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Deuteronomy 17

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1 Thou shalt not sacrifice to the Lord thy God a sheep, or an ox, wherein there is blemish, or any fault: for that is an abomination to the Lord thy God.

2 When there shall be found among you within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, man or woman that do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, and transgress his covenant,

3 So as to go and serve strange gods, and adore them, the sun and the moon. and all the host of heaven, which I have not commanded:

4 And this is told thee, and hearing it thou hast inquired diligently, and found it to be true, and that the abomination is committed in Israel:

5 Thou shalt bring forth the man or the woman, who have committed that most wicked thing, to the gates of thy city, and they shall be stoned.

6 By the mouth of two or three witnesses shall he die that is to be slain. Let no man be put to death, when only one beareth witness against him.

7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to kill him, and afterwards the hands of the rest of the people: that thou mayst take away the evil out of the midst of thee.

8 If thou perceive that there be among you a hard and doubtful matter in judgment between blood and blood, cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy: and thou see that the words of the judges within thy gates do vary: arise, and go up to the place, which the Lord thy God shall choose.

9 And thou shalt come to the priests of the Levitical race, and to the judge, that shall be at that time: and thou shalt ask of them, and they shall shew thee the truth of the judgment.

10 And thou shalt do whatsoever they shall say, that preside in the place, which the Lord shall choose, and what they shall teach thee,

11 According to his law; and thou shalt follow their sentence: neither shalt thou decline to the right hand nor to the left hand.

12 But he that will be proud, and refuse to obey the commandment of the priest, who ministereth at that time to the Lord thy God, and the decree of the judge, that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from Israel:

13 And all the people hearing it shall fear, that no one afterwards swell with pride.

14 When thou art come into the land, which the Lord thy God will give thee, and possessest it, and shalt say: I will set a king over me, as all nations have that are round about:

15 Thou shalt set him whom the Lord thy God shall choose out of the number of thy brethren. Thou mayst not make a man of another nation king, that is not thy brother.

16 And when he is made king, he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor lead back the people into Egypt, being lifted up with the number of his horsemen, especially since the Lord hath commanded you to return no more the same way.

17 He shall not have many wives, that may allure his mind, nor immense sums of silver and gold.

18 But after he is raised to the throne of his kingdom, he shall copy out to himself the Deuteronomy of this law in a volume, taking the copy of the priests of the Levitical tribe,

19 And he shall have it with him, and shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and keep his words and ceremonies, that are commanded in the law;

20 And that his heart be not lifted up with pride over his brethren, nor decline to the right or to the left, that he and his sons may reign a long time over Israel.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 6756

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6756. 'That he went out to his brothers' means a joining to the Church's truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'brothers' as the truths of the Church, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'going out to them' as being joined to them. As regards 'brothers', sometimes the expression means the forms of good, at other times the truths of the Church. Forms of good are meant when the celestial Church is the subject, truths when the spiritual Church is the subject. The reason for this is that the celestial Church is governed by good, but the spiritual Church by truth; and in ancient times all who belonged to the Church called one another brothers. Those who belonged to the spiritual Church did indeed call one another brothers on the basis of good, 3803; yet there were differences in the ways that members of the internal Church did so. Those differences depended on the nature of the good, and so on truths since good derives its specific nature from truths. Later on when the Church fell away from good, and consequently from truth also, people ceased any more to call one another brothers as a result of spiritual connections and relationships, which are those of charity and faith, but solely as a result of natural connections and relationships, or else as a result of friendship. They also began to consider it beneath them to call someone brother who ranked less highly than themselves. The reason for this was that they attached little or no importance to close ties that sprang from a spiritual origin, but great and supreme importance to close ties that had a natural or social origin. The Church's truths are clearly called 'brothers', because the sons of Jacob represented the truths of the Church in their entirety, 5407, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512.

[2] The reason why in ancient times people were called 'brothers' as a result of spiritual relationships is that the new birth or regeneration established family connections and relationships on a level superior to that of those established by natural birth. A further reason is that those connections and relationships trace their origin back to the same Father, who is the Lord. This goes to explain why people who enter heaven after death no longer acknowledge any brother, or even their mother or father, if the relationship is not founded on goodness and truth. It is in accordance with these that new brotherly relationships are formed there. This then is why those who belonged to the Church in former times called one another brothers.

[3] The fact that the children of Israel referred to all who were descended from Jacob as brothers, but everyone else as companions, is evident from the following places:

In Isaiah,

I will embroil Egypt with Egypt, in order that a man may fight against brother, and a man against his companion. Isaiah 19:2.

In the same prophet,

A man helps his companion and says to his brother, Be firm. Isaiah 41:6.

In Jeremiah,

Take heed, a man of his companion, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother supplants wholly, and every companion utters slanders. Jeremiah 9:4.

[4] The fact that all who were descended from Jacob called themselves brothers may be seen in Isaiah,

Then they will bring all your brothers from all nations as an offering to Jehovah, on horses, in chariots, and in covered waggons. Isaiah 66:20.

In Moses,

You shall indeed set a king over you 1 whom Jehovah your God will choose, from among your brothers shall you set a king over you; 1 you may not place over you 1 a foreigner, who is not your 1 brother. Deuteronomy 17:15.

Even the children of Esau, because they were descended from Jacob, were called brothers by them, in Moses,

We passed through, away from our brothers the children of Esau dwelling in Seir. Deuteronomy 2:8.

[5] The reason why in ancient times those who belonged to the Church called one another brothers was, as stated above, that they acknowledged the Lord as their one and only Father and received a new soul and life from Him, on account of which the Lord says,

Refuse to be called Rabbi, for one is your Master, Christ; but all you are brothers. Matthew 23:8.

Since spiritual brotherhood has its origin in love, that is, one person is another's, and those who are governed by good abide in the Lord, and He abides in them, John 14:20, the Lord calls them brothers, in Matthew,

Jesus stretching out His hand over His disciples said, Behold My mother and My brothers; for whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven is My brother, and sister, and mother. Matthew 12:49-50.

In the same gospel,

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

He again calls the disciples brothers in Matthew 28:10; John 20:17. 'Disciples' is used in the representative sense to mean all who are guided by the truths of faith and governed by the good of charity.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The Latin means them and their but the Hebrew means you and your, which Swedenborg has in another place where he quotes this verse.

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