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Numbers 23

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1 And Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.

2 And Balak did as Balaam had said; and Balak and Balaam offered up a bullock and a ram on [each] altar.

3 And Balaam said to Balak, Stand by thy burnt-offering, and I will go; perhaps Jehovah will come to meet me; and whatever he shews me I will tell thee. And he went to a hill.

4 And God met Balaam; and [Balaam] said to him, I have disposed seven altars, and have offered up a bullock and a ram upon [each] altar.

5 And Jehovah put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shalt thou speak.

6 And he returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt-offering, he, and all the princes of Moab.

7 And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east: Come, curse me Jacob, and come, denounce Israel!

8 How shall I curse whom ùGod hath not cursed? or how shall I denounce whom Jehovah doth not denounce?

9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: Lo, [it is] a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his!

11 And Balak said to Balaam, What hast thou done to me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast blessed them altogether.

12 And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which Jehovah puts in my mouth?

13 And Balak said to him, Come, I pray thee, with me to another place, from whence thou wilt see them; thou shalt see only the extremity of them and shalt not see them all, and curse me them from thence.

14 And he took him to the watchmen's field, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bullock and a ram on [each] altar.

15 And [Balaam] said to Balak, Stand here by thy burnt-offering, and I will go to meet yonder.

16 And Jehovah met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shalt thou speak.

17 And he came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab with him; and Balak said to him, What has Jehovah spoken?

18 Then he took up his parable and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear! hearken unto me, son of Zippor!

19 ùGod is not a man, that he should lie; neither a son of man, that he should repent. Shall he say and not do? and shall he speak and not make it good?

20 Behold, I have received [mission] to bless; and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen wrong in Israel; Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is in his midst.

22 ùGod brought him out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a buffalo.

23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath ùGod wrought!

24 Lo, the people will rise up as a lioness, and lift himself up as a lion. He shall not lie down until he have eaten the prey and drunk the blood of the slain.

25 And Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.

26 And Balaam answered and said to Balak, Did I not tell thee, saying, All that Jehovah shall speak, that will I do?

27 And Balak said to Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee to another place; perhaps it will be right in the sight of God that thou curse me them from thence.

28 And Balak brought Balaam to the top of Peor, which looks over the surface of the waste.

29 And Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.

30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bullock and a ram on each altar.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4281

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4281. 'The hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him' means that in the descendants of Jacob that conjunction had been thoroughly damaged and the two loves pulled apart. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'wrestling' in this sense as being pulled apart and so suffering damage. It is evident from what has been stated above in 4280 that 'the hollow of the thigh' means a joining together; and that 'Jacob' in the Word means not only Jacob but also all his descendants is clear from very many places, such as Numbers 23:7, 10, 21, 23; 24:5, 17, 19; Deuteronomy 33:10; Isaiah 40:27; 43:1, 22; 44:1-2, 21; 48:12; 59:20; Jeremiah 10:16, 25; 30:7, 10, 18; 31:7, 11; 46:27-28; Hosea 10:11; Amos 7:2; Micah 2:12; 3:8; Psalms 14:7; 24:6; 59:13; 78:5; 99:4; and in other places.

[2] Jacob and his descendants were by nature such that with them celestial and spiritual love could not be joined to natural good, that is, the internal or spiritual man could not be joined to the external or natural man. This is evident from the details told in the Word concerning that nation. For they neither knew nor wished to know what the internal or spiritual man was, and therefore that matter was not revealed to them. In fact it was their belief that nothing existed with man apart from the external and natural. Nor in all their worship did they have anything else in mind, so that Divine worship with them was wholly idolatrous; for once internal worship is separated from external, it is nothing but idolatrous. The Church which was established among them was not in fact a Church but only a representative of the Church, for which reason that Church is called a representative Church. For it was possible for a representative of the Church to exist among such people, see 1361, 3670, 4208.

[3] Indeed in representations no attention is paid to the person who represents, only to the thing represented by him. Consequently not only persons represented Divine, celestial, or spiritual things, but also inanimate objects, such as Aaron's garments, the ark, the altar, the oxen and sheep which used to be sacrificed, the lampstand with its lamps, the bread of the presence on the table of gold, the oil with which they were anointed, the frankincense, and other objects like these. This was why their kings, bad ones no less than the good, represented the Lord's kingship, and why their high priests, bad ones no less than the good, represented the things that belong to the Lord's Divine priesthood, when they performed their own function in external form according to the prescribed rules and commands. In order therefore that among them a representative of the Church might come into existence they were provided through plainly visible revelation with such prescribed rules and such laws as would be entirely representative. Therefore as long as they kept to them and strictly complied with them, those people were able to play a representative role. But when they deviated from them into the prescribed rules and laws of other nations, and in particular to the worship of another god, they deprived themselves of their ability to play that representative role. For this reason they were coerced by external means - which were captivities, calamities, threats, and miracles - into obeying laws and prescribed rules that were truly representative, not by internal means, as those people are whose external worship has internal within it. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal historical sense by the words 'the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint', which sense has regard to Jacob and his descendants.

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