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Deuteronomy 28

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1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to take heed to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that Jehovah thy God will set thee supreme above all nations of the earth;

2 and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God.

3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and Blessed shalt thou be in the field.

4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the offspring of thy kine, and the increase of thy sheep.

5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough.

6 Blessed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and Blessed shalt thou be in thy going out.

7 Jehovah will give up, smitten before thee, thine enemies that rise up against thee; they shall come out against thee one way, and by seven ways shall they flee before thee.

8 Jehovah will command blessing on thee in thy granaries, and in all the business of thy hand; and he will bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.

9 Jehovah will establish thee unto himself a holy people as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou keep the commandments of Jehovah thy God, and walk in his ways.

10 And all peoples of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of Jehovah, and they shall be afraid of thee.

11 And Jehovah will give thee abundance of good, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land that Jehovah swore unto thy fathers to give thee.

12 Jehovah will open to thee his good treasure, the heavens, to give rain unto thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thy hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow.

13 And Jehovah will make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah thy God, which I command thee this day, to keep and to do them,

14 and if thou turn not aside from any of the words that I command thee this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15 But it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to take heed to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee.

16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the offspring of thy kine, and the increase of thy sheep.

19 Cursed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and cursed shalt thou be in thy going out.

20 Jehovah will send upon thee cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all the business of thy hand which thou doest, until thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

21 Jehovah will make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

22 Jehovah will smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with burning ague, and with drought, and with blight, and with mildew, and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

23 And thy heavens which are over thy head shall be brass, and the earth which is under thee, iron.

24 Jehovah will give as the rain of thy land powder and dust; from the heavens shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed.

25 Jehovah will give thee up smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out against them one way, and by seven ways shalt thou flee before them; and thou shalt be driven hither and thither into all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all the fowl of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no man to scare them away.

27 Jehovah will smite thee with the ulcers of Egypt, and with boils, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

28 Jehovah will smite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;

29 and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways; and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled continually, and there shall be none to save.

30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not eat of it.

31 Thine ox shall be slaughtered before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof; thine ass shall be snatched away from before thy face, and shall not return to thee; thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to recover them.

32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and languish for them all the day long; and there shall be no power in thy hand [to help it].

33 The fruit of thy ground and all thy labour, shall a people that thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed continually.

34 And thou shalt be mad through the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

35 Jehovah will smite thee in the knees and in the legs with evil ulcers, whereof thou canst not be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

36 Jehovah will bring thee, and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation that neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.

37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples whither Jehovah shall lead thee.

38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather little in; for the locust shall devour it.

39 Thou shalt plant and till vineyards, but shalt drink no wine, nor gather [the fruit]; for the worms shall eat it.

40 Olive-trees shalt thou have throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with oil; for thine Olive-tree shall cast its fruit.

41 Sons and daughters shalt thou beget, but thou shalt not have them [to be with thee]; for they shall go into captivity.

42 All thy trees and the fruit of thy ground shall the locust possess.

43 The sojourner that is in thy midst shall rise above thee higher and higher, and thou shalt sink down lower and lower.

44 He shall lend to thee, but thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

45 And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, until thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee.

46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

47 Because thou servedst not Jehovah thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything,

48 thou shalt serve thine enemies whom Jehovah will send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of everything; and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

49 Jehovah will bring a nation against thee from afar, from the end of the earth, like as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou understandest not;

50 a nation of fierce countenance, which regardeth not the person of the old, nor is kind to the young;

51 and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, until thou be destroyed; for he shall not leave thee corn, new wine, or oil, offspring of thy kine, or increase of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and strong walls wherein thou trustedst come down, throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates in all thy land, which Jehovah thy God hath given thee.

53 And in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee, thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters whom Jehovah thy God hath given thee.

54 The eye of the man in thy midst that is tender and very luxurious shall be evil towards his brother, and the wife of his bosom, and the residue of his children which he hath left;

55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children that he eateth, because he hath nothing left him in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.

56 The eye of the tender and luxurious woman in thy midst who would not attempt to set the sole of her foot upon the ground from luxuriousness and from tenderness, shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and her son, and her daughter,

57 because of her afterbirth which hath come out between her feet, and her children whom she shall bear; for she shall secretly eat them for want of everything in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.

58 If thou wilt not take heed to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, to fear this glorious and fearful name, JEHOVAH THY GOD;

59 then Jehovah will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, great and persistent plagues and evil and persistent sicknesses;

60 and he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou art afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee.

61 Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will Jehovah bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

62 And ye shall be left a small company, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah thy God.

63 And it shall come to pass, that as Jehovah rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so Jehovah will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whereunto thou goest to possess it.

64 And Jehovah will scatter thee among all peoples, from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; and thou shalt there serve other gods, whom thou hast not known, neither thou nor thy fathers, wood and stone.

65 And among these nations shalt thou have no rest, neither shall the sole of thy foot have a resting-place, and Jehovah shall give thee there a trembling heart, languishing of the eyes, and pining of the soul.

66 And thy life shall hang in suspense before thee; and thou shalt be in terror day and night and shalt be afraid of thy life.

67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would that it were even! and in the evening thou shalt say, Would that it were morning! through the fright of thy heart wherewith thou shalt be in terror, and through the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

68 And Jehovah will bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I said unto thee, Thou shalt see it again no more; and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and there shall be no man to buy [you].

   

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In Leviticus 6:16, 'Aaron and his sons eating the remainder' signifies a person's reciprocation and making something one's own. This represents conjunction by means of love and charity. This is why they were commanded to eat it 'in a holy place.'

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 2177)

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Arcana Coelestia # 2177

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2177. That 'meal of fine flour' means the spiritual and celestial ingredients [of the rational] which were present at that time with the Lord, and 'cakes' the same when both had been joined together, is quite clear from the sacrifices of the representative Church and from the minchah presented at the same time, which consisted of fine flour mixed with oil and made into cakes. Representative worship consisted primarily in burnt offerings and sacrifices. What these represented has been stated above where 'bread' was the subject, in 2165, namely the celestial things of the Lord's kingdom in heaven and of the Lord's kingdom on earth, which is the Church, and also the things of the Lord's kingdom or Church as it exists with every individual, and in general everything that is in essence love and charity, since these are celestial entities. In those times all the sacrifices were called 'bread'. Along with those sacrifices a minchah was included - which, as has been stated, consisted of fine flour mixed with oil to which also incense was added - and also a wine-offering.

[2] What these latter represented becomes clear too, namely things similar to those represented by sacrifices but of a lower order, thus the things which belong to the spiritual Church, and also those which belong to the external Church. It may become clear to anyone that such things would never have been prescribed unless they had represented Divine things, and also that each one represented some specific thing. For unless they had represented Divine things they would have been no different from similar things found among gentiles, among whom also there were sacrifices, minchahs, libations, and incense, as well as perpetual fires and many other things which had come down to them from the Ancient Church, especially from the Hebrew Church. But because they were separated from the internal, that is, the Divine things represented by them, those external forms of worship were nothing but idolatrous, as they also came to be among the Jews, who likewise sank into all kinds of idolatry. From this it may become clear to anyone that heavenly arcana were present within every form of ritual, especially so within the sacrifices and every detail of them.

[3] As regards the minchah, the nature of it and how it was to be made into cakes is described in a whole chapter in Moses - in Leviticus 2; also Numbers 15, and elsewhere. The law regarding the minchah is described in Leviticus in the following words,

Fire shall be kept burning unceasingly on the altar; it shall not be put out. And this is the law of the minchah: Aaron's sons shall bring it before Jehovah to the front of the altar, and he shall take up from it a fistful of fine flour of the minchah and of the oil of it and all the frankincense which is on the minchah, and he shall burn it on the altar; it is an odour of rest for a memorial to Jehovah. And the rest of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. Unleavened bread shall be eaten in a holy place. In the court of the tent of meeting shall they eat it. It shall not be cooked leavened; I have given it as their portion from My fire-offerings; it is most holy. Leviticus 6:13-17.

[4] The fire which was to be kept burning unceasingly on the altar represented the Lord's love, that is, His mercy, which is constant and eternal. 'Fire' in the Word means love, see 934, and therefore 'the fire-offerings made for an odour of rest' means the good pleasure which the Lord takes in those things that belong to love and charity. That 'odour' means good pleasure, that is, that which is pleasing, see 925, 1519. Their 'taking a fistful' represented their being required to love with all their soul or strength, for 'the hand' or 'the palm' of the hand means power, as shown in 878, from which 'the fist' also means the same. 'The fine flour together with the oil and the frankincense' represented all things of charity - 'fine flour' the spiritual ingredient of it, 'oil' the celestial, and 'frankincense' that which was in this manner pleasing. That 'fine flour' represents the spiritual ingredient is evident from what has just been stated and from what is stated below. That 'oil' represents the celestial ingredient, or the good or charity, see 886, and that 'frankincense' on account of its odour represents that which is pleasing and acceptable, 925.

[5] Its being 'unleavened bread' or not fermented means that it was to be genuine, thus something offered from genuineness of heart and having no uncleanness. The eating of the rest by Aaron and his sons represented man's reciprocation and his making it his own, and thus represented conjunction by means of love and charity; and it is for this reason that they were commanded to eat it 'in a holy place'. Hence it is called something most holy. These were the things which were represented by the minchah. It was also the way in which the representatives themselves were perceived in heaven; and when the member of the Church understood them in the same way his ideas were like the perception which the angels possess, so that he was in the Lord's kingdom in heaven even though he was on earth.

[6] For more about the minchah - what it was to consist of in any particular kind of sacrifice; the way in which it was to be baked into cakes; what kind was to be offered by those who were being cleansed, and also what kinds on other occasions (all of which would take too long to introduce and explain here) - see what is said about it in Exodus 29:39-41; Leviticus 5:11-13; 6:16-17, 19-21; 10:12-13; 23:10-13, 6, 17; Numbers 5:15 and following verses; 6:15-17, 19-20; 7: in various places; 28:5, 8, 9, 12-13, 20-21, 28-29; 29:3-4, 9-10, 14-15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 37

[7] 'Fine flour made into cakes' had in general the same representation as bread, namely the celestial ingredient of love, while 'meals represented its spiritual ingredient, as becomes clear in the places indicated above. The loaves which were called 'the bread of the Presence' or 'the shewbread' consisted of fine flour, which was made into cakes and placed on the table to provide an unceasing representation of the Lord's love, that is, of His mercy, towards the whole human race, and man's reciprocation. These loaves are spoken of in Moses as follows,

You shall take fine pour and bake it into twelve cakes; two-tenths [of an ephah] shall there be in one cake And you shall place them in two rows, six in a row, on the clean table before Jehovah. And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, and it shall be bread serving as a memorial, a fire-offering to Jehovah. Every sabbath day [Aaron] shall set it out in order before Jehovah continually; it is from the children of Israel as an eternal covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, for it is to him the most holy of fire-offerings to Jehovah, by an eternal statute. Leviticus 24:5-9.

Every item and smallest detail mentioned here represented the holiness of love and charity, 'fine flour' having the same representation as meal of fine flour, namely that which is celestial and that which is spiritual that goes with it, and 'cake' the two when joined together.

[8] From this it is clear what the holiness of the Word is to those who possess heavenly ideas, and indeed what holiness was present within this particular representative observance, on account of which it is called 'most holy'. It is also clear how devoid of holiness the Word is to those who imagine that it does not have anything heavenly within it and who keep solely to externals. Exemplifying the latter are those who in the present verse under consideration perceive 'the meal' to be merely meal, 'the fine flour' merely fine flour, and 'the cake' merely a cake, and who imagine that these things have been stated without each one that is mentioned embodying something of the Divine within it. Their attitude is similar to that of those who imagine that the bread and wine of the Holy Supper are no more than a certain religious observance that does not have anything holy within it. Yet in fact it possesses such holiness that the minds of men are linked by means of it to the minds of those in heaven, when from an internal affection they think that the bread and wine mean the Lord's love and man's reciprocation, and by virtue of that interior thought and affection they abide in holiness.

[9] Much the same was implied by the requirement that when the children of Israel entered the land they were to present as a heave-offering to Jehovah a cake made from the first of their dough, Numbers 15:20. The fact that such things are meant is also evident in the Prophets, from' among whom for the moment let this one place in Ezekiel be introduced here,

You were adorned with gold and silver, and your raiment was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became exceedingly beautiful, and attained to a kingdom. Ezekiel 16:13.

This refers to Jerusalem, by which is meant the Church, which Church in its earliest days bore an appearance such as this, that is to say, the Ancient Church, which is described by means of raiment and many other adornments. Its affections for truth and good are also described by 'the fine flour, honey, and oil'. It may become clear to anyone that all these details mean in the internal sense something altogether different from what they do in the sense of the letter. And the same applies to Abraham's saying to Sarah, 'Take quickly three measures of meal of fine flour, knead it, and make cakes'. That 'three' means things that are holy has been shown already in 720, 901.

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