Bible

 

Exodus 23

Studie

   

1 Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness.

2 Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision:

3 But, on the other hand, do not be turned from what is right in order to give support to a poor man's cause.

4 If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back to him.

5 If you see the ass of one who has no love for you bent down to the earth under the weight which is put on it, you are to come to its help, even against your desire.

6 Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.

7 Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin.

8 Take no rewards in a cause: for rewards make blind those who have eyes to see, and make the decisions of the upright false.

9 Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land.

10 For six years put seed into your fields and get in the increase;

11 But in the seventh year let the land have a rest and be unplanted; so that the poor may have food from it: and let the beasts of the field take the rest. Do the same with your vine-gardens and your olive-trees.

12 For six days do your work, and on the seventh day keep the Sabbath; so that your ox and your ass may have rest, together with the son of your servant and the man from a strange land living among you.

13 Take note of all these things which I have said to you, and let not the names of other gods come into your minds or from your lips.

14 Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me.

15 You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your bread be without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt); and let no one come before me without an offering:

16 And the feast of the grain-cutting, the first-fruits of your planted fields: and the feast at the start of the year, when you have got in all the fruit from your fields.

17 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord God.

18 Do not give the blood of my offering with leavened bread; and do not let the fat of my feast be kept all night till the morning.

19 The best of the first-fruits of your land are to be taken into the house of the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.

20 See, I am sending an angel before you, to keep you on your way and to be your guide into the place which I have made ready for you.

21 Give attention to him and give ear to his voice; do not go against him; for your wrongdoing will not be overlooked by him, because my name is in him.

22 But if you truly give ear to his voice, and do whatever I say, then I will be against those who are against you, fighting those who are fighting you.

23 And my angel will go before you, guiding you into the land of the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and they will be cut off by my hand.

24 Do not go down on your faces and give worship to their gods, or do as they do; but overcome them completely, and let their pillars be broken down.

25 And give worship to the Lord your God, who will send his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take all disease away from among you.

26 All your animals will give birth without loss, not one will be without young in all your land; I will give you a full measure of life.

27 I will send my fear before you, putting to flight all the people to whom you come; all those who are against you will go in flight, turning their backs before you.

28 I will send hornets before you, driving out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite before your face.

29 I will not send them all out in one year, for fear that their land may become waste, and the beasts of the field be increased overmuch against you.

30 Little by little I will send them away before you, till your numbers are increased and you take up your heritage in the land.

31 I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send them out before you.

32 Make no agreement with them or with their gods.

33 Let them not go on living in your land, or they will make you do evil against me: for if you give worship to their gods, it will certainly be a cause of sin to you.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 9346

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

9346. Lest perchance they make thee sin against Me. That this signifies lest evils turn away the goods that are from the Lord, is evident from the signification of “the inhabitants of the land,” of whom it is said “lest perchance they make thee sin,” as being evils (as above); from the signification of “to sin,” as being to turn away (n. 5474, 5841, 7589); and from the signification of “thee against Me,” as being the goods that are from the Lord; for by “the sons of Israel,” who are here meant by “thee,” are signified those who are in good, thus goods (n. 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833, 9340); and by “Jehovah,” who is here meant by “Me,” is meant the the Lord, (n. 9199, 9315). That evils turn away the goods that are from the Lord, is because evils and goods are opposites or contraries, and two opposites or contraries cannot be together, for they turn away from each other, and are in conflict. This can be plainly seen from the fact that evils are from hell, and goods from heaven; and that hell is as far as possible from heaven—not in respect to distance, because in the other life there is no distance—but in respect to state. Therefore they who are in the state of hell cannot be transferred into the state of heaven, for the evils in the former reject the goods in the latter. This is meant by the words of Abraham to the rich man:

Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can those who are there pass over to us (Luke 16:26);

“the great gulf” denotes the opposition and contrariety of the states of life. From all this it is evident how it is to be understood that evils turn away the goods that are from the Lord; namely, that those who are in evils not only do not receive the goods which continually flow into everyone from the Lord; but also absolutely turn them away. And therefore a man cannot possibly receive the good of heaven until he abstains from evils.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 4598

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

4598. And Israel journeyed. That this means the celestial spiritual of the natural at this time, is evident from the signification of “journeying,” as being what is successive or continuous (see n. 4375, 4554), here more toward interior things; and from the representation of “Israel” here, as being the celestial spiritual of the natural (n. 4286). What the celestial spiritual of the natural is, has been explained before, namely, that it is the good of truth, or the good of charity procured by means of the truth of faith. What advancement toward interior things is, is little known in the world. It is not an advancement into memory-knowledges, for this frequently exists without any advancement toward interior things, and very frequently with a departure from them. Neither is it an advancement into the judgment of manhood, for this also sometimes exists together with a departure from interior things. Nor is it an advancement into knowledges of interior truth, for these knowledges avail nothing unless the man is affected with them. An advancement toward interior things is an advancement toward heaven and the Lord by means of the knowledges of truth implanted in the affection of them, thus by means of affections.

[2] What is the nature of an advancement toward interior things is not apparent to anyone in this world; but in the other life it is plainly apparent, for there it is an advancement from a kind of mist into light, because they who are in exterior things alone are relatively in a mist, and by the angels are seen to be in one; whereas they who are in interior things are in light, and consequently are in wisdom, for the light there is wisdom; and wonderful to say, they who are in a mist cannot see those who are in light as in light, but they who are in light can see those who are in a mist as in a mist. As the subject here treated of is the advancement of the Lord’s Divine toward interior things, Jacob is here called “Israel,” but at other times he is called “Jacob,” as in the preceding verse of this chapter, and in the last verse.

  
/ 10837  
  

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