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Exodus 29

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1 And this is the thing which thou shalt do to them to hallow them, that they may serve me as priests: take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish,

2 and unleavened bread, and unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil -- of wheaten flour shalt thou make them.

3 And thou shalt put them into one basket, and present them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams.

4 And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring near the entrance of the tent of meeting, and shalt bathe them with water.

5 And thou shalt take the garments, and clothe Aaron with the vest, and the cloak of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and shalt gird him with the girdle of the ephod.

6 And thou shalt put the turban upon his head, and fasten the holy diadem to the turban,

7 and shalt take the anointing oil, and pour [it] on his head, and anoint him.

8 And thou shalt bring his sons near, and clothe them with the vests.

9 And thou shalt gird them with the girdle -- Aaron and his sons, and bind the high caps on them; and the priesthood shall be theirs for an everlasting statute; and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons.

10 And thou shalt present the bullock before the tent of meeting; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock;

11 and thou shalt slaughter the bullock before Jehovah, at the entrance of the tent of meeting;

12 and thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it on the horns of the altar with thy finger, and shalt pour all the blood at the bottom of the altar.

13 And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the net of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.

14 And the flesh of the bullock, and its skin, and its dung, shalt thou burn with fire outside the camp: it is a sin-offering.

15 And thou shalt take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram;

16 and thou shalt slaughter the ram, and shalt take its blood, and sprinkle [it] on the altar round about.

17 And thou shalt cut up the ram into its pieces, and wash its inwards, and its legs, and put [them] upon its pieces, and upon its head;

18 and thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt-offering to Jehovah -- a sweet odour; it is an offering by fire to Jehovah.

19 And thou shalt take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram;

20 and thou shalt slaughter the ram, and take of its blood, and put [it] on the tip of the [right] ear of Aaron, and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the great toe of their right foot; and thou shalt sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

21 And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle [it] on Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him; and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him.

22 Also of the ram shalt thou take the fat, and the fat-tail, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the net of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder -- for it is a ram of consecration --

23 and one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened [bread] that is before Jehovah;

24 and thou shalt put all this in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons, and shalt wave them as a wave-offering before Jehovah.

25 And thou shalt receive them of their hand and burn [them] upon the altar over the burnt-offering, for a sweet odour before Jehovah: it is an offering by fire to Jehovah.

26 And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of consecration which is for Aaron, and wave it as a wave-offering before Jehovah; and it shall be thy part.

27 And thou shalt hallow the breast of the wave-offering, and the shoulder of the heave-offering, that hath been waved and heaved up, of the ram of the consecration, of that which is for Aaron, and of [that] which is for his sons.

28 And they shall be for Aaron and his sons, as an everlasting statute, on the part of the children of Israel; for it is a heave-offering; and it shall be a heave-offering on the part of the children of Israel of the sacrifices of their peace-offerings, [as] their heave-offering to Jehovah.

29 And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons' after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them.

30 The son that is priest in his stead shall put them on seven days, when he cometh into the tent of meeting to serve in the sanctuary.

31 And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration, and boil its flesh in a holy place.

32 And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

33 They shall eat the things with which the atonement was made, to consecrate [and] to hallow them; but a stranger shall not eat [of them], for they are holy.

34 And if [any] of the flesh of the consecration, and of the bread, remain until the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten, for it is holy.

35 And thus shalt thou do to Aaron, and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded thee: seven days shalt thou consecrate them.

36 And thou shalt offer every day a bullock as a sin-offering for atonement; and the altar shalt thou cleanse from sin, by making atonement for it, and shalt anoint it, to hallow it.

37 Seven days shalt thou make atonement for the altar and hallow it; and the altar shall be most holy: whatever toucheth the altar shall be holy.

38 And this is what thou shalt offer upon the altar -- two lambs of the first year, day by day continually.

39 The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer between the two evenings.

40 And with the one lamb a tenth part of wheaten flour mingled with beaten oil, a fourth part of a hin; and a drink-offering, a fourth part of a hin of wine.

41 And the second lamb shalt thou offer between the two evenings; as the oblation in the morning, and as its drink-offering shalt thou offer with this, for a sweet odour, an offering by fire to Jehovah.

42 It shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before Jehovah, where I will meet with you, to speak there with thee.

43 And there will I meet with the children of Israel; and it shall be hallowed by my glory.

44 And I will hallow the tent of meeting, and the altar; and I will hallow Aaron and his sons, that they may serve me as priests.

45 And I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and will be their God.

46 And they shall know that I am Jehovah their God, who have brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, to dwell in their midst: I am Jehovah their God.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 10044

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10044. 'On the ram's head' means, to the whole of it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the head' as the whole person, thus the whole [of the good of innocence in the internal man], dealt with in 10011. The reason why 'the head' means the whole is that it is highest and holds the inmost part of a person within it; and what is highest is the fountainhead of everything below it, just as what is inmost is the hub of everything outside it. For what lies outside or below is dependent on that which is inmost or highest. What is inmost in the human being is his will and understanding; these have their beginnings in the head. What flows from these inner powers is activity, that is, effects which they generate in the body. When therefore will and understanding are mentioned the whole person should be understood, for it is by virtue of these that a person is a person. The actions performed by the body also owe their entire nature to the will; and this is why a person is not regarded from the point of view of bodily actions or deeds but from that of the will within them. This being so, soul is used in the Word to mean the whole person, and a person is called a soul, as in Leviticus 4:27; 5:1, 4, 17; 6:2; 17:10, 15, and elsewhere.

[2] There are two things that mean the whole, namely the highest and the lowest. The reason why the lowest or last also has this meaning is that all interior things, beginning with the first or highest, terminate in those that are lowest and exist together there, see 9828, 9836. So it is that the highest by means of the lowest holds all the interior or intermediate things in connection and form, in order that they may all have the same end in view, 9828. The fact that the lowest also means the whole is clear from very many places in the Word, such as those which speak of the whole person as 'flesh', for example, Genesis 6:12; Numbers 16:22; 27:16; Isaiah 40:5; Zechariah 2:13, and elsewhere.

[3] Since the last things also mean all or the whole, the hair on the head, hair on the body, and the beard, which are last or outermost things growing out of a person's body, are used to mean those things, as also are the feet, or rather the toes on them, and the fingers on the hands. The fact that the hair on the head, hair on the body, and the beard have this meaning is clear in Isaiah,

On that day the Lord will shave with a razor - by means of the king of Asshur - the head, the hair of the feet, and also the beard. Isaiah 7:20.

'The king of Asshur' means reasoning, the kind that is used by people to destroy Divine things, 1186. 'Shaving the head, the hair of the feet, and the beard' means taking lowest things away, for when these have been taken away those within fall apart and perish. This also was why a priest was forbidden to shave his head, Leviticus 21:10, as was a Nazirite, whose hair according to Numbers 6:7 was called the Naziriteship of God, 6437, 9407, and is what 'the crown of the head of the Nazirite among [his] brothers', Genesis 49:25-26; Deuteronomy 33:16, should be taken to mean. Therefore also it says in Matthew 10:30 that the hairs of one's head are all numbered, meaning that every single thing in a person is so 'numbered', and in Luke 21:18 that not a hair on one's head will perish.

[4] The fact that the feet, the toes on them, and the fingers on the hands mean all things and so the whole is clear in John,

Peter said, Lord, You shall not wash my feet only, but also my hands and head. Jesus said to him, He who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, and the whole person is clean. John 13:9-10.

'Feet' are the natural, which is last, 2162, 3147, 4938-4952, 9406. And in the following words of the present chapter,

You shall put some of the ram's blood on the tip of Aaron's ear, and on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of the right foot. Verse 20.

That is, it was to be put on every single thing, meant by 'ear', 'hand', and 'foot'.

[5] Since highest and lowest, or what amounts to the same thing, first and last, equally mean every single thing, or the whole with all its parts, the Lord's Omnipotence and Omniscience is described by the words stating that He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13; Isaiah 41:4.

[6] The situation in which all things are held in connection and stand together, from that which is first or highest through to those that are last or lowest, is described in the following words in Isaiah,

I am the First and I am the Last, indeed My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand measured out heaven. I am summoning them; they stand together. Isaiah 48:12-13.

Jehovah's or the Lord's 'hand' and 'right hand' mean His almighty power, 'the earth' which He laid the foundation of is that which is last, 'heaven' which He stretched out is that which is between the first and the last, 'summoning them, that they may stand together' is holding all the interior things in connection and in form by means of what is last, that they may have a single end in view. This single end to be held in view is He who is the First and the Last. That this is the Lord is clear in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, I am the First and I am the Last. Isaiah 44:6.

'The King of Israel' is the Lord, John 18:37, and so, as is self-evident, is 'his Redeemer'. And in the Book of Revelation,

These things says the First and the Last, who was dead and came to life. Revelation 2:8.

[7] The truth that what is first holds all things in connection by means of what is last may be recognized from the Word and from humanness. In the case of the Word its last and lowest things are its literal sense; that which is first and highest is the Lord; and the interior things within it are its internal sense, which the heavens perceive and which causes those who are there to have the same end in view, namely the Lord. Regarding this arcanum, see 9360, 9824.

[8] As to humanness, this as it exists in the things that are last is the Church on earth; as it exists in that which is first it is the Lord; and as it exists in the interior things it is heaven. For in the Lord's sight the Church and heaven are like one human being; therefore heaven is called the Grand Man, which has been the subject at the ends of a number of chapters, see the places referred to in 10030 (end). There is an unbroken connection, and an influx in keeping with that connection, of all things from the Lord through the heavens to the Church on earth. By the heavens the angels who are there should be understood; by the Church people who are true members of the Church; and by humanness as it exists in that which is first the Lord in respect of His Divine Human. The truth that what is first by means of what is last holds all things in connection and makes them stand as one is meant by the Lord's words in Isaiah quoted above,

I am the First and I am the Last, indeed My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand measured out heaven. I summoning them, they stand together. Isaiah 48:12-13.

The fact that 'the earth' is used in the Word to mean the Church has also been shown on many occasions, see the places referred to in 9325.

[9] An idea of this matter may be had from what is last or outermost with a person and what is inmost. His outermost is the skin, his inmost the heart, while the things in between or his interiors are the organs of the body. From the heart all the way to the skin by way of the organs there is an unbroken connection through blood vessels; for these emanate from the heart and end in the skin. The skin is self-evidently the last or outermost part holding the interior things in connection, for when the skin has been taken away the interiors fall apart.

[10] From all this it may be seen why it is that just as what is highest or inmost means every single thing, so too does what is lowest or last. Also evident from it all is the arcanum of why the Lord also glorified His Human right down to its last and lowest levels, called the bones and flesh, which explains why the Lord told His disciples, who thought that they were seeing a spirit,

See My hands and My feet, that it is I; handle Me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Me having. Luke 24:37, 39.

It is well recognized that Divinity itself was the First in Him, for He was conceived from Jehovah, and what is conceived from the father is pre-eminently first in a person. The truth that the Lord also glorified the last and lowest levels of His Human in which they co-exist is evident from His words recorded in those verses, and also from the fact that He left nothing of His Human in the tomb. It is true of spiritual things as well that interior things terminate and come to rest in last and lowest ones in which they co-exist, and that the last hold the interior ones in connection, see 9216, 9828. Therefore the lowest things have might and power within them, 9836, and for the same reason have holiness within them, 9824; and revelations are made and answers are given in them, 9905.

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