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Leviticus 25

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1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye come into the land that I will give you, the land shall celebrate a sabbath to Jehovah.

3 Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and Six years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather in the produce thereof,

4 but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. Thy field shalt thou not sow, and thy vineyard shalt thou not prune.

5 That which springeth up from the scattered seed of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thine undressed vines thou shalt not gather: a year of rest shall it be for the land.

6 And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you, for thee, and for thy bondman, and for thy handmaid, and for thy hired servant, and for him that dwelleth as a sojourner with thee, and for thy cattle,

7 and for the beasts that are in thy land: all the produce thereof shall be for food.

8 And thou shalt count seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; so that the days of the seven sabbaths of years be unto thee forty-nine years.

9 Then shalt thou cause the loud sound of the trumpet to go forth in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; on the day of atonement shall ye cause the trumpet to go forth throughout your land.

10 And ye shall hallow the year of the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty in the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; a [year of] jubilee shall it be unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family;

11 a year of jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap its aftergrowth, nor gather [the fruit of] its undressed vines.

12 For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; out of the field shall ye eat its produce.

13 In this year of the jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.

14 And if ye sell ought unto your neighbour, or buy of your neighbour's hand, ye shall not overreach one another.

15 According to the number of years since the jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbour; according to the number of years of the produce, he shall sell unto thee.

16 According to the greater number of the years, thou shalt increase the price thereof; and according to the fewness of years, thou shalt diminish the price of it; for it is the number of crops that he selleth unto thee.

17 And ye shall not oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am Jehovah your God.

18 And ye shall do my statutes, and observe mine ordinances and do them: thus shall ye dwell in your land securely.

19 And the land shall yield its fruit, and ye shall eat and be satisfied, and dwell therein securely.

20 And if ye say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? behold, we may not sow, nor gather in our produce;

21 then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, that it may bring forth produce for three years;

22 and ye shall sow in the eighth year, and ye shall eat of the old fruit until the ninth year; until her produce come in, ye shall eat the old.

23 And the land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

25 If thy brother grow poor, and sell of his possession, then shall his redeemer, his nearest relation, come and redeem that which his brother sold.

26 And if the man have no one having right of redemption, and his hand have acquired and found what sufficeth for its redemption,

27 then shall he reckon the years since the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and so return unto his possession.

28 And if his hand have not found what sufficeth for him to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of the purchaser, until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.

29 And if any one sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he shall have the right of redemption up to the end of the year of the sale thereof; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption.

30 But if it be not redeemed until a whole year is complete, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.

31 But the houses in villages that have no wall round about them shall be reckoned as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.

32 But as to the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have a perpetual right of redemption.

33 And if any one redeem from one of the Levites, then the house that was sold, in the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.

34 And the field of the suburbs of their cities shall not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

35 And if thy brother grow poor, and he be fallen into decay beside thee, then thou shalt relieve him, [be he] stranger or sojourner, that he may live beside thee.

36 Thou shalt take no usury nor increase of him; and thou shalt fear thy God; that thy brother may live beside thee.

37 Thy money shalt thou not give him upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.

38 I am Jehovah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.

39 And if thy brother grow poor beside thee, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

40 as a hired servant, as a sojourner, shall he be with thee; until the year of jubilee shall he serve thee.

41 Then shall he depart from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

42 For they are my bondmen, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as [men] sell bondmen.

43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; and thou shalt fear thy God.

44 And as for thy bondman and thy handmaid whom thou shalt have -- of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and handmaids.

45 Moreover of the children of them that dwell as sojourners with you, of them may ye buy, and of their family that is with you, which they beget in your land, and they shall be your possession.

46 And ye shall leave them as an inheritance to your children after you, to inherit them as a possession: these may ye make your bondmen for ever; but as for your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule over one another with rigour.

47 And if a stranger or sojourner become wealthy beside thee, and thy brother beside him grow poor, and sell himself unto the stranger, who is settled by thee, or to a scion of the stranger's family,

48 after that he is sold there shall be right of redemption for him; one of his brethren may redeem him.

49 Either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or one of his next relations of his family may redeem him; or if his means be sufficient, he may redeem himself.

50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of the years, according to the days of a hired servant shall he be with him.

51 If there are yet many years, according unto them shall he return his redemption [money] out of the money that he was bought for;

52 and if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according unto his [remaining] years [of service] shall he give him back his redemption [money].

53 As a hired servant shall he be with him year by year; [his master] shall not rule with rigour over him before thine eyes.

54 And if he be not redeemed in this manner, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him.

55 For the children of Israel are servants unto me; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 9210

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9210. 'You shall not be like a money-lender' means that it must be done in a spirit of charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'a money-lender' as someone who does good for the sake of gain; for a money-lender entrusts money to another for the sake of interest and gives help to another for the sake of reward. And since real charity does not have gain or reward as the end in view, but the neighbour's good, 'you shall not be like a money-lender' means that the thing must be done in a spirit of charity. Anyone who does not know what Christian charity is may think that it consists not only in giving to the needy and poor but also in doing good to his fellow citizen, country, or Church for any reason whatever, that is, with no matter what end in view. But he should recognize that the end is what gives all of a person's deeds their true character. If the end or intention is to do good for the sake of reputation, in order to acquire important positions or else monetary gain, the good that he does is not good because it is done for the sake of self and thus also originates in self. But if the end is to do good for his fellow citizen's, country's, or Church's sake, thus for his neighbour's sake, the good he does is good since it is done for the sake of good itself, which in general is the real neighbour, 5025, 6706, 6711, 6712, 8123, and so is also done for the Lord's sake since such good does not have its origin in the person but in the Lord, and what originates in the Lord is the Lord's. This is the good that is meant by the Lord in Matthew,

Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me. Matthew 25:40.

[2] As it is with good, so it is also with truth. Those who do the truth for its own sake do it also for the Lord's sake since it comes from Him. Doing truth for its own sake is doing good; for truth becomes good when it passes from the understanding into the will, and from the will goes out into actions. Doing good in this manner is Christian charity. People who do good in the spirit of Christian charity may sometimes look for reputation earned as a result of doing it, so as to obtain an important position or else monetary gain. But their attitude is altogether different from that of anyone for whom these things are his end in view. For they regard what is good and right as the essential, one and only thing that matters, and accordingly rank it in highest position. As for monetary gain in comparison with this, or an important position, or reputation for the sake of them, they regard as non-essential, and accordingly rank it in lowest position. When the eyes of people such as these are fixed on what is right and good they are like soldiers fighting in battle for their country. During it they give no thought at all to their life, nor thus to their status or their assets in the world, which compared with what they are doing are of no importance to them. But those who rank self and the world at the top are the kind of people who do not even see what is right and good, because their eyes are fixed on themselves and on gain.

[3] All this shows what doing good for a selfish or a worldly reason is, what doing good for the Lord's or for the neighbour's sake is, and what is the difference between them. The difference is as great as that between two opposites, thus as great as that between heaven and hell. Furthermore those who do good for their neighbour's or for the Lord's sake are in heaven; but those who do it for a selfish or a worldly reason are in hell. For those who do good for their neighbour and the Lord's sake love the Lord above all things and their neighbour as themselves - commandments which are 'the first of all the commandments', Mark 12:28-31. But those who do everything for selfish and worldly reasons love themselves above all things, thus more than God; and they not only despise their neighbour but also hate him if he does not make common cause with them and align himself with them. This is the meaning of the Lord's teaching in Matthew,

No one can serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.

There are people who do serve both; but they are called 'lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, who are spewed out', Revelation 3:15-16. All this now shows what money-lenders who took interest represented, namely those who do good for the sake of gain.

[4] It makes plain the origin of this prohibition, that they were not to be like a money-lender, charging a brother interest, as again declared elsewhere in Moses,

You shall not charge your brother interest on silver, interest on food, interest on anything on which it is charged. A foreigner you shall charge interest, but your brother you shall not charge interest; so that Jehovah your God may bless you in everything to which you set your hand 1 in the land which you are entering to possess it. Deuteronomy 23:19-20; Leviticus 25:36-38.

'Charging a brother interest on silver' means lending truths, that is, giving instruction in them, for the sake of gain, 'charging interest on food' hiring out forms of the good of truth for the sake of gain; for 'silver' means truth, 1551, 2954, 5658, 6914, 6917, and 'food' the good of truth, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5410, 5426, 5487, 5582, 5588, 5655, 5915, 8562. The reason why those who do not charge it are blessed by Jehovah in everything to which they set their hand in the land is that their affection is for goodness and truth, so that the happiness which angels in heaven possess is theirs; for that affection, or the good of that love, holds heaven within it for a person, 6478, 9174. The reason why foreigners could be charged interest was that those who do not acknowledge anything of goodness or truth and are unreceptive of them are meant by 'foreigners', 7996, that is, they are those who do good solely for the sake of gain. These must serve a person, for in comparison they are servants or slaves, 1097. In David,

He walks blameless and does righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart. He does not lend his silver at interest, and does not take a bribe 2 against the innocent. He who does this will never be moved. Psalms 15:2, 5.

'Lending his silver at interest' means teaching for the sake solely of gain, thus doing good for the sake of reward. Something similar occurs in Ezekiel,

A righteous man who executes judgement and righteousness does not lend at interest and does not take increase. Ezekiel 18:5, 8.

In the same prophet,

He who withdraws his hand from the needy, does not take interest or increase, executes My judgements, [and] walks in My statutes will surely live. Ezekiel 18:17.

In the same prophet,

In you they have taken bribes 2 to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and seized gain of your companions by violence. Ezekiel 22:12.

These things are said about 'the city of blood', by which falsity destroying truth and good is meant, 9127. 'Taking interest and increase' means doing good for the sake of gain and reward, thus not in a spirit of charity. In true charity there is no thought of earning a reward, see 2371, 2373, 2400, 4007, 4174, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6478.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, in every sending out of your hand

2. literally, a gift

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