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Exodus 20

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1 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 I am Jehovah thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make thyself any graven image, or any form of what is in the heavens above, or what is in the earth beneath, or what is in the waters under the earth:

5 thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous ùGod, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth [generation] of them that hate me,

6 and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

7 Thou shalt not idly utter the name of Jehovah thy God; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that idly uttereth his name.

8 Remember the sabbath day to hallow it.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;

10 but the seventh day is the sabbath of Jehovah thy God: thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy bondman, nor thy handmaid, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

11 For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12 Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be prolonged in the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee.

13 Thou shalt not kill.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

17 Thou shalt not desire thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not desire thy neighbour's wife, nor his bondman, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's.

18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw [it], they trembled, and stood afar off,

19 and said to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God Speak with us, lest we die.

20 And Moses said to the people, Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you, that ye sin not.

21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near to the obscurity where God was.

22 And Jehovah said to Moses, Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: Ye have seen that I have spoken with you from the heavens.

23 Ye shall not make beside me gods of silver, and ye shall not make to you gods of gold.

24 An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me, and shalt sacrifice on it thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen: in all places where I shall make my name to be remembered, I will come unto thee, and bless thee.

25 And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy sharp tool upon it, thou hast profaned it.

26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 8946

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8946. 'In order that your nakedness may not be revealed on it' means the mental picture of those things, which in that event is full of falsities, will then be disclosed. This is clear from the meaning of 'nakedness' as being made destitute of truths, dealt with in 5433, thus a mental picture full of falsities; and from the meaning of 'being revealed' as being disclosed. The implications of all this have been explained immediately above in 8945. Those implications are that the character of any man, spirit, or angel's life becomes apparent - both the life of his thought in regard to truths, and the life of his will in regard to forms of good - if he is raised to a more internal level in heaven. For the more internal the level in the heavens, the purer the good is and the purer the truth. In order therefore that falsities belonging to thought and evils belonging to the will may not be seen but remain hidden, people are held back on lower levels, where they are in dimmer light relatively. From all this also one may see what the words 'no one can see Jehovah and live' were used to mean. For Jehovah is pure love, and from Him radiates pure light; to be seen in these is to be destroyed. Therefore also the angels themselves in heaven are protected by a cloud, 6849; and therefore all in hell are veiled by thick mists, 3340, 8137, 8138, 8814, 8819, since mists are falsities.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 1296

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1296. That 'come, let us make bricks' means the falsities which they fashioned for themselves is clear from the meaning of 'brick'. 'Stone' in the Word means truth, and therefore 'brick', being man-made, means falsity, for brick is artificial stone. That 'brick' has this meaning becomes clear also from the following places: In Isaiah,

I have spread out My hands all the day to a rebellious people. walking in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts, sacrificing in gardens and burning incense upon bricks. Isaiah 65:2-3.

'Burning incense upon bricks' stands for worship based on fabrications and falsities; and this is why these people are referred to as 'walking after their own thoughts'. In the same prophet,

On account of the pace and arrogance of heart of Ephraim, and of the inhabitants of Samaria, saying, The bricks have fallen but we will build from hewn stone. Isaiah 9:9-10.

'Ephraim' stands for one who, having become intelligent, has then lapsed into wrong, who calls or makes falsities, or 'bricks', his truths. 'Hewn stone' stands for what is a fabrication. In Nahum,

Draw yourself water for the siege, strengthen your fortifications; go into the mud and tread the clay; renew the brick-kiln. There the fire will devour you. and the sword cut you off. Nahum 3:14-15.

Here 'treading the clay' stands for falsities, 'renewing the brick-kiln' for worship based on them. 'Fire' is the punishment of evil desires, 'sword' the punishment of falsities. In Ezekiel,

Take a brick and lay it before you, and on it carve the city of Jerusalem. Ezekiel 4:1.

This text contains the command to besiege it, a prophecy implying that worship was falsified. The fact that 'brick' means falsity becomes clearer still from the meaning of 'stone' as truth, to be dealt with in what follows shortly.

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