Arcana Coelestia # 4236
4236. 'And Jacob said [when he saw them], This is God's camp' means heaven. 'God's camp' means heaven, for the reason that 'an army' means truths and goods, 3448, and goods and truths are arranged by the Lord in conformity with heavenly order. Hence the arrangement of them like armies when arrayed is meant by 'an encampment', and the heavenly order itself, which is heaven, by 'a camp'. This camp or order is such that it cannot in any way be broken apart by hell, despite the constant effort from hell to break it apart. This also is why this order, which is heaven, is referred to as 'a camp', and why truths and goods, that is, angels, who are arranged in conformity with that order are called 'armies'. From all this it is now evident how 'God's camp' comes to mean heaven. It is that actual order, and so heaven itself, which was represented by the encampments of the children of Israel in the wilderness; and their actual dwelling together there according to their tribes was referred to as 'the camp'. The Tabernacle pitched in the middle and around which they encamped represented the Lord Himself. Regarding the children of Israel's encampment in this manner, see Numbers 1:1-end, and 33:2-56; and regarding their encampment around the Tabernacle according to their tribes - Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun to the east; Reuben, Simeon, and Gad to the south; Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin to the west; Dan, Asher, and Naphtali to the north; and the Levites in the middle next to the Tabernacle - Numbers 2:2 and following verses.
[2] The tribes' means all goods and truths in their entirety, see 3858, 3862, 3926, 3939, 4060. Consequently when Balaam saw Israel dwelling according to tribes and the Spirit of God came upon him, he delivered the utterance,
How good your tabernacles are, O Jacob; your dwelling-places, O Israel! They are like valleys that are planted, like gardens beside a river. Numbers 24:2-3, 5-6.
It is quite plain that this prophecy did not mean the people named Jacob and Israel but that it was the Lord's heaven which was represented. This also is why in other places in the Word their ordered settlements in the wilderness, or encampments according to tribes, are called camps, and in those places 'a camp' in the internal sense means heavenly order and 'encampment' an arrangement in conformity with that order, that is to say, with the order in which goods and truths exist in heaven - as in Leviticus 4:12; 8:17; 13:46; 14:8; 16:26, 28; 24:14, 23; Numbers 3; 4:4 and following verses; 5:2-4; Numbers 9:17-end; 10:1-10, 28; 11:31-32; 12:14-15; 31:19-24; Deuteronomy 23:9-14.
[3] The meaning of 'God's camp' as heaven may also be seen in Joel,
The earth quaked before Him, the heavens trembled. The sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars gathered back their shining; and Jehovah gave voice before His army, for His camp is exceedingly many; for that which executes His word is uncountable. Joel 2:10-11.
In Zechariah,
I will encamp by My house with an army set against anyone passing through and against anyone leaving, so that the oppressor passes over them no more. Zechariah 9:8.
In John,
Gog and Magog went up over the breadth 1 of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city; but fire came down 2 from God and consumed them. Revelation 20:9.
'Gog and Magog' stands for people whose worship is external separated from internal - worship that has become idolatrous, 1151. 'The breadth of the earth' stands for truth possessed by the Church - 'breadth', or a plain, meaning truth that constitutes doctrinal teaching, 2450, and 'earth' the Church, 556, 662, 1066, 1067, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355. 'The camp of the saints' stands for heaven or the Lord's kingdom on earth, which is the Church.
[4] Since most things in the Word also have a contrary sense, so too does the word 'camp'. In this case it means evils and falsities, and consequently hell, as in David,
Though the evil pitch camp against me, my heart will not fear. Psalms 27:3.
In the same author,
God has scattered the bones of those encamping against you; 3 you have put them to shame, for God has rejected them. Psalms 53:5.
The camp of Asshur in which the angel of Jehovah smote a hundred and eighty-five thousand, Isaiah 37:36, does not have any other meaning, nor likewise does the camp of the Egyptians, Exodus 14:19-20.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. literally, the plain
2. The Latin means went up, but the Greek means came down, which Swedenborg has in another place where he quotes this verse.
3. The Latin means me, but the Hebrew means you.
Numbers 32
1
Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place for livestock;
2
the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying,
3
"Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,
4
the land which Yahweh struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock; and your servants have livestock."
5
They said, "If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession; don't bring us over the Jordan."
6
Moses said to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, "Shall your brothers go to the war, and shall you sit here?
7
Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them?
8
Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.
9
For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which Yahweh had given them.
10
Yahweh's anger was kindled in that day, and he swore, saying,
11
'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me:
12
except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun; because they have followed Yahweh completely.'
13
Yahweh's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in the sight of Yahweh, was consumed.
14
"Behold, you have risen up in your fathers' place, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel.
15
For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people."
16
They came near to him, and said, "We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones:
17
but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
18
We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.
19
For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward."
20
Moses said to them, "If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before Yahweh to the war,
21
and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before Yahweh, until he has driven out his enemies from before him,
22
and the land is subdued before Yahweh; then afterward you shall return, and be guiltless towards Yahweh, and towards Israel; and this land shall be to you for a possession before Yahweh.
23
"But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against Yahweh; and be sure your sin will find you out.
24
Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth."
25
The children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, "Your servants will do as my lord commands.
26
Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock, shall be there in the cities of Gilead;
27
but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before Yahweh to battle, as my lord says."
28
So Moses commanded concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel.
29
Moses said to them, "If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man who is armed to battle, before Yahweh, and the land shall be subdued before you; then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:
30
but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan."
31
The children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, "As Yahweh has said to your servants, so will we do.
32
We will pass over armed before Yahweh into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance [shall remain] with us beyond the Jordan."
33
Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, according to the cities of it with [their] borders, even the cities of the surrounding land.
34
The children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,
35
and Atrothshophan, and Jazer, and Jogbehah,
36
and Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran: fortified cities, and folds for sheep.
37
The children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim,
38
and Nebo, and Baal Meon, (their names being changed), and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the cities which they built.
39
The children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were therein.
40
Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh; and he lived therein.
41
Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its towns, and called them Havvoth Jair.
42
Nobah went and took Kenath, and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.
