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Leviticus 22

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1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they profane not my holy name in the things that they hallow unto me: I am Jehovah.

3 Say unto them, Every one of all your seed, throughout your generations, that approacheth the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto Jehovah, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from before me: I am Jehovah.

4 Whatsoever man of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath a flux, he shall not eat of the holy things, until he is clean. And he that toucheth any one that is unclean by a dead person, or a man whose seed of copulation hath passed from him;

5 or a man that toucheth any crawling thing whereby he becometh unclean, or a man by whom he may become unclean, whatever may be his uncleanness,

6 -- a person that toucheth any such shall be unclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy things; but he shall bathe his flesh with water,

7 and when the sun goeth down, he shall be clean, and may afterwards eat of the holy things; for it is his food.

8 Of a dead carcase and what is torn shall he not eat, to make himself unclean therewith: I am Jehovah.

9 And they shall keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it, and die by it, if they profane it: I am Jehovah who do hallow them.

10 And no stranger shall eat the holy thing; the sojourner with the priest, and the hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing.

11 But if a priest buy any one for money, he may eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they may eat of his food.

12 And a priest's daughter who is [married] to a stranger may not eat of the heave-offering of the holy things.

13 But a priest's daughter that becometh a widow, or is divorced, and hath no seed, and returneth unto her father's house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food; but no stranger shall eat thereof.

14 And if a man eat of a holy thing through inadvertence, then he shall put the fifth part thereof unto it, and shall give it unto the priest with the holy thing.

15 And they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel which they offer unto Jehovah,

16 and cause them to bear the iniquity of trespass when they eat their holy things; for I am Jehovah who do hallow them.

17 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

18 Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them, Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the sojourners in Israel, that presenteth his offering for any of his vows, and for any of his voluntary offerings, which they present to Jehovah as a burnt-offering,

19 it shall be for your acceptance, without blemish, a male of the oxen, of the sheep, and of the goats.

20 Nothing that hath a defect shall ye present; for it shall not be acceptable for you.

21 And if any present a sacrifice of peace-offering to Jehovah to accomplish a vow, or a voluntary offering of oxen or small cattle, it shall be without blemish to be accepted: there shall be no defect therein.

22 Blind, or broken, or maimed, or ulcerous, or with itch, or scabbed -- ye shall not present these to Jehovah, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to Jehovah.

23 A bullock and a sheep that hath a member too long or too short, that mayest thou offer as a voluntary offering; but as a vow it shall not be accepted.

24 That which is bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut shall ye not present to Jehovah; neither in your land shall ye do [the like].

25 Nor from the hand of the stranger shall ye present the bread of your God, of any of these; for their corruption is in them: a defect is in them; they shall not be accepted for you.

26 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

27 An ox, or a sheep, or a goat, when it is brought forth, shall be seven days under its dam; and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering by fire to Jehovah.

28 A cow, or sheep -- it and its young shall ye not slaughter in one day.

29 And when ye sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Jehovah, ye shall sacrifice it for your acceptance.

30 On that day shall it be eaten: ye shall leave none of it until morning: I am Jehovah.

31 And ye shall observe my commandments and do them: I am Jehovah.

32 And ye shall not profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am Jehovah who do hallow you,

33 who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Jehovah.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 2405

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2405. That 'as dawn ascended' means when the Lord's kingdom draws near is clear from the meaning of 'the dawn' or morning in the Word. Since the subject in this chapter is the successive states of a Church, what happened in the evening, then what happened during the night have been referred to first. What took place when it was twilight comes now, and further on what took place after sunrise. Twilight is expressed here by 'as dawn ascended', which means the time when the upright are separated from the evil. This separation is described in the present verse to verse 22 as Lot being brought out together with his wife and daughters and being saved. The fact that separation takes place prior to judgement is clear from the Lord's words in Matthew,

Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Matthew 25:32.

[2] In the Word that period of time or state is called 'the dawn' because that is when the Lord comes, or what amounts to the same, when His kingdom draws near. It is similar with the good, for at that time something akin to early morning twilight or the dawn shines with them. This explains why in the Word the Lord's coming is compared to and also called 'the morning'. Its comparison to the morning is seen in Hosea,

Jehovah will revive us after two days, on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him. And we shall know, and we shall press on to know Jehovah. As the dawn is His going forth. Hosea 6:2-3.

'Two days' stands for the period of time and the state which precedes. 'Third day' stands for judgement or the Lord's coming, and so for the approach of His kingdom, 720, 901 - a coming or approach which is compared to 'the dawn'.

[3] In Samuel,

The God of Israel is like morning light, [when] the sun rises on a cloudless morning; from brightness, from rain, grass comes out of the earth. 2 Samuel 23:4.

'The God of Israel' stands for the Lord, for no other God of Israel was meant in that Church, where every single feature of that Church was representative of Him. In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, for it is near, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and gloom, like the dawn spread over the mountains. Joel 2:1-2.

This too refers to the Lord's coming and His kingdom. The words 'a day of darkness and thick darkness' are used because at that time the good are separated from the evil, as Lot was here from the men of Sodom; and after the good have been separated the evil perish.

[4] The Lord's coming or the approach of His kingdom is not compared to the morning but actually called such, as in Daniel,

The Holy One said, For how long is the vision, the continual [burnt offering], and the desolating transgression? He said to me, Up to the evening [when it is becoming] morning two thousand three hundred times, and the Holy One will be justified. The vision of the evening and the morning which has been told is the truth. Daniel 8:13-14, 26.

'The morning' here clearly stands for the Lord's coming. In David,

Your people are free-will offerings, in the day of Your power, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the dawn You have the dew of Your nativity. Psalms 110:3.

The whole of this psalm refers to the Lord and His victories in temptations, which are meant by 'the day of power and the beauties of His holiness'. 'From the womb of the dawn' means Himself, thus the Divine Love from which He fought.

[5] In Zephaniah,

Jehovah is righteous in the midst of her. He will do no wrong. In the morning, in the morning He will bring His judgement to light. Zephaniah 3:5.

'morning' stands for the time and the state when judgement takes place, which is the same as the Lord's coming, and this in turn is the same as the approach of His kingdom.

[6] Since 'the morning' meant these things, Aaron and his sons, to provide the same representation, were commanded to set up a lamp and tend it from evening till morning before Jehovah, Exodus 27:21. The 'evening' referred to here is the twilight prior to morning, 2323. For a similar reason it was commanded that the fire on the altar was to be rekindled every dawn, Leviticus 6:12; also that none of the paschal lamb and the consecrated elements of sacrifices were to remain until the morning, Exodus 12:10; 23:18; 34:25; Leviticus 22:29-30; Numbers 9:12 - by which was meant that when the Lord came sacrifices would come to an end.

[7] In a general sense 'morning' is used to describe both the time when dawn breaks and the time when the sun rises. 'morning' in this case stands for judgement in regard to the good as well as on the evil, as in the present chapter - 'The sun had gone forth over the earth and Lot came to Zoar; and Jehovah rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire', verses 23-24. It in like manner stands for judgement on the evil, in David,

In the mornings I will destroy all the wicked of the land, to cut off from the city of Jehovah all workers of iniquity. Psalms 101:8.

And in Jeremiah,

Let that man be like the cities which Jehovah overthrew, and He does not repent; and let him hear a cry in the morning. Jeremiah 20:16.

[8] Seeing that 'the morning' in the proper sense means the Lord, His coming, and so the approach of His kingdom, what else is meant by 'the morning' becomes clear, namely the rise of a new Church, for that Church is the Lord's kingdom on earth. That kingdom is meant both in a general and in a particular sense, and indeed in a specific sense, the general being when any Church on earth is established anew; the particular, when a person is being regenerated and becoming a new man, for the Lord's kingdom is in that case being established in him and he is becoming the Church; and the specific, as often as good flowing from love and faith is at work with him, for this is what constitutes the Lord's coming. Consequently the Lord's resurrection on the third morning, Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, embodies in the particular and the specific senses the truth that He rises daily, indeed every single moment, in the minds of regenerate persons.

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