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Exodus 30

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1 And thou shalt make an altar for the burning of incense: of acacia-wood shalt thou make it;

2 a cubit the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof -- square shall it be; and two cubits its height; of itself shall be its horns.

3 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make upon it a border of gold round about.

4 And two rings of gold shalt thou make for it under its border; by its two corners shalt thou make [them], on the two sides thereof; and they shall be for receptacles for the staves, with which to carry it.

5 And thou shalt make the staves of acacia-wood, and overlay them with gold.

6 And thou shalt put it in front of the veil which is before the ark of the testimony in front of the mercy-seat which is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.

7 And Aaron shall burn thereon fragrant incense: every morning, when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn the incense.

8 And when Aaron lighteth the lamps between the two evenings, he shall burn the incense -- a continual incense before Jehovah throughout your generations.

9 Ye shall offer up no strange incense thereon, nor burnt-offering, nor oblation; neither shall ye pour drink-offering thereon.

10 And Aaron shall make atonement for its horns once in the year: with the blood of the sin-offering of atonement shall he make atonement for it, once in the year, throughout your generations: it is most holy to Jehovah.

11 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

12 When thou shalt take the sum of the children of Israel according to those of them that are numbered, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul to Jehovah on their being numbered, that there be no plague among them on their being numbered.

13 This shall they give -- every one that passeth among them that are numbered -- half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary, -- twenty gerahs the shekel; a half shekel shall be the heave-offering for Jehovah.

14 Every one that passeth among those that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give the heave-offering of Jehovah.

15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when ye give the heave-offering of Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls.

16 And thou shalt take the atonement-money of the children of Israel, and devote it to the service of the tent of meeting; and it shall be a memorial to the children of Israel before Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls.

17 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

18 Thou shalt also make a laver of copper, and its stand of copper, for washing; and thou shalt put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and shalt put water in it.

19 And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet out of it.

20 When they go into the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, that they may not die; or when they come near to the altar to serve, to burn an offering by fire to Jehovah.

21 And they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they may not die; and it shall be an everlasting statute for them, for him and for his seed throughout their generations.

22 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

23 And thou, take best spices -- of liquid myrrh five hundred [shekels], and of sweet cinnamon the half -- two hundred and fifty, and of sweet myrtle two hundred and fifty,

24 and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin;

25 and make of it an oil of holy ointment, a perfume of perfumery after the work of the perfumer: it shall be the holy anointing oil.

26 And thou shalt anoint the tent of meeting with it, and the ark of the testimony,

27 and the table and all its utensils, and the lamp-stand and its utensils, and the altar of incense,

28 and the altar of burnt-offering and all its utensils, and the laver and its stand.

29 And thou shalt hallow them, that they may be most holy: whatever toucheth them shall be holy.

30 And Aaron and his sons thou shalt anoint, and shalt hallow them, that they may serve me as priests.

31 And thou shalt speak to the children of Israel, saying, A holy anointing oil shall this be unto me throughout your generations.

32 Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make [any] like it, after the preparation of it: it is holy -- holy shall it be unto you.

33 Whoever compoundeth [any] like it, or whoever putteth [any] of it upon any strange thing, shall be cut off from his peoples.

34 And Jehovah said to Moses, Take fragrant drugs -- stacte, and onycha, and galbanum -- fragrant drugs and pure frankincense; in like proportions shall it be.

35 And thou shalt make it into incense, a perfume, after the work of the perfumer, salted, pure, holy.

36 And thou shalt beat [some] of it to powder, and put [some] of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy.

37 And the incense that thou shalt make, ye shall not make for yourselves according to the proportions of it; it shall be unto thee holy to Jehovah.

38 Whoever maketh like unto it, to smell it, shall be cut off from his peoples.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 10262

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10262. 'A hin' means how far things are joined together. This is clear from the meaning of 'a hin' - which was a liquid measure, at this point a measure of oil - as the extent to which things are joined together. 'Oil' means the Lord's celestial Divine Good, which is the essential power that binds all things together in heaven; consequently the measure of the oil means how far things are joined together, and the fullness of their being joined together. The reason why the Lord's celestial Divine Good is the essential power that binds all things together is that it is the essential being (ipsum esse) of the life that all things have. For that Divine Good imparts life to all things through the Divine Truth emanating from itself; and it imparts life in accordance with the specific character of whatever receives it. Angels are recipients; so too are people in the world. The truths and forms of good they have form their specific character, and this conditions the reception that takes place within them, and so conditions any joining together.

[2] Two measures which were used for sacred purposes are mentioned in the Word; one was for liquids, which was called the hin, the other was for dry substances, which was called the ephah. The hin served to measure oil and wine, and the ephah to measure flour and fine flour. The hin, used for oil and wine, was divided into four, whereas the ephah was divided into ten. The reason why the hin was divided into four was in order that it might mean that which binds things together; for 'four' means a joining together. But the reason why the ephah was divided into ten was in order that it might mean reception, the nature of which was indicated by the numbers; for 'ten' means much, all, and what is complete.

'Four' means a joining together, see 8877, 9601, 9674, 10136, 10137.

'Ten' means much, all, and what is complete, as 'a hundred' does, 1988, 3107, 4400, 4638, 8468, 8540, 9745, 10253.

[3] The fact that the hin was used for the oil and wine in the sacrifices, and was divided into four, whereas the ephah was used for the flour and fine flour, which were for the minchah in the sacrifices, and that it was divided into ten, becomes clear in Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 5:11; 23:13; Numbers 15:3-10; 28:5, 7, 14. From these verses it is evident that 'a hin' means the extent to which things are joined together, and 'an ephah' the amount of reception. Furthermore the oil served to bind the fine flour together, and the fine flour to receive the oil; for a minchah consisted of oil and fine flour.

[4] In addition there were other measures that were used for ordinary purposes, both for dry substances and for liquids. The measures for dry substances were called the homer and the omer, and the measures for liquids the cor and the bath. A homer contained ten ephahs, and an ephah ten omers, whereas a cor contained ten baths, and a bath ten smaller parts; regarding all these, see Exodus 16:36; Ezekiel 45:11, 13, 24.

[5] But where the new temple is dealt with in Ezekiel a different division of the ephah and the bath occurs. There the ephah and the bath are divided not into ten but into six, and the hin corresponds to the ephah, as is evident in the same prophet, in Ezekiel 45:13-14, 24; 46:5, 7, 11, 14. The reason for this is that in those places the subject is not celestial good and its ability to bind things together, but spiritual good and its ability to do so; and the numbers 'twelve', 'six', and 'three' have their correspondence in the spiritual kingdom, because they mean all and, when used in reference to truths and forms of good, mean all aspects of truth and good in their entirety. The fact that these are meant by 'twelve', see 3272, 3858, 3913, 7973, also by 'six', 3960(end), 7973, 8148, 10217; and in like manner 'three', by which from beginning to end, thus what is complete, is meant, and - in respect of real things - all, 2788, 4495, 5159, 7715, 9825, 10127. The reason why these numbers imply similar things is that larger numbers are similar in meaning to the simple ones which when multiplied produce them, 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973.

[6] Since 'a hin' also means how far something is joined to spiritual truth, a third part of a hin of oil was taken for the minchah in the sacrifices of a ram, and a third part of wine for the drink offering, Numbers 15:6-7; for spiritual good is meant by 'a ram', 2830, 9991. From all this it is again plainly evident that numbers are used in the Word to mean real things. What other reason could there be for the numbers used so often in Moses, Ezekiel, and elsewhere to specify amounts and measures?

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