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Exodus 7

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1 And Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made thee God to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

2 Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.

3 And I will render Pharaoh's heart obdurate, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

4 And Pharaoh will not hearken unto you; and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

6 And Moses and Aaron did as Jehovah had commanded them: so did they.

7 And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

8 And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

9 When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Do a miracle for yourselves, -- then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy staff and cast [it] before Pharaoh -- it will become a serpent.

10 And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh, and before his bondmen, and it became a serpent.

11 And Pharaoh also called the sages and the sorcerers; and they too, the scribes of Egypt, did so with their enchantments:

12 they cast down every man his staff, and they became serpents; but Aaron's staff swallowed up their staves.

13 And Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.

14 And Jehovah said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened: he refuseth to let the people go.

15 Go unto Pharaoh in the morning -- behold, he will go out unto the water -- and take thy stand by the bank of the river in front of him; and take in thy hand the staff that was turned into a serpent.

16 And say unto him, Jehovah the God of the Hebrews has sent me to thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness; but behold, hitherto thou hast not hearkened.

17 Thus saith Jehovah: In this shalt thou know that I am Jehovah -- behold, I will smite with the staff that is in my hand upon the water which is in the river, and it shall be turned into blood.

18 And the fish that is in the river shall die; and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink the water out of the river.

19 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy staff, and stretch out thy hand upon the waters of the Egyptians -- upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout the land of Egypt, both in [vessels of] wood and in [vessels of] stone.

20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and he lifted up the staff, and smote the waters that were in the river before the eyes of Pharaoh, and before the eyes of his bondmen; and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood.

21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river; and the blood was throughout the land of Egypt.

22 And the scribes of Egypt did so with their sorceries; and Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, neither did he hearken to them, as Jehovah had said.

23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and took not this to heart either.

24 And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

25 And seven days were fulfilled, after Jehovah had smitten the river.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7273

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7273. 'And multiply My signs and My wonders' means forewarnings of every kind, and that not a thing will be wanting. This is clear from the meaning of 'signs and wonders' as proofs of the truth, dealt with in 3900, 6870, 7012, and also as the means used by Divine power, 6910, here as forewarnings, for those signs and wonders let them see that they were immersed in falsities and also let them behold Divine power, as a result of which they were forewarned. The reason for saying that forewarnings of every kind are being presented to those steeped in falsities, and that not a thing will be wanting, is that the damnation of those governed by evils does not take place in a single moment when they enter the next life, only after they have first been visited, that is, been examined. Examinations are made to the end that those people may see for themselves that they are inescapably damned because they have led no other kind of life, and to the end also that spirits and angels may know what those people have been like. Thus they can no longer exonerate themselves or be exonerated by others.

[2] The order that governs the manner in which they are examined is the order involving God's truth; and the nature of this is such that nothing whatever is wanting. When this order involving God's truth is applied to the evil who are damned it is different from what it is when applied to the good who are saved. The difference is that when that order is applied to the evil who are damned God's truth is separated from Divine Good, that is, from mercy because those people have not accepted Divine Good, and so have refused mercy. But when that order is applied to the good who are saved God's truth is coupled with Divine Good, and so with mercy because they have accepted Divine Good, and so the Lord's mercy. Step by step as the evil undergo orderly examination they are also judged and condemned. From this one may see that forewarnings of every kind are presented, in order that not a thing may be wanting before they are condemned to hell. These are what is also meant by the signs and miracles performed in Egypt, before the firstborn were annihilated and the Egyptians were destroyed in the Sea Suph, the Sea Suph being hell.

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