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利未记 21

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1 耶和华摩西:你告诉亚伦子孙作祭司祭司不可为民中的死人沾染自己,

2 除非为他骨肉之亲的父母、儿女、弟兄,

3 和未曾出嫁、作处女的姊妹,才可以沾染自己。

4 祭司既在民中为首,就不可从俗沾染自己。

5 不可使;不可剃除胡须的周围,也不可用刀划身。

6 要归,不可亵渎的名;因为耶和华的火祭,就是的食物,是他们献的,所以他们要成为

7 不可娶妓女或被污的女人为妻,也不可娶被休的妇人为妻,因为祭司是归为圣。

8 所以你要使他成圣,因为他奉献你的食物;你要以他为,因为我─使你们成圣耶和华─是的。

9 祭司的女儿若行淫辱没自己,就辱没了父亲,必用将他焚烧。

10 在弟兄中作祭司上倒了膏、又承接圣职,穿了圣衣的,不可蓬散发,也不可撕裂衣服

11 不可挨近尸,也不可为父母沾染自己。

12 不可出圣所,也不可亵渎的圣所,因为的冠冕在他头上。我是耶和华

13 他要娶处女为妻。

14 寡妇或是被休的妇人,或是被污为妓的女人,都不可娶;只可娶本民中的处女为妻。

15 不可在民中辱没他的儿女,因为我是叫他成圣耶和华

16 耶和华摩西

17 你告诉亚伦:你世世代的後裔,凡有残疾的,都不可近前来献他的食物。

18 因为凡有残疾的,无论是瞎眼的、瘸腿的、塌鼻子的、肢体有馀的、

19 的、

20 驼背的、矮矬的、眼睛有毛病的、长癣的、长疥的,或是损坏肾子的,都不可近前来。

21 祭司亚伦的後裔,凡有残疾的,都不可前来,将火祭献给耶和华。他有残疾,不可前来献的食物。

22 的食物,无论是的,至的,他都可以

23 但不可进到幔子前,也不可就前;因为他有残疾,免得亵渎我的所。我是叫他成圣耶和华

24 於是,摩西晓谕亚伦亚伦的子孙,并以色列众人。

   

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Sacred Scripture # 35

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35. 28 shows that the Old Testament prophets represented the Lord in respect to the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word, and that because of this they were addressed as “children of humanity.” It follows from this that by the various things they suffered and endured they represented the violence done to the literal meaning of the Word by Jews. Isaiah, for example, took the sackcloth off his waist and the sandals off his feet and went naked and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20:2-3). Similarly, Ezekiel the prophet took a barber’s razor to his head and his beard, burned a third of the hair in the middle of the city, struck a third with a sword, and scattered a third to the wind; also, he bound a few hairs in his hems and eventually threw a few into the midst of a fire and burned them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

Since the prophets represented the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word (as just noted), and since the head means wisdom from the Word, the hair and the beard mean the outermost form of truth. It is because of this meaning that inflicting baldness on yourself was a sign of immense grief and being discovered to be bald was an immense disgrace. This and this alone is why the prophet shaved off his hair and his beard - to represent the state of the Jewish church in regard to the Word. This and this alone is why two she-bears tore apart forty-two boys who called Elisha bald (2 Kings 2:23-25)-because as just noted the prophet represented the Word, and his baldness signified the Word without an outermost meaning.

We shall see in §49 below that the Nazirites represented the Lord’s Word in its outermost forms, which is why they were commanded to let their hair grow and not to shave any of it. In Hebrew, “Nazirite” actually means “hair.” It was commanded also that the high priest was not to shave his head (Leviticus 21:10) and that the fathers of their families as well were not to do so (Leviticus 21:5).

That is why they regarded baldness as such an immense disgrace, as we can tell from the following passages:

There will be baldness upon all heads, and every beard will be cut off. (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:37)

There will be shame upon all faces and baldness on all heads. (Ezekiel 7:18)

Every head was made bald and every shoulder hairless. (Ezekiel 29:18)

I will put sackcloth around all waists and baldness upon every head. (Amos 8:10)

Make yourself bald and cut off your hair because of your precious children; make yourself still more bald, because they have left you and gone into exile. (Micah 1:16)

Here making yourself bald and making yourself still more bald means distorting truths of the Word in its outermost forms. Once they have been distorted, as was done by Jews, the whole Word is ruined, because the outermost forms of the Word are what it rests on and what holds it up. In fact, every word in it is a base and support for the Word’s heavenly and spiritual truths.

Since a head of hair means truth in its outermost forms, in the spiritual world everyone who trivializes the Word and distorts its literal meaning looks bald; but those who respect and love it have good-looking hair. On this, see §49 below.

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