reference to falsity and 'thick darkness' to evil together with it. But the word that is used in this verse to express thick darkness denotes pitch-black darkness (tenebrae densissimae), which in the internal sense means the kinds of falsities that well up from evil. Such falsities arise with those who have belonged to the Church and led an evil life contrary to the commandments of religious belief which they knew. The evil from which those falsities well up is the opposite of the Church, the opposite of heaven, the opposite of the Lord, and so the direct opposite of goodness and truth. This state is now described by 'thick darkness'.

[2] The fact that 'darkness' and 'thick darkness' are mentioned together in the Word, and that 'darkness' means the deprivation of truth, while 'thick darkness' means the deprivation of both truth and good, may be recognized in the following places: In Isaiah,

Judgement is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We wait for light, but, behold, darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and as if without eyes we grope; we stumble at midday as if it were twilight; among the living we are like the dead. Isaiah 59:9-10.

'Judgement is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us' stands for the fact that there is no truth, and no good either, 'judgement' being used to refer to truth and 'righteousness' to refer to good, see 2235, 3997. 'Waiting for light' stands for awaiting truth, and 'waiting for brightness' stands for awaiting the good of truth since the brightness of light is derived from good. The fact that the expression 'darkness' is used in those verses as the opposite of 'light' and 'judgement', and so of truth, and 'thick darkness' as the opposite of 'brightness' and 'righteousness', and so of good, is self-evident. So it is that 'darkness' is the deprivation of truth, and 'thick darkness' the deprivation of both truth and good. In Amos,

Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, and thick darkness, [and] no brightness in it? Amos 5:20.

Here the meaning is similar. In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and gloom. Joel 2:2.

[3] In Zephaniah,

The day of Jehovah a day of vastation and devastation, a day of darkness and thick darkness. Zephaniah 1:15.

'Darkness' stands for the deprivation of truth, and 'thick darkness' for the deprivation of both truth and good. If 'thick darkness' were no different in meaning from 'darkness' it would be a pointless repetition, which is far from being a feature of the holy Word. In the Word it is common for a pair of expressions to describe one particular thing, the first having reference to truth or falsity, the second to good or evil. A like example occurs in Isaiah,

He will look to the earth, and behold, anguish and darkness; [he will be one] benighted by anguish, and by a thick darkness of colliding. 1 Isaiah 8:11.

[4] 'Darkness' also means ignorance of the truth, such as exists among gentiles, and 'thick darkness' ignorance about what is good, in Isaiah,

On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of thick darkness and out of darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Isaiah 29:18.

In the same prophet,

If you satisfy the afflicted soul, your light will rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness will be as midday. Isaiah 58:10.

'Darkness' is falsities, see 7688.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The Latin caligine impulsus may mean collided with in darkness, or - as Swedenborg's reference to this text in 7711 can only mean - a thick darkness of colliding.

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