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Leviticus 14

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1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 This is the law of the leper on the day when he is made clean: he is to be taken to the priest;

3 And the priest is to go outside the tent-circle; and if, after looking, the priest sees that the mark of the disease has gone from him,

4 Then the priest is to give orders to take, for him who is to be made clean, two living clean birds and some cedar wood and red thread and hyssop.

5 And the priest will give orders for one of the birds to be put to death in a vessel made of earth, over flowing water.

6 And he will take the living bird and the wood and the red thread and the hyssop and put them in the blood of the bird which was put to death over flowing water.

7 And shaking it seven times over the man who is to be made clean, he will say that he is clean and will let the living bird go free into the open country.

8 And he who is to be made clean will have his clothing washed and his hair cut and have a bath, and he will be clean. And after that he will come back to the tent-circle; but he is to keep outside his tent for seven days.

9 And on the seventh day he is to have all the hair cut off his head and his chin and over his eyes--all his hair is to be cut off--and he will have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and he will be clean.

10 And on the eighth day let him take two male lambs, without any marks on them, and one female lamb of the first year, without a mark, and three tenth parts of an ephah of the best meal, mixed with oil, and one log of oil.

11 And the priest who is making him clean will put the man who is being made clean, together with these things, before the door of the Tent of meeting.

12 And the priest is to take one of the male lambs and give it as an offering for wrongdoing, and the log of oil, waving them for a wave offering before the Lord;

13 And he is to put the male lamb to death in the place where they put to death the sin-offering and the burned offering, in the holy place; for as the sin-offering is the property of the priest, so is the offering for wrongdoing: it is most holy.

14 And let the priest take some of the blood of the offering for wrongdoing and put it on the point of the right ear of him who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot;

15 And take some of the oil and put it in the hollow of his left hand;

16 And let the priest put his right finger in the oil which is in his left hand, shaking it out with his finger seven times before the Lord;

17 And of the rest of the oil which is in his hand, the priest will put some on the point of the right ear of the man who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot, over the blood of the offering for wrongdoing;

18 And the rest of the oil in the priest's hand he will put on the head of him who is to be made clean; and so the priest will make him free from sin before the Lord.

19 And the priest will give the sin-offering, and take away the sin of him who is to be made clean from his unclean condition; and after that he will put the burned offering to death.

20 And the priest is to have the burned offering and the meal offering burned on the altar; and the priest will take away his sin and he will be clean.

21 And if he is poor and not able to get so much, then he may take one male lamb as an offering for wrongdoing, to be waved to take away his sin, and one tenth part of an ephah of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering, and a log of oil;

22 And two doves or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and one will be for a sin-offering and the other for a burned offering.

23 And on the eighth day he will take them to the priest, to the door of the Tent of meeting before the Lord, so that he may be made clean.

24 And the priest will take the lamb of the offering for wrongdoing and the oil, waving them for a wave offering before the Lord;

25 And he will put to death the lamb of the offering for wrongdoing and the priest will take some of the blood of the offering for wrongdoing and put it on the point of the right ear of him who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot;

26 And the priest will put out some of the oil in the hollow of his left hand,

27 Shaking out drops of oil with his right finger before the Lord seven times:

28 And the priest will put some of the oil which is in his hand on the point of the ear of the man who is to be made clean and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot, on the place where the blood of the offering for wrongdoing was put;

29 And the rest of the oil which is in the priest's hand he will put on the head of him who is to be made clean, to take away his sin before the Lord.

30 And he will make an offering of one of the doves or the young pigeons, such as he is able to get;

31 And of these, he will give one for a sin-offering and one for a burned offering, with the meal offering; and the priest will take away the sin of him who is to be made clean before the Lord.

32 This is the law for the man who has the disease of the leper on him, and who is not able to get that which is necessary for making himself clean.

33 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

34 When you have come into the land of Canaan which I will give you for your heritage, if I put the leper's disease on a house in the land of your heritage,

35 Then let the owner of the house come and say to the priest, It seems to me that there is a sort of leper's disease in the house.

36 And the priest will give orders for everything to be taken out of the house, before he goes in to see the disease, so that the things in the house may not become unclean; and then the priest is to go in to see the house;

37 And if he sees that the walls of the house are marked with hollows of green and red, and if it seems to go deeper than the face of the wall;

38 Then the priest will go out of the door of the house, and keep the house shut up for seven days:

39 And the priest is to come again on the seventh day and have a look and see if the marks on the walls of the house are increased in size;

40 Then the priest will give orders to them to take out the stones in which the disease is seen, and put them out into an unclean place outside the town:

41 And he will have the house rubbed all over inside, and the paste which is rubbed off will be put out into an unclean place outside the town:

42 And they will take other stones and put them in place of those stones, and he will take other paste and put it on the walls of the house.

43 And if the disease comes out again in the house after he has taken out the stones and after the walls have been rubbed and the new paste put on,

44 Then the priest will come and see it; and if the disease in the house is increased in size, it is the leper's disease working out in the house: it is unclean.

45 And the house will have to be pulled down, the stones of it and the wood and the paste; and everything is to be taken out to an unclean place outside the town.

46 And, in addition, anyone who goes into the house at any time, while it is shut up, will be unclean till evening.

47 And anyone who has been sleeping in the house will have to have his clothing washed; and anyone who takes food in that house will have to have his clothing washed.

48 And if the priest comes in, and sees that the disease is not increased after the new paste has been put on the house, then the priest will say that the house is clean, because the disease is gone.

49 And in order to make the house clean, let him take two birds and cedar-wood and red thread and hyssop;

50 And put one of the birds to death in a vessel of earth over flowing water;

51 And take the cedar-wood and the hyssop and the red thread and the living bird and put them in the blood of the dead bird and in the flowing water, shaking it over the house seven times.

52 And he will make the house clean with the blood of the bird and the flowing water and with the living bird and with the cedar-wood and the hyssop and the red thread.

53 But he will let the living bird go out of the town into the open country; so he will take away sin from the house and it will be clean.

54 This is the law for all signs of the leper's disease and for skin diseases;

55 And for signs of disease in clothing, or in a house;

56 And for a growth or a bad place or a bright mark on the skin;

57 To make clear when it is unclean and when it is clean: this is the law about the disease of the leper.

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 194

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194. And thou shalt not know in what hour I will come upon thee, signifies ignorance of that time and of the state then. This is evident from the signification of "hour," as being the time when man is to die, and also his state then; and from the signification of "not knowing" it, as being ignorance. It is said "In what hour I will come upon thee," namely, "as a thief," and this means, in the sense of the letter, that the Lord will so come; but in the spiritual sense, it means that evils and falsities will steal away the knowledges that they have from the Word. For in the sense of the letter of the Word doing evil is attributed to Jehovah, or to the Lord, but in the spiritual sense the meaning is that He does evil to no one, but that man does evil to himself (See Arcana Coelestia 2447, 5798, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7877, 7926, 8227, 8228, 8284, 8483, 8632, 9010, 9128, 9306, 10431).

[2] "Hour," moreover signifies state, because all times in the Word, as a day, a week, a month, a year, an age, signify states of life, so likewise "an hour" (the reason of this may be seen in the work onHeaven and Hell 162-169, where Time in Heaven is treated of). But as "hour" means both time and state, where "hour" occurs in the Word it can scarcely be known that it signifies anything except time. As in Matthew:

A householder hired laborers into his vineyard, who labored from the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh, and received equal reward (Matthew 20:1-16).

These "hours" mean, in the world, times, but in heaven, states of life, since in heaven there are no hours, because times there are not measurable and divided into days and these into hours, as in the world; consequently instead of these times the angels perceive the states of life of those who die, as old men, men, youths, or children, and who have equally acquired for themselves spiritual life; "laboring in the vineyard" is acquiring for oneself spiritual life by the knowledges of truth and good from the Word applied to the uses of life; the "third," the "sixth," and the "ninth hours" signify a like state of life, for all numbers in the Word are significative, and these numbers have a similar signification. (That "vineyard" in the Word signifies the spiritual church, and with man spiritual life, see Arcana Coelestia 9139, 3220. That "three" signifies a full state, or what is complete even to the end, n. 2788, 4495, 7715, 8347, 9825; likewise "six" and "nine." But "eleven" signifies a state not yet full, and yet a receptive state such as there is with well-disposed children and infants. The "twelfth hour," to which all labored, signifies truths and goods in their fullness, n. 577, 2089, 2129, 2130, 3272, 3858, 3913. That all numbers in the Word are significative, n. 4495, 4670, 5265, 6175, 9488, 9659, 10217, 10253; and that composite numbers have a signification like that of the simple numbers from which they arise by multiplication, thus "three," "six," and "nine," have a similar signification, n. 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973.)

[3] Since "twelve" signifies truths and goods in their fullness, thus man's state of light or intelligence from these, the Lord says:

Are there not twelve hours of the day? If a man walk in the day he stumbleth not (John 11:9).

Elsewhere, also, "hours" signify states of life, as in Revelation:

Those four angels were loosed, which were prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men (Revelation 9:15).

The times here mentioned mean the states of evil with man, as will be seen in the explanation of these words hereafter. From this it is now evident that "Thou shalt not know in what hour I will come upon thee," means not only that one is ignorant of the time of death but also of the state of life at that time which will continue to eternity; for such as the state of man's past life is, even to the end, such he remains to eternity.

[4] Like things are said by the Lord here and there in the Evangelists. In Matthew:

Ye know not in what hour your Lord will come; be ye ready; for in an hour that ye think not, the Son of man cometh (Matthew 24:42, 44).

The lord of the servant shall come in the day when he expecteth not, and in an hour that he knoweth not (Matthew 24:50).

Be wakeful, therefore, for ye know not the day, neither the hour, wherein the Son of man shall come (Matthew 25:13).

It should be known that man remains to eternity such as his whole life is, even to the end, and by no means such as he is at the hour of death: repentance at that time with the evil is of no avail, but with the good it strengthens.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 9139

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9139. 'When a man devastates a field or a vineyard' means a stripping away of the Church's goodness and truth by evil desires. This is clear from the meaning of 'devastating' as a stripping away by evil desires, dealt with below in 9141; from the meaning of 'a field' as the Church in respect of good, dealt with in 2971, 3766, 4982, 7502, thus the Church's good; and from the meaning of 'a vineyard' as the Church in respect of truth, thus the Church's truth. The reason why 'a field' is the Church in respect of good is that the products of a field, such as wheat and barley, mean forms of good in the Church, internal and external ones, 3941, 7602, 7605; and the reason why 'a vineyard' is the Church in respect of truth is that 'wine', which is the product of a vineyard, means the truth of good, 1071, 6377.

[2] The origin of these meanings of 'a field' and 'a vineyard' lies in representatives in the spiritual world. For fields full of wheat and barley appear before the eyes of spirits when angels in a higher heaven are talking about an assembly of people governed by good; and vineyards full of grapes appear, together with winepresses in them, when angels are talking about an assembly of people governed by the truth of good. Those representatives are not due to the existence of such fields and vineyards on earth; rather, they are due to correspondences, in that wheat and barley, or bread made from them, nourish the body just as the good of love and charity nourishes the soul, and in that wine serving as drink nourishes the body just as the truth and good of faith nourish the soul. This is the reason why in the Word the good of love and the truth of faith are called food and drink; indeed in this sense they are heavenly food and drink, 56-58, 680, 681, 1973, 1974, 4459, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5576, 5579, 5915, 8562.

[3] The fact that 'a vineyard' means the Church in respect of the good and truth of faith, which is called a spiritual Church, is clear from places in the Word in which a vineyard is mentioned, as in Jeremiah,

Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard, they have trampled down My field; they have rendered the field of [My] delight into a lonely wilderness. They have made it (the vineyard) into a solitary place. Jeremiah 12:10-11.

Here 'vineyard' and 'field' plainly stand for the Church; and since the Church is the Church by virtue of the truth and good of faith and charity, it is evident that in these verses 'vineyard' is the Church in respect of truth and 'the field' the Church in respect of good. In Isaiah,

Jehovah enters into judgement with the elders of His people and with its princes. You set alight the vineyard. Isaiah 3:14.

Here also 'vineyard' plainly stands for the Church in respect of the good and truth of faith; for 'the elders' with whom Jehovah will enter into judgement are the Church's forms of good, 6524, 6525, and 'the princes' are its truths, 5044.

[4] In the same prophet,

I will sing to my beloved a song of my friend regarding His vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard in a horn of a son of oil, 1 which he surrounded [with an enclosure], and planted with the choicest vine. Isaiah 5:1-2ff.

This refers to the Lord, who is the 'beloved' and 'friend'. 'The vineyard' is His spiritual Church, 'the choicest vine' is that Church's good of faith, and 'a horn of a son of oil' is that Church's good of faith growing out of the good of love. The person who knows nothing whatever about the internal sense of the Word cannot possibly know what 'a vineyard in a horn of a son of oil' means. Nevertheless this expression has a meaning lying hidden within it such as no words can express. They contain a full description of the Lord's spiritual kingdom linked to His celestial kingdom, that is, of the second heaven to the third, consequently a full description of the good of faith in the Lord, which is the spiritual kingdom's, linked to the good of love to the Lord, which is the celestial kingdom's. 'The vineyard' is the spiritual kingdom; 'in a horn' is in power, thus in that kingdom, 'a son of oil' being the external level of the good of love in the celestial kingdom. The celestial kingdom, which is the Lord's inmost heaven, is called the olive or an olive-grove, for 'oil' means the good of celestial love, 886, 4582, 4638. It should be recognized that the Lord's kingdom on earth is the Church. As regards the existence of two kingdoms, the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom, and the fact that the spiritual kingdom constitutes the second heaven and the celestial kingdom the third, see 3887, 4138, 4279, 4286; and with regard to their being linked together, 6435.

[5] In the same prophet,

On that day, a vineyard of unmixed wine; 2 respond to it. I Jehovah am guarding it; every moment I will water it. Isaiah 27:2-3.

'A vineyard of unmixed wine' stands for the spiritual Church. In Amos,

In all vineyards there will be wailing; I will pass through you. Woe to you desiring the day of Jehovah! What will the day of Jehovah be for you? It will be one of darkness, and not of light. Amos 5:17-18.

This refers to the final period of the Church, when the good and truth of faith do not exist any longer, that final period being meant by 'the day of Jehovah, which will be one of darkness, and not of light'. This is why it says, 'In all vineyards there will be wailing'. In John, in Revelation,

The angel sent his sickle into the earth and harvested the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. Revelation 14:18, 19.

'Harvesting the vine of the earth' means devouring the Church's truth and good, 'the earth' being the Church. From all this one may now see why it is that the Lord likened the kingdom of heaven so many times to a vineyard, as in Matthew 20:1ff; 21:28-29, 33-41; Mark 12:1-13; and why it is that the Lord called Himself 'the vine' in John,

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; apart from Me you cannot do anything. John 15:1ff.

'The vine' is faith in the Lord, and for that reason is the Lord in respect of faith. For the Lord is faith because faith originates in Him; no faith is faith except that which originates in Him. So it is also that 'the vine' means faith that is faith in Him.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. i.e. on a very fertile hill

2. i.e. a vineyard of grapes that produce strong wine. Some English versions follow a textual variation meaning a delightful vineyard.

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