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Leviticus 16

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1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they came near before Jehovah and died;

2 and Jehovah said to Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the sanctuary inside the veil before the mercy-seat which is upon the ark, that he die not; for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat.

3 In this manner shall Aaron come into the sanctuary: with a young bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering.

4 A holy linen vest shall he put on, and linen trousers shall be upon his flesh, and he shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and put them on.

5 And of the assembly of the children of Israel shall he take two bucks of the goats for a sin-offering, and one ram for a burnt-offering.

6 And Aaron shall present the bullock of the sin-offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself, and for his house.

7 And he shall take the two goats, and set them before Jehovah, before the entrance of the tent of meeting.

8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for Jehovah, and the other lot for Azazel.

9 And Aaron shall present the goat upon which the lot fell for Jehovah, and offer it [as] a sin-offering.

10 And the goat upon which the lot fell for Azazel shall be set alive before Jehovah, to make atonement with it, to send it away as Azazel into the wilderness.

11 And Aaron shall present the bullock of the sin-offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall slaughter the bullock of the sin-offering which is for himself.

12 And he shall take the censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before Jehovah, and both his hands full of fragrant incense beaten small, and bring it inside the veil.

13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before Jehovah, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat which is upon the testimony, that he die not.

14 And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle with his finger upon the front of the mercy-seat eastward; and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood seven times with his finger.

15 And he shall slaughter the goat of the sin-offering, which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat;

16 and he shall make atonement for the sanctuary, [to cleanse it] from the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and from their transgressions in all their sins; and so shall he do for the tent of meeting which dwelleth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

17 And there shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he goeth in to make atonement in the sanctuary until he come out; and he shall make atonement for himself, and for his house, and for the whole congregation of Israel.

18 And he shall go out unto the altar which is before Jehovah, and make atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about;

19 and he shall sprinkle upon it of the blood with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel.

20 And when he hath ended making atonement for the sanctuary, and the tent of meeting, and the altar, he shall present the living goat;

21 and Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the living goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away to the wilderness by the hand of a man standing ready;

22 that the goat may bear upon him all their iniquities to a land apart [from men]; and he shall send away the goat into the wilderness.

23 And Aaron shall go into the tent of meeting, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the sanctuary, and shall leave them there;

24 and he shall bathe his flesh with water in a holy place, and put on his garments, and go forth, and offer his burnt-offering, and the burnt-offering of the people, and make atonement for himself, and for the people.

25 And the fat of the sin-offering shall he burn upon the altar.

26 And he that letteth go the goat for Azazel shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water; and afterwards he may come into the camp.

27 And the bullock of the sin-offering, and the goat of the sin-offering whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the sanctuary, shall one carry forth outside the camp; and they shall burn with fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung.

28 And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water; and afterwards he may come into the camp.

29 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you. In the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, the home-born, and the stranger that sojourneth among you;

30 for on that day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you: from all your sins shall ye be clean before Jehovah.

31 A sabbath of rest shall it be unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls: [it is] an everlasting statute.

32 And the priest who hath been anointed, and who hath been consecrated, to exercise the priesthood in his father's stead, shall make atonement; and he shall put on the linen garments, the holy garments.

33 And he shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary; and for the tent of meeting, and for the altar shall he make atonement; and for the priests, and for the whole people of the congregation shall he make atonement.

34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make atonement for the children of Israel [to cleanse them] from all their sins once a year. And he did as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4735

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4735. Shed no blood. That this signifies that they should not do violence to what is holy is evident from the signification of “blood” as being what is holy-of which in what follows; hence “to shed blood” is to do violence to what is holy. All the holy in heaven proceeds from the Lord’s Divine Human, and therefore all the holy in the church; wherefore that violence might not be done to it, the Holy Supper was instituted by the Lord, in which it is expressly said that the bread is His flesh, and the wine His blood, thus that it is his Divine Human from which the holy then comes. With the ancients, flesh and blood signified the human own, because the human consists of flesh and blood; thus the Lord said to Simon, “Blessed art thou, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in the heavens” (Matthew 16:17). The flesh and the blood, therefore, signified by the bread and the wine in the Holy Supper, denote the Lord’s Human Own. The Lord’s Own Itself, which He acquired to Himself by His own power, is Divine. His Own from conception was what He had from Jehovah His Father, and was Jehovah Himself. Hence the Own which He acquired to Himself in the Human was Divine. This Divine Own in the Human is what is called His flesh and blood; “flesh” is His Divine good (n. 3813), and “blood” is the Divine truth of Divine good.

[2] The Lord’s Human, after it was glorified or made Divine, cannot be thought of as human, but as the Divine love in human form; and this so much the more than the angels, who, when they appear (as seen by me), appear as forms of love and charity under the human shape, and this from the Lord; for the Lord from Divine love made His Human Divine; just as man through heavenly love becomes an angel after death, so that he appears, as just said, as a form of love and charity under the human shape. It is plain from this that by the Lord’s Divine Human, in the celestial sense is signified the Divine love itself, which is love toward the whole human race, in that it wills to save them and to make them blessed and happy to eternity, and to make its Divine their own so far as they can receive it. This love and the reciprocal love of man to the Lord, and also love toward the neighbor, are what are signified and represented in the Holy Supper-the Divine celestial love by the flesh or bread, and the Divine spiritual love by the blood or wine.

[3] From these things it is now evident what is meant in John by eating the Lord’s flesh and drinking His blood:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me, and I in him. This is the bread which came down from heaven (John 6:51-58).

As “flesh and blood” signify as before said the Divine celestial and the Divine spiritual which are from the Lord’s Divine Human, or what is the same, the Divine good and the Divine truth of his love, by “eating and drinking” is signified making them one’s own; and this is effected by a life of love and charity, which is also a life of faith. (That “eating” is making good one’s own, and “drinking” making truth one’s own, may be seen above, n. 2187, 3069, 3168, 3513, 3596, 3734, 3832, 4017, 4018.)

[4] As “blood” in the celestial sense signifies the Divine spiritual or the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human, it therefore signifies the holy proceeding; for the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human is the holy itself.

[5] Holiness is nothing else, nor from any other source. That “blood” signifies this holy is evident from many passages in the Word, of which we may adduce the following:

Son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovih, Say to every bird of the heaven, to every wild beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and come; gather yourselves from every side upon My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, [of bullocks,] all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of My sacrifice which I will sacrifice for you. And ye shall be sated at My table with horse and chariot, with the strong, and with every man of war. And I will set My glory among the nations (Ezekiel 39:17-21).

The subject here treated of is the calling together of all to the Lord’s kingdom, and specifically the setting up again of the church among the Gentiles; and by their “eating flesh and drinking blood” is signified making Divine good and Divine truth their own, thus the holy which proceeds from the Lord’s Divine Human. Who cannot see that by “flesh” is not meant flesh, nor by “blood” blood, where it is said that they should eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, and that they should be sated with horse and chariot, with the strong, and with every man of war?

[6] So likewise in Revelation:

I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, Come and gather yourselves unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of the strong, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great (Revelation 19:17-18);

who would ever understand these words unless he knew what is signified in the internal sense by “flesh,” and what by “kings,” “captains,” “the strong” “horses,” “those that sit thereon,” and “free and bond?”

[7] Further in Zechariah:

He shall speak peace to the nations; and His dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. As for thee also, through the blood of Thy covenant I will send forth thy bound out of the pit (Zech. 9:10-11); where the Lord is spoken of; the “blood of Thy covenant” is the Divine truth proceeding from his Divine Human, and is the holy itself which, after He was glorified, went forth from Him. This holy is also what is called the Holy Spirit, as is evident in John:

Jesus said, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. Whosoever believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:37-39).

That the holy proceeding from the Lord is the “spirit,” may be seen in John 6:63.

[8] Moreover, that “blood” is the holy proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human, in David:

Bring back their soul from deceit and violence; and precious shall their blood be in His eyes (Psalms 72:14);

“precious blood” denotes the holy which they would receive.

In Revelation:

These are they who come out of great affliction, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14).

And again:

They overcame the dragon by the blood of the lamb, and by the Word of their testimony; and they loved not their soul even unto death (Revelation 12:11).

[9] The church at this day does not know otherwise than that the “blood of the lamb” here signifies the Lord’s passion, because it is believed that they are saved solely by the Lord having suffered, and that it was for this that He was sent into the world; but let this view of it be for the simple, who cannot comprehend interior arcana. The Lord’s passion was the last of His temptation, by which He fully glorified His Human (Luke 24:26; John 12:23, 27-28; 13:31-32; 17:1, 4-5); but the “blood of the lamb” is the same as the Divine truth, or the holy proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human; thus the same as the “blood of the covenant” spoken of just above, and of which it is also written in Moses:

[10] Moses took the book of the covenant, and read in the ears of the people; and they said, All that Jehovah hath spoken will we do, and hear. Then Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which Jehovah hath made with you upon all these words (Exodus 24:7-8).

The “book of the covenant” was the Divine truth which they then had, which was confirmed by the blood testifying that it was from His Divine Human.

[11] In the rituals of the Jewish Church blood had no other signification than the holy proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human, wherefore when they were sanctified, it was done by blood-as when Aaron and his sons were sanctified, blood was sprinkled upon the horns of the altar, the remainder at the bottom of the altar, also upon the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, and upon his garments (Exodus 29:12, 16, 20; Leviticus 8:15, 19, 23, 30). And when Aaron entered within the veil to the mercy-seat, blood was also to be sprinkled with the finger upon the mercy-seat eastward seven times (Leviticus 16:12-15). So also in the rest of the sanctifications, and also in the expiations and cleansings (in regard to which see the following passages, Exodus 12:7, 13, 22; 30:10; Leviticus 1:5, 11, 15; 3:2, 8, 13; 4:6-7, 17-18, 25, 30, 34; 5:9; 6:27-28; 14:14-19, 25-30; 16:12-15, 18-19; Deuteronomy 12:27).

[12] As by “blood” in the genuine sense is signified the holy, so in the opposite sense by “blood” and “bloods” are signified those things which offer violence to it, because by shedding innocent blood is signified doing violence to what is holy. For this reason wicked things of life and profane things of worship were called “blood.” That “blood” and “bloods” have such a signification, is evident from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

When the Lord shall have washed the excrement of the daughters of Zion, and shall have washed away the bloods of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of expurgation (Isaiah 4:4).

The waters of Dimon are full of blood (Isaiah 15:9).

Again:

Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity (Isaiah 59:3, 7).

In Jeremiah:

Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor (Jeremiah 2:34).

[13] Again:

It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of Jerusalem. They have wandered blind in the streets, they are polluted with blood; those which they cannot [pollute] they touch with their garments (Lam. 4:13-14).

In Ezekiel:

I have passed by thee, and saw thee trodden down in thy bloods, and I said unto thee, Live in thy bloods, and I said unto thee, Live in thy bloods. I washed thee with waters, and washed away thy bloods from upon thee, and I anointed thee with oil (Ezekiel 16:6, 9).

Again:

Thou son of man, Wilt thou debate with a city of bloods? Make known to her all her abominations. Thou art become guilty through thy blood that thou hast shed, and art defiled through thine idols which thou hast made. Behold the princes of Israel, everyone according to his arm, have been in thee and have shed blood; men of slander have been in thee to shed blood; and in thee they have eaten at the mountains (Ezekiel 22:2-4, 6, 9).

In Moses:

If anyone shall sacrifice elsewhere than upon the altar at the tent, it shall be blood; and as if he had shed blood (Leviticus 17:1-9).

[14] Falsified and profaned truth is signified by the following passages concerning blood.

In Joel:

I will set wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day come (Joel 2:30-31).

In Revelation:

The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood (Revelation 6:12).

Again

The second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood (Revelation 8:8).

Again:

The second angel poured out his vial into the sea; and it became blood as of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial into the rivers, and into the fountains of waters, and there became blood (Revelation 16:3-4).

[15] Similar is what is said in Exodus (7:15-22), about the rivers, ponds, and pools of water in Egypt being turned into blood; for by “Egypt” is signified the memory-knowledge which from itself enters into heavenly mysteries, and hence perverts, denies, and profanes Divine truths (n. 1164, 1165, 1186). All the miracles in Egypt, being Divine, involved such things. The “rivers which were turned into blood” are the truths of intelligence and wisdom (n. 108, 109, 3051); “waters” have a similar signification (n. 680, 2702, 3058), and also “fountains” (n. 2702, 3096, 3424); “seas” are truths in the complex which are a matter of memory-knowledge (n. 28); the “moon” of which it is also said that it should be “turned into blood,” is Divine truth (n. 1529-1531, 2495, 4060). It is evident from this, that by the moon, the sea, fountains, waters, and rivers, being turned into blood, is signified truth falsified and profaned.

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