Bible

 

Numbers 4

Studie

   

1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

2 Let the sons of Kohath, from among the sons of Levi, be numbered by their families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

3 All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to do the work of the Tent of meeting.

4 And this is to be the work of the sons of Kohath in connection with the most holy things.

5 When all the people go forward, Aaron is to go in with his sons, and take down the veil of the curtain, covering the ark of witness with it;

6 And putting over it the leather cover and over that a blue cloth; and putting its rods in place.

7 And on the table of the holy bread they are to put a blue cloth, and on it all the vessels, the spoons and the basins and the cups; and the holy bread with them;

8 And over them they are to put a red cloth, covering it with a leather cover, and putting its rods in their places.

9 And they are to take a blue cloth, covering with it the light-support with its lights and its instruments and its trays and all the oil vessels which are used for it:

10 All these they are to put in a leather cover, and put it on the frame.

11 On the gold altar they are to put a blue cloth, covering it with a leather cover; and they are to put its rods in their places.

12 All the vessels which are used in the holy place they are to put in a blue cloth, covering them with a leather cover, and put them on the frame.

13 And they are to take away the burned waste from the altar, and put a purple cloth on it;

14 Placing on the cloth all its vessels, the fire-baskets, the meat-hooks, the spades, and the basins; all the vessels of the altar; they are to put a leather cover over all these, and put its rods in their places.

15 And after the holy place and all its vessels have been covered up by Aaron and his sons, when the tents of the people go forward, the sons of Kohath are to come and take it up; but the holy things may not be touched by them for fear of death.

16 And Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, is to be responsible for the oil for the light, and the sweet perfumes for burning, and the regular meal offering, and the holy oil; the House and the holy place and everything in it will be in his care.

17 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

18 Do not let the family of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites;

19 But do this to them, so that life and not death may be theirs when they come near the most holy things; let Aaron and his sons go in and give to every one his work and that which he is to take up;

20 But they themselves are not to go in to see the holy place, even for a minute, for fear of death.

21 And the Lord said to Moses,

22 Let the sons of Gershon be numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

23 All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to do the work of the Tent of meeting.

24 This is to be the work of the Gershonites, the things they are to do and take up.

25 They are to take up the curtains of the House, and the Tent of meeting with its cover and the leather cover over it, and the hangings for the door of the Tent of meeting;

26 And the hangings for the open space round the House and the altar, and the curtain for its doorway, with the cords and all the things used for them; whatever is necessary for these, they are to do.

27 From the mouth of Aaron and his sons the Gershonites will have word about all the things they are to do and take up; you are to give them their orders.

28 This is the work of the family of the Gershonites in the Tent of meeting, and they will be under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

29 The sons of Merari are to be numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

30 Every one from thirty to fifty years old who is able to do the work of the Tent of meeting.

31 And this is their part in the work of the Tent of meeting: the transport of the boards and the rods of the Tent, with the pillars and their bases;

32 And the pillars of the open space outside it, with their bases and their nails and cords and all the instruments used, and everything which has to be done there; all the instruments for which they are responsible are to be numbered by name.

33 This is the work which the sons of Merari are to do in connection with the Tent of meeting, under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

34 So Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the people took in hand the numbering of the sons of the Kohathites, by families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

35 Numbering all those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do the work in the Tent of meeting;

36 And the number of all these was two thousand, seven hundred and fifty.

37 This is the number of those of the Kohathites who did the work in the Tent of meeting, as they were numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord.

38 And those of the sons of Gershon who were numbered by families,

39 All those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do the work in the Tent of meeting,

40 Who were numbered by families in the order of their fathers' houses, were two thousand, six hundred and thirty.

41 This is the number of the sons of Gershon who did the work in the Tent of meeting, as they were numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord.

42 And those of the sons of Merari who were numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses,

43 All those from thirty to fifty years old who did the work in the Tent of meeting,

44 Who were numbered by families, were three thousand, two hundred.

45 This is the number of the sons of Merari, numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord.

46 And all the Levites who were numbered by Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the people, by families, in the order of their fathers' houses,

47 Those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do the work of the Tent of meeting and of its transport,

48 Came to eight thousand, five hundred and eighty.

49 At the order of the Lord they were numbered by Moses, every one in relation to his work and to his part in the transport; so they were numbered by Moses at the order of the Lord.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Apocalypse Revealed # 450

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 962  
  

450. Having breastplates that were fiery, hyacinthine and sulfurous. This symbolizes their fanciful and illusory arguments springing from a hellish love and their own intelligence, and from the attendant lusts.

Breastplates symbolize the arguments people use to do battle for faith alone (no. 436). Fire symbolizes heavenly love, and in an opposite sense, hellish love (nos. 452, 468, 494). Hyacinthine symbolizes intelligence springing from a spiritual love, and in an opposite sense, intelligence springing from a hellish love, which is one's own inherent intelligence, as explained below. And sulfur symbolizes lust arising from that hellish love and expressed through their own inherent intelligence (no. 452). It follows from this that breastplates fiery, hyacinthine and sulfurous have the symbolic meaning stated.

[2] The reason their arguments in defense of faith alone are thus described is that all those people who believe themselves to be justified by faith alone, which is to say, absolved from sins, never give any thought to repentance, and an impenitent person engages in nothing but sins. All sins, moreover, spring from and so draw their character from a hellish love, from one's own inherent intelligence, and from the attendant lusts; and people caught up in them not only act on them, but they also speak, indeed think and will, in conformity with them, and accordingly reason and argue in conformity with them. These are who they are because they are their life; but who they are is a devil, and their life a hellish one.

In actual fact, however, people who live a moral life solely for the sake of themselves and the world do not know this. The reason is that although they inwardly are such as described, in outward appearances they are like people who live a Christian life. But they should know that when anyone of them dies, he comes into his interior life, because it is the life of his spirit, and he is his internal self. Moreover, his inner character then accommodates his outward one to itself, and they become alike. Consequently the moral virtues of these people's life in the world then become like the scales of fish that are scraped away.

The case is altogether different with people who regard the precepts of a moral life as Divine, and who make them at the same time civil precepts because they are expressive of a love for the neighbor.

[3] Hyacinthine symbolizes intelligence springing from the affection of a spiritual love because this color takes its hue from the redness of fire and the whiteness of light; and fire symbolizes love, and light intelligence. This intelligence is symbolically meant by the hyacinthine blue in the coverings and veils of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:31, 36; 27:16), and in Aaron's ephod (Exodus 28:6, 15); by the cloth of hyacinthine blue placed on the ark, table, lampstand, and altar [in the tabernacle] when the people prepared to journey (Numbers 4:6-7, 9, 11-12); and by the blue stuff in Ezekiel 27:7, 24.

On other hand, intelligence springing from the affection of a hellish love is symbolically meant by hyacinthine in Ezekiel 23:

Oholah (or Samaria) played the harlot... and she doted on her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians, clothed in hyacinthine blue..., horsemen riding on horses. (Ezekiel 23:4-6)

Thus is described a church which by the reasonings of its own inherent intelligence had falsified the Word's truths.

And in Jeremiah:

They are altogether foolish and grow stupid; the teaching of vanities is wood. Beaten silver... is brought from Tarshish..., the work of the craftsman and the hands of the metalsmith; hyacinthine blue and purple are their clothing, all the work of skillful men. (Jeremiah 10:8-9)

The work of the craftsman and the hands of the metalsmith, and all the work of skillful men, symbolize here that they spring from their own inherent intelligence.

  
/ 962  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.