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Exodus 33

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1 And Jehovah said to Moses, Depart, go up hence, thou and the people that thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, into the land that I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it,

2 (and I will send an angel before thee, and dispossess the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,)

3 into a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, -- lest I consume thee on the way.

4 And when the people heard this evil word, they mourned; and no man put on his ornaments.

5 Now Jehovah had said to Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people: in one moment I will come up into the midst of thee and will consume thee. And now put off thine ornaments from thee, and I will know what I will do unto thee.

6 And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments at mount Horeb.

7 And Moses took the tent, and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tent of meeting. And it came to pass [that] every one who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose up, and stood every man at the entrance of his tent, and they looked after Moses until he entered into the tent.

9 And it came to pass when Moses entered into the tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the entrance of the tent, and [Jehovah] talked with Moses.

10 And all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent; and all the people rose and worshipped, every man at the entrance of his tent.

11 And Jehovah spoke with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. And he returned to the camp; but his attendant, Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not from within the tent.

12 And Moses said to Jehovah, Behold, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people; but thou dost not let me know whom thou wilt send with me; and thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in mine eyes.

13 And now, if indeed I have found grace in thine eyes, make me now to know thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thine eyes; and consider that this nation is thy people!

14 And he said, My presence shall go, and I will give thee rest.

15 And he said to him, If thy presence do not go, bring us not up hence.

16 And how shall it be known then that I have found grace in thine eyes -- I and thy people? [Is it] not by thy going with us? so shall we be distinguished, I and thy people, from every people that is on the face of the earth.

17 And Jehovah said to Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast said; for thou hast found grace in mine eyes, and I know thee by name.

18 And he said, Let me, I pray thee, see thy glory.

19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thy face, and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for Man shall not see me, and live.

21 And Jehovah said, Behold, [there is] a place by me: there shalt thou stand on the rock.

22 And it shall come to pass, when my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, until I have passed by.

23 And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see me from behind; but my face shall not be seen.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7988

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7988. 'That all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt' means that those with whom truth and good were present but who had been held back until then were released. This is clear from the meaning of 'going out of the land of Egypt' as being released and delivered from molestations, 'going out' self-evidently meaning being released, while 'the land of Egypt' means molestations, see 7278; and from the meaning of 'the hosts of Jehovah' as the truths and forms of good that the spiritual Church possesses, and so those with whom truth and good are present, dealt with in 3448, 7236. The fact that truths and forms of good are meant by 'the hosts of Jehovah' is clear in Daniel,

There came out one small-sized horn of the he-goat, and it grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious [land]. And it grew even towards the hosts of heaven, and cast down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. It drew itself up even towards the prince of the host. And the host was set over the continual [burnt offering] on account of the transgression, because it cast down truth to the earth. At that point I heard a holy one speaking, How long is both the sanctuary and the host being trodden down? He said to me, Up to the evening and morning, two thousand three hundred times; then the sanctuary will be made correct. Daniel 8:9-14.

Here it is plainly evident that 'the hosts' means truths and forms of good, for it says that [the hem] cast down to the earth some of the host and of the stars, and after this that it cast down truth to the earth, and that the host was to be trodden down up to the evening and morning, which is the Lord's Coming.

[2] Since truths and forms of good make up 'the hosts of Jehovah', angels are therefore called His 'hosts' in the first Book of Kings,

Micah the prophet said, I saw Jehovah sitting on His throne, and the entire host of heaven standing beside Him. 1 Kings 22:19.

And in David,

Bless Jehovah, His angels, powerful with strength; bless Jehovah, all His hosts, His ministers. Psalms 103:20-21.

Angels are called 'hosts' by virtue of the truths and forms of good present with them. Not only angels used to be referred to as the hosts of Jehovah but also the lights in the sky - the sun, moon, and stars. And they were referred to as such because 'the sun' was a sign of the good of love, 'the moon' a sign of the good of faith, and 'the stars' a sign of cognitions of goodness and truth. Reference to those lights as 'hosts' is evident in the Book of Genesis,

The heavens and the earth were finished, and all their hosts. Genesis 1:1.

Here 'hosts' is used to mean all the lights in the sky; but in the internal sense, in which the subject at that point is the new creation of a person, 'hosts' is used to mean truths and forms of good.

[3] Likewise in David,

Praise Jehovah, all His angels, praise Him, all His hosts; praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light. Psalms 148:1, 3.

'Sun' means the good of love, and 'moon' the good of faith, see 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495, 4060, 4696, 5377, 7083; and 'stars' means cognitions of good and truth, 1808, 2120, 2495, 2849, 4697.

[4] One reason why 'sun, moon, and stars' means forms of good and truths is that in heaven the Lord is a Sun to those who are celestial and a Moon to those who are spiritual, 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 4300, 4721 (end), 5097, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173; and another reason is that angelic dwelling-places shine like stars, in keeping with the following in Daniel,

Then those who have intelligence will shine like the brightness of the expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and into eternity. Daniel 12:9.

[5] Since angels, by virtue of truths and forms of good, are spoken of as 'the hosts of Jehovah', and also the sun, moon, and stars are called such, and since all truth and good come from the Lord, the Word refers to the Lord as Jehovah Zebaoth, that is, Jehovah of Hosts, 3448. And another reason why it refers to Him in this way is that He fights on a person's behalf against the hells.

From all this one may now see what 'the hosts of Jehovah' is used to mean in the internal sense. The children of Jacob who went out of Egypt were not such, though they represented them. This is evident from their life in Egypt, where they were unacquainted with Jehovah, even with His name before it was made known to Moses from the bramble bush, Exodus 3:13-16; and also they were calf-worshippers no less than the Egyptians were, as may be deduced from Exodus 32. And their life in the wilderness too shows that their character was such that they could not be led into the land of Canaan. Thus they were anything but the hosts of Jehovah.

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