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Exodus 29

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1 This is what you are to do to make them holy, to do the work of priests to me: Take one young ox and two male sheep, without any mark on them,

2 And unleavened bread, and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and thin unleavened cakes on which oil has been put, made of the best bread-meal;

3 Put these in a basket and take them, with the ox and the two sheep.

4 And let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the Tent of meeting, and there let them be washed with water.

5 Take the robes, and put the coat and the dress and the ephod and the priest's bag on Aaron; put the band of needlework round him,

6 And let the head-dress be placed on his head and the holy crown on the head-dress.

7 Then take the oil and put it on his head.

8 And take his sons and put their robes on them;

9 And put the linen bands round Aaron and his sons, and the head-dresses on them, to make them priests by my order for ever: so you are to make Aaron and his sons holy to me.

10 Then let the ox be taken in front of the Tent of meeting: and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head.

11 And you are to put the ox to death before the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting.

12 Then take some of the blood of the ox, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, draining out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

13 And take all the fat covering the inside of the ox, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and let them be burned on the altar;

14 But the flesh of the ox and its skin and its waste parts are to be burned outside the circle of the tents, for it is a sin-offering.

15 Then take one of the sheep, and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head.

16 Then let it be put to death, so that the sides of the altar are marked with its blood.

17 Then the sheep is to be cut up into its parts, and after washing its legs and its inside parts, you are to put them with the parts and the head,

18 And let them all be burned on the altar as a burned offering to the Lord: a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

19 Then take the other sheep; and after Aaron and his sons have put their hands on its head,

20 You are to put the sheep to death, and take some of its blood and put it on the point of Aaron's right ear, and of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and the great toes of their right feet, dropping the rest of the blood on the sides of the altar.

21 Then take some of the blood on the altar, and the oil, and put it on Aaron and his robes and on his sons and on their robes, so that he and his robes and his sons and their robes may be made holy.

22 Then take the fat of the sheep, the fat tail, the fat covering the insides, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and the right leg; for by the offering of this sheep they are to be marked out as priests:

23 And take one bit of bread and one cake of oiled bread and one thin cake out of the basket of unleavened bread which is before the Lord:

24 And put them all on the hands of Aaron and of his sons, to be waved for a wave offering before the Lord.

25 Then take them from their hands, and let them be burned on the burned offering on the altar, a sweet smell before the Lord, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

26 Then take the breast of Aaron's sheep, waving it before the Lord; and it is to be your part of the offering.

27 So you are to make holy the breast of the sheep which is waved and the leg which is lifted up on high, that is, of the sheep which is offered for Aaron and his sons;

28 And it will be their part as a right for ever from the children of Israel, it is a special offering from the children of Israel, made from their peace-offerings, a special offering lifted up to the Lord.

29 And Aaron's holy robes will be used by his sons after him; they will put them on when they are made priests.

30 For seven days the son who becomes priest in his place will put them on when he comes into the Tent of meeting to do the work of the holy place.

31 Then take the sheep of the wave offering and let its flesh be cooked in water in a holy place.

32 And let Aaron and his sons make a meal of it, with the bread in the basket, at the door of the Tent of meeting.

33 All those things which were used as offerings to take away sin, and to make them holy to be priests, they may have for food: but no one who is not a priest may have them, for they are holy food.

34 And if any of the flesh of the offering or of the bread is over till the morning, let it be burned with fire; it is not to be used for food, for it is holy.

35 All these things you are to do to Aaron and his sons as I have given you orders: for seven days the work of making them priests is to go on.

36 Every day an ox is to be offered as a sin-offering, to take away sins: and by this offering on it, you will make the altar clean from sin; and you are to put oil on it and make it holy.

37 For seven days you are to make offerings for the altar and make it holy, so that it may become completely holy, and anything touching it will become holy.

38 Now this is the offering which you are to make on the altar: two lambs in their first year, every day regularly.

39 One lamb is to be offered in the morning and the other in the evening:

40 And with the one lamb, a tenth part of an ephah of the best meal, mixed with a fourth part of a hin of clear oil; and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering.

41 And the other lamb is to be offered in the evening, and with it the same meal offering and drink offering, for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

42 This is to be a regular burned offering made from generation to generation, at the door of the Tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will come face to face with you and have talk with you.

43 There I will come face to face with the children of Israel, and the Tent will be made holy by my glory

44 I will make holy the Tent of meeting and the altar: and Aaron and his sons I will make holy, to be my priests

45 Among the children of Israel I will make my living-place, and I will be their God.

46 And they will see that I am the Lord their God, who took them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might be ever with them: I am the Lord their God.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 9228

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9228. That “seven” signifies an entire period from beginning to end, thus what is full, is evident from many passages in the Word.

In Isaiah:

The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah shall bind up the breach of His people (Isaiah 30:26).

The subject here treated of is the salvation of the faithful, and their intelligence and wisdom in the Lord’s kingdom. The “moon” denotes faith from the Lord, thus faith in the Lord; and the “sun,” love from the Lord, thus love to the Lord (see n. 30-38, 1521, 1529, 1531, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321, 4696, 5377, 7078, 7083, 7171, 8644); “the light of the sun being sevenfold, as the light of seven days” denotes a full state of intelligence and wisdom from love and faith in the Lord.

[2] In Ezekiel:

They that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shield and the buckler, with the bow and with the arrows, and with the handstaff and with the spear; they shall kindle fire with them seven years; so that they shall bring no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; and they shall cleanse the land seven months (Ezekiel 39:9, 12).

The subject here treated of is the destruction of falsity. The “weapons” here enumerated denote the falsities by means of which the evil fight against the truths of the church; “to kindle fire with them seven years” signifies complete destruction through the cupidities of the loves of self and of the world; that “they shall bring no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests” signifies until nothing of good remains, either in the interior or in the exterior man; “to cleanse the land seven months” signifies the complete restoration of good and truth in the church. It has already been shown in many places that “weapons” denote truths fighting against falsities, and in the opposite sense falsities fighting against truths; that “bows with arrows” denote doctrinal things of truth, and in the opposite sense doctrinal things of falsity; that a “handstaff” denotes the power of truth, and in the opposite sense the power of falsity; that “to set on fire and burn” denotes to lay waste through the cupidities of the loves of self and of the world; that “wood out of the field” denotes the interior goods of the church, and “wood out of the forests” the memory-knowledges of good and truth; and that “the land” denotes the church. Everyone can see that other things are here signified than those which appear in the letter, as that they should burn the weapons and kindle a fire with them seven years, and that they should bring no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests. Yet we know that holy and Divine things must be signified, because the Word is holy and from the Divine; but what holy and Divine things are contained in these words cannot possibly be known, unless it is known what is signified by “weapons,” what by “seven years” and by “seven months,” and what by “wood out of the field and wood out of the forests.” It is clear therefore that these prophetic words cannot in the least be apprehended without some acquaintance with the internal sense.

[3] In David:

Seven times a day do I praise Thee, because of the judgments of Thy righteousness (Psalms 119:164).

Render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom (Psalms 79:12).

“Sevenfold” denotes to the full. In like manner in Moses, that they should be “punished sevenfold if they transgressed the commandments and the statutes” (Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28). He who does not know that “seven” signifies an entire period from beginning to end, consequently what is full, must believe that “seven weeks” signify seven periods of time in the following passage in Daniel:

Know thou and perceive that from the going forth of the Word even unto the restoring and building of Jerusalem, even to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks (Daniel 9:25);

but the “seven weeks even to Messiah the Prince,” signify that which is said of the Lord, that He will come “in the fullness of the times,” thus they signify an entire period. From this it is evident that “the seven spirits before the throne of God” (Revelation 1:4); the “book sealed with seven seals” (Revelation 5:1); and the “seven angels having seven vials which are the seven last plagues” (Revelation 15:1, 6-7; 21:9), do not mean seven spirits, nor seven seals, nor seven angels, nor seven vials, nor seven plagues; but all things in fullness. So by “the barren one bearing seven” (1 Samuel 2:5) is not meant seven, but much, even to fullness.

[4] Because “seven” had such a signification, it was therefore ordained that a priest, at his initiation, should “put on the garments seven days” (Exodus 29:30); that “his hands should be filled seven days” (verses 24-35); that “the altar should be sanctified seven days” (verse 37); and that “those who were initiated into the priesthood should not go out from the tent for seven days” (Leviticus 8:33). In like manner, “when the unclean spirit goeth out of a man and returneth with seven others” (Matthew 12:43-45; Luke 11:24-26); “if a brother sin seven times in the day, and seven times turn again, he should be forgiven” (Luke 17:4); and that “the heart of Nebuchadnezzar should be changed from a man’s, and a beast’s heart be given to him, until seven times had passed over him” (Daniel 4:16, 23, 25). From this also it was that Job’s friends “sat down with him upon the earth seven days and seven nights, and spoke nothing unto him” (Job 2:13). (That “seventy” in like manner signifies what is full, see n. 6508; and also a “week,” that is, seven days, n. 2044, 3845.) From all this it can now be seen that by “the eighth day” is signified the beginning of the following state.

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