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Deuteronomy 9

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1 Hear, O Israel: Thou shalt go over the Jordan this day; to possess nations very great, and stronger than thyself, cities great, and walled up to the sky,

2 A People great and tall, the sons of the Enacims, whom thou hast seen, and heard of, against whom no man is able to stand.

3 Thou shalt know therefore this day that the Lord thy God himself will pass over before thee, a devouring and consuming fire, to destroy and extirpate and bring them to nothing before thy face quickly, as he hath spoken to thee.

4 Say not in thy heart, when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed them in thy sight: For my justice hath the Lord brought me in to possess this land, whereas these nations are destroyed for their wickedness.

5 For it is not for thy justices, and the uprightness of thy heart that thou shalt go in to possess their lands: but because they have done wickedly, they are destroyed at thy coming in: and that the Lord might accomplish his word, which he promised by oath to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 Know therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this excellent land in possession for thy justices, for thou art a very stiffnecked people.

7 Remember, and forget not how then provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that thou camest out of Egypt unto this place, thou hast always strove against the Lord.

8 For in Horeb also thou didst provoke him, and he was angry, and would have destroyed thee,

9 When I went up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you: and I continued in the mount forty days and nights, neither eating bread, nor drinking water.

10 And the Lord gave me two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and containing all the words that he spoke to you in the mount from the midst of the Are, when the people were assembled together.

11 And when forty days were passed, and as many nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant,

12 And said to me: Arise, and go down from hence quickly: for thy people, which thou hast brought out of Egypt, have quickly forsaken the way that thou hast shewn them, and have made to themselves a molten idol.

13 And again the Lord said to me: I see that this people is stiffnecked:

14 Let me alone that I may destroy them, and abolish their name from under heaven, and set thee over a nation, that is greater and stronger than this.

15 And when I came down from the burning mount, and held the two tables of the covenant with both hands,

16 And saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made to yourselves a molten calf, and had quickly forsaken his way, which he had shewn you:

17 I cast the tables out of my hands, and broke them in your sight.

18 And I fell down before the Lord se before, forty days and nights neither eating bread, nor drinking water, for all your sins, which you had committed against the Lord, and had provoked him to wrath:

19 For I feared his indignation and anger, wherewith being moved against you, he would have destroyed you. And the Lord heard me this time also.

20 And he was exceeding angry against Aaron also, and would have destroyed him, and I prayed in like manner for him.

21 And your sin that you had committed, that is, the calf, I took, and burned it with fire, and breaking it into pieces, until it was as small as dust, I threw it into the torrent, which cometh down from the mountain.

22 At the burning also, and at the place of temptation, and at the graves of lust you provoked the Lord:

23 And when he sent you from Cadesbarne, saying: Go up, and possess the land that I have given you, and you slighted the commandment of the Lord your God, and did not believe him, neither would you hearken to his voice:

24 But were always rebellious from the day that I began to know you.

25 And I lay prostrate before the Lord forty days and nights, in which I humbly besought him, that he would not destroy you as he had threatened:

26 And praying, I said: 0 Lord God, destroy not thy people, and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed in thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

27 Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: look not on the stubbornness of this people, nor on their wickedness and sin:

28 Lest perhaps the inhabitants of the land, out of which thou hast brought us, say: The Lord could not bring them into the land that he promised them, and he hated them: therefore he brought them out, that he might kill them in the wilderness,

29 Who are thy people and thy inheritance, whom thou hast brought out by thy great strength, and in thy stretched out arm.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 10303

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10303. 'And you shall beat some of it very fine' means the arrangement of truths into their own series. This is clear from the meaning of 'beating very small' - when it refers to the frankincense and spices, by which levels of truth are meant - as the arrangement of truths into their own series; for much the same is meant by 'beating' as by 'grinding', though 'grinding' is used in reference to wheat, barley, and spelt, whereas 'beating' is used in reference to oil, frankincense, and spices.

[2] What is meant specifically by 'beating' and 'grinding' no one can know without knowledge of what a person is like when the different kinds of good and truth meant by wheat, barley, flour, fine flour, oil, frankincense, and spices have been arranged into order for the uses they are to serve. For 'grinding' and 'beating' mean arranging them so that they may serve a use. When 'grinding' has reference to different kinds of good, which are meant by 'wheat' or 'barley', it means the way that good is arranged and brought forward in the form of truths, and its application in this form to one use or another. Good furthermore never presents itself within useful services except through truths; for good is arranged into order in the form of truths and in this way acquires specific quality. Unless it has been arranged in the form of truths good has no specific quality; and when it is arranged in the form of truths it is arranged into series, depending on the item under discussion, in accord with the use that item serves. The good enters those items as an affection belonging to love, and this gives rise to what is enjoyable, lovely, and pleasing. Something similar is meant here by 'beating very fine', for 'pure frankincense' means spiritual good, 10296, and the kinds of truth that are arranged into order by the good are the spices stacte, onycha, and galbanum, 10292-10294.

[3] What being arranged into series is must also be stated briefly. Truths are said to have been arranged into series when they have been arranged in accordance with the form of heaven, which consists of angelic communities. The character of that form is clear from the correspondence of all the members, internal organs, and other organs of the human being with the Grand Man, which is heaven. Regarding that correspondence, see in the places referred to in 10030(end). Within those members and organs all the individual parts are arranged into series and into series of series. Fibres and vessels form them, as is well known to those who are acquainted from anatomy with the weavings and interweavings of the more internal constituents of the body. The truths from good present in a person are arranged into similar series.

[4] So it is that a person who has been regenerated is heaven in its smallest form, corresponding to the Grand Man; and that the person's truth and good make him wholly and completely what he is.

A person who has been regenerated is heaven in its smallest form, see in the places referred to 9279.

His truth and his good constitute a person, 10298 above.

The truths with regenerate people have been arranged into series in accord with the arrangement in which angelic communities exist, 5339, 5343, 5530.

The series into which the truths with those who are good have been arranged, and the series into which the falsities with those who are evil have been arranged are meant in the Word by 'sheafs' and 'bundles', as in Leviticus 23:9-15; Psalms 126:6; 129:7; Amos 2:13; Micah 4:12; Jeremiah 9:22; Zechariah 12:6; Matthew 13:30.

[5] When therefore it is evident what 'beating' and 'grinding' mean one can know the meaning in the internal sense of the description stating that the children of Israel ground the manna in mills or beat it in mortars, and made it into cakes, Numbers 11:8. 'The manna' was a sign of celestial and spiritual good, 8464, and 'grinding' and 'beating' arranging it to serve useful purposes; for whatever is mentioned in the Word is a sign of the kinds of realities that exist in heaven and in the Church. Every detail there has an inner meaning. One can also know the meaning when it says that they should not take as a pledge the mill or the milling stone, for anyone who does so takes the [person's] soul as a pledge, Deuteronomy 24:6. 'The mill' and 'the milling stone' mean that which prepares good so that it may be applicable to one use or another. 'Barley' too and 'wheat' mean good, and 'flour' and 'fine flour' truths; and its own truths are the means by which good is applied to any such use, as stated above.

[6] From all this it may be seen what 'mill', 'millstone', and 'sitting at the mill' mean in the following places: In Matthew,

At that time two women will be grinding; one will be taken, the other left. Matthew 24:41.

In the same gospel,

Whoever causes one of these little ones believing in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if an ass's millstone 1 were hung onto his neck and he were plunged into the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42.

In the Book of Revelation,

A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus will Babylon be thrown down with violence; no sound of a mill will be heard in it any more. Revelation 18:21-22.

In Jeremiah,

I will take away from them the voice of joy, the sound of mills, and the light of the lamp. Jeremiah 25:10.

And in Isaiah,

O daughter of Babel, sit on the ground; without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. Take a mill and grind flour. Isaiah 47:1-2.

Even as 'mill' and 'grinding' in the good sense mean application to good purposes, so in the contrary sense they mean application to evil ones. Consequently when Babel and Chaldea are the subject they mean the application [of what is good and true] in favour of their own loves, which are self-love and love of the world; for with them 'barley' and 'wheat' mean adulterated good, and 'flour' the resulting falsified truth. The profanation of goodness and truth through applying them to those loves is also meant by the action of Moses when he ground up the golden calf into tiny pieces, sprinkled them on the water coming down from Mount Sinai, and made the children of Israel drink it, Exodus 32:20; Deuteronomy 9:21.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. i.e. the upper, rotating stone of an ass-driven mill

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