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Exodus 10

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1 And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharao; for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants: that I may work these my signs in him.

2 And thou mayest tell in the ears of thy sons, and of they grandsons, how often I have plagued the Egyptians, and wrought my signs amongst them: and you may know that I am the Lord:

3 Therefore Moses and Aaron went in to Pharao, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: How long refusest thou to submit to me? let my people go, to sacrifice to me.

4 But if thou resist, and wilt not let them go, behold I will bring in to morrow the locust into thy coasts:

5 To cover the face of the earth that nothing thereof may appear, but that which the hail hath left may be eaten: for they shall feed upon all the trees that spring in the fields.

6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of thy servants, and of all the Egyptians: such a number as thy fathers have not seen, nor thy grandfathers, from the time they were first upon the earth, until this present day. And he turned himself away, and went forth from Pharao.

7 And Pharao's servants said to him: How long shall we endure this scandal? let the men go to sacrifice to the Lord their God. Dost thou not see that Egypt is undone?

8 And they called back Moses and Aaron to Pharao: and he said to them: Go, sacrifice to the Lord your God: who are they that shall Go?

9 Moses said: We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, with our sheep and herds: for it is the solemnity of the Lord our God.

10 And Pharao answered: So be the Lord with you, as I shall let you and your children go: who can doubt but that you intend some great evil?

11 It shall not be so: but go ye men only, and sacrifice to the Lord: for this yourselves also desired. And immediately they were cast out from Pharao's presence.

12 And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand upon the land of Egypt unto the locust, that it may come upon it, and devour every herb that is left after the hail.

13 And Moses stretched forth his rod upon the land of Egypt: and the Lord brought a burning wind all that day, and night: and when it was morning, the burning wind raised the locusts:

14 And they came up over the whole land of Egypt: and rested in all the coasts of the Egyptians innumerable, the like as had not been before that time, nor shall be hereafter.

15 And they covered the whole face of the earth, wasting all things. And the grass of the earth was devoured, and what fruits soever were on the trees, which the hail had left: and there remained not any thing that was green on the trees, or in the herbs of the earth in all Egypt.

16 Wherefore Pharao in haste called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.

17 But now forgive me my sin this time also, and pray to the Lord your God, that he take away from me this death.

18 And Moses going forth from the presence of Pharao, prayed to the Lord.

19 And he made a very strong wind to blow from the west, and it took the locusts and cast them into the Red Sea: there remained not so much as one in all the coasts of Egypt.

20 And the Lord hardened Pharao's heart, neither did he let the children of Israel go.

21 And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch out they hand towards heaven: and may there be darkness upon the land of Egypt, so thick that it may be felt.

22 And Moses stretch forth his hand towards heaven: and there came horrible darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.

23 No man saw his brother, nor moved himself out of the place where he was: but wheresoever the children of Israel dwelt there was light.

24 And Pharao called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Go sacrifice to the Lord: let your sheep only, and herds remain; let your children Go with you.

25 Moses said: Thou shalt give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, to the Lord our God.

26 All the flocks shall go with us: there shall not a hoof remain of them: for they are necessary for the service of the Lord our God: especially as we know not what must be offered, till we come to the very place.

27 And the Lord hardened Pharao's heart, and he would not let them go.

28 And Pharao said to Moses: Get thee from me, and beware thou see not my face any more: in what day soever thou shalt come in my sight, thou shalt die.

29 Moses answered: So shall it be as thou hast spoken, I will not see thy face any more.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7711

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7711. 'And there will be thick darkness over the land of Egypt' means total deprivation of truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of 'thick darkness' as total deprivation of truth and good. Various places in the Word mention 'darkness' (tenebrae) and also at the same time 'thick darkness' (caligo), and in those places 'darkness' has reference to falsity and 'thick darkness' to evil together with it. But the word that is used in this verse to express thick darkness denotes pitch-black darkness (tenebrae densissimae), which in the internal sense means the kinds of falsities that well up from evil. Such falsities arise with those who have belonged to the Church and led an evil life contrary to the commandments of religious belief which they knew. The evil from which those falsities well up is the opposite of the Church, the opposite of heaven, the opposite of the Lord, and so the direct opposite of goodness and truth. This state is now described by 'thick darkness'.

[2] The fact that 'darkness' and 'thick darkness' are mentioned together in the Word, and that 'darkness' means the deprivation of truth, while 'thick darkness' means the deprivation of both truth and good, may be recognized in the following places: In Isaiah,

Judgement is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We wait for light, but, behold, darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and as if without eyes we grope; we stumble at midday as if it were twilight; among the living we are like the dead. Isaiah 59:9-10.

'Judgement is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us' stands for the fact that there is no truth, and no good either, 'judgement' being used to refer to truth and 'righteousness' to refer to good, see 2235, 3997. 'Waiting for light' stands for awaiting truth, and 'waiting for brightness' stands for awaiting the good of truth since the brightness of light is derived from good. The fact that the expression 'darkness' is used in those verses as the opposite of 'light' and 'judgement', and so of truth, and 'thick darkness' as the opposite of 'brightness' and 'righteousness', and so of good, is self-evident. So it is that 'darkness' is the deprivation of truth, and 'thick darkness' the deprivation of both truth and good. In Amos,

Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, and thick darkness, [and] no brightness in it? Amos 5:20.

Here the meaning is similar. In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and gloom. Joel 2:2.

[3] In Zephaniah,

The day of Jehovah a day of vastation and devastation, a day of darkness and thick darkness. Zephaniah 1:15.

'Darkness' stands for the deprivation of truth, and 'thick darkness' for the deprivation of both truth and good. If 'thick darkness' were no different in meaning from 'darkness' it would be a pointless repetition, which is far from being a feature of the holy Word. In the Word it is common for a pair of expressions to describe one particular thing, the first having reference to truth or falsity, the second to good or evil. A like example occurs in Isaiah,

He will look to the earth, and behold, anguish and darkness; [he will be one] benighted by anguish, and by a thick darkness of colliding. 1 Isaiah 8:11.

[4] 'Darkness' also means ignorance of the truth, such as exists among gentiles, and 'thick darkness' ignorance about what is good, in Isaiah,

On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of thick darkness and out of darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Isaiah 29:18.

In the same prophet,

If you satisfy the afflicted soul, your light will rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness will be as midday. Isaiah 58:10.

'Darkness' is falsities, see 7688.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The Latin caligine impulsus may mean collided with in darkness, or - as Swedenborg's reference to this text in 7711 can only mean - a thick darkness of colliding.

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