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Exodus 24

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1 And he said to Moses: Come up to the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel, and you shall adore afar off.

2 And Moses alone shall come up to the Lord, but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people come up with him.

3 So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice: We will do all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken.

4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord: and rising in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mount, and twelve titles according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered holocausts, and sacrificed pacific victims of calves to the Lord.

6 Then Moses took half of the blood, and put it into bowls: and the rest he poured upon the altar.

7 And taking the book of the covenant, he read it in the hearing of the people: and they said: All things that the Lord hath spoken we will do, we will be obedient.

8 And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.

9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel went up:

10 And they saw the God of Israel: and under his feet as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the heaven, when clear.

11 Neither did he lay his hand upon those of the children of Israel, that retired afar off, and they saw God, and they did eat and drink.

12 And the Lord said to Moses: Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and the law, and the commandments which I have written: that thou mayst teach them.

13 Moses rose up, and his minister Josue: and Moses going up into the mount of God,

14 Said to the ancients: Wait ye here till we return to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you: if any question shall arise, you shall refer it to them.

15 And when Moses was gone up, a cloud covered the mount.

16 And the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai, covering it with a cloud six days: and the seventh day he called him out of the midst of the cloud.

17 And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel.

18 And Moses, entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain: and he was there forty days, and forty nights.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 9435

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9435. 'And Moses went into the midst of the cloud' means the Word in its outward sense. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as the Word, at this point the Word in its outward sense since it says that he went 'into the midst of the cloud', and 'the cloud' means the outward sense of the Word. For the representation of 'Moses' as the Word, see above in 9414, and for the meaning of 'the cloud' as its outward sense, in 9430. Moses remained at the foot of the mountain for six days, and then on the seventh day he received the call and went into the cloud, up into the mountain. This happened in order that he might represent that which acted as an intermediary between the people and the Lord, in keeping with what has been stated above in 9414. Degrees of ascent from the people to the Lord are described by this. When Moses went eventually into the mountain he first represented the outward holiness of the Word, which acted as an intermediary; for that mountain means heaven, where holiness dwells. But he was allowed no further in than the outermost part of heaven, where the outward holiness of the Word comes to an end. His being allowed only that far in has been demonstrated to me in a representative manner by means of a spirit, the upper part of whose face down to the chin appeared in the light of heaven, while the lower part from the chin downwards, together with the whole of the body, was in a cloud. This showed me how much of the outward holiness, which acted as an intermediary, Moses represented. The reason why the six days that Moses remained at the foot of the mountain has meant the state of truth, and the seventh day when he went up into the mountain means the state of good, in keeping with the explanation above in 9431, 9432, is that those who are being regenerated by the Lord mount by like degrees of ascent from the world into heaven. The person is raised from outward things to inward ones, because he is raised from the level of natural man, where outward things exist, to that of the spiritual man, where inward things exist. This kind of raising or ascent was also represented by Moses when he took on the representation of the outward holiness that acted as an intermediary. For the outward holiness of the Word is the gateway to the state of good, and so to heaven.

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