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Exodus 34

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1 And after this he said: Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the former, and I will write upon them the words which were in the tables, which thou brokest.

2 Be ready in the morning, that thou mayst forthwith go up into mount Sinai, and thou shalt stand with me upon the top of the mount.

3 Let no man go up with thee: and let not any man be seen throughout all the mount: neither let the oxen nor the sheep feed over against it.

4 Then he cut out two tables of stone, such as had been before: and rising very early he went up into the mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, carrying with him the tables.

5 And when the Lord was come down in a cloud, Moses stood with him, calling upon the name of the Lord.

6 And when he passed before him, he said: O the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, patient and of much compassion, and true,

7 Who keepest mercy unto thousands: who takest away iniquity, and wickedness, and sin, and no man of himself is innocent before thee. Who renderest the iniquity of the fathers to the children, and to the grandchildren, unto the third and fourth generation.

8 And Moses making haste, bowed down prostrate unto the earth, and adoring,

9 Said: If I have found grace in thy sight: O Lord, I beseech thee, that thou wilt go with us, (for it is a stiffnecked people,) and take away our iniquities and sin, and possess us.

10 The Lord answered: I will make a covenant in the sight of all. I will do signs such as were never seen upon the earth, nor in any nation: that this people, in the midst of whom thou art, may see the terrible work of The Lord which I will do.

11 Observe all things which this day I command thee: I myself will drive out before thy face the Amorrhite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite.

12 Beware thou never join in friendship with the inhabitants of that land, which may be thy ruin:

13 But destroy their altars, break their statues, and cut down their groves:

14 Adore not any strange god. The Lord his name is Jealous, he is a jealous God.

15 Make no covenant with the men of those countries lest, when they have committed fornication with their gods, and have adored their idols, some one call thee to eat of the things sacrificed.

16 Neither shalt thou take of their daughters a wife for thy son, lest after they themselves have committed fornication, they make thy sons also to commit fornication with their gods.

17 Thou shalt not make to thyself any molten gods.

18 Thou shalt keep the feast of the unleavened bread. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee in the time of the month of the new corn: for in the month of the springtime thou camest out from Egypt.

19 All of the male kind, that openeth the womb, shall be mine. Of all beasts, both of oxen and of sheep, it shall be mine.

20 The firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a sheep: but if thou wilt not give a price for it, it shall be slain. The firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem: neither shalt thou appear before me empty.

21 Six days shalt thou work, the seventh day thou shalt cease to plough, and to reap.

22 Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks with the firstfruits of the corn of thy wheat harvest, and the feast when the time of the year returneth that all things are laid in.

23 Three times in a year all thy males shall appear in the sight of the Almighty Lord the God of Israel.

24 For when I shall have taken away the nations from thy face, and shall have enlarged thy borders, no man shall lie in wait against thy land when thou shalt go up, and appear in the sight of the Lord thy God thrice in a year.

25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice upon leaven: neither shall there remain in the morning any thing of the victim of the solemnity of the Lord.

26 The first of the fruits of thy ground thou shalt offer in the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.

27 And the Lord said to Moses: Write these words by which I have made a covenant both with thee and with Israel.

28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights: he neither ate bread nor drank water, and he wrote upon the tables the ten words of the covenant.

29 And when Moses came down from the mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord.

30 And Aaron and the children of Israel seeing the face of Moses horned, were afraid to come near.

31 And being called by him, they returned, both Aaron and the rulers of the congregation. And after that he spoke to them.

32 And all the children of Israel came to him: and he gave them in commandment all that he had heard of the Lord in mount Sinai.

33 And having done speaking, he put a veil upon his face.

34 But when he went in to the Lord, and spoke with him, he took it away until he came forth, and then he spoke to the children of Israel all things that had been commanded him.

35 And they saw that the face of Moses when he came out was horned, but he covered his face again, if at any time he spoke to them.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1298

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1298. And they had brick for stone. That this signifies that they had falsity for truth, is evident from the signification of “brick,” just now shown to be falsity; and from the signification of “stone,” which in a wide sense is truth, concerning which above n. 643). Stones have signified truth for the reason that the boundaries of the most ancient people were marked off by stones, and that they set up stones as witnesses that the case was so and so, or that it was true; as is evident from the stone that Jacob set up for a pillar (Genesis 28:22; 35:14), and from the pillar of stones between Laban and Jacob (Genesis 31:46-47, 52), and from the altar built by the sons of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, near the Jordan, as a witness (Joshua 22:10, 28, 34). Therefore in the Word truths are signified by “stones;” insomuch that not only by the stones of the altar, but also by the precious stones upon the shoulders of Aaron’s ephod and upon the breastplate of judgment, there were signified holy truths which are of love.

[2] As regards the altar, when the worship of sacrifices upon altars began, the altar signified the representative worship of the Lord in general; but the stones themselves represented the holy truths of that worship; and therefore it was commanded that the altar should be built of whole stones, not hewn, and it was forbidden that any iron should be moved upon them (Deuteronomy 27:5-7; Joshua 8:31); for the reason that hewn stones, and stones on which iron has been used, signified what is artificial, and thus what is fictitious in worship; that is, what is of man’s own or of the figment of his thought and heart. This was to profane worship, as is plainly said in Exodus 20:25. For the same reason iron was not used upon the stones of the temple (1 Kings 6:7).

[3] That the precious stones upon the shoulders of Aaron’s ephod, and in the breastplate of judgment, signified holy truths, has been shown before n. 114). The same is evident in Isaiah:

Behold I will make thy stones to lie in carbuncle, and I will lay thy foundation in sapphires, and will put rubies for thy suns (windows), and thy gates in gem stones, and all thy border in stones of desire; and all thy sons shall be taught of Jehovah, and great shall be the peace of thy sons (Isaiah 54:11-13).

The stones here named denote holy truths, and therefore it is said, “all thy sons shall be taught of Jehovah.” Hence it is said in John that the foundations of the wall of the city, the holy Jerusalem, were adorned with every precious stone, and the stones are named (Revelation 21:19-20). The “holy Jerusalem” denotes the kingdom of the Lord in heaven and on earth, the foundations of which are holy truths. In like manner the tables of stone, on which the commands of the Law, or the Ten Words, were written, signified holy truths; and therefore they were of stone, or their foundation [fundus] was stone, concerning which see Exodus 24:12; 31:18; 34:1; Deuteronomy 5:22; 10:1, for the commands themselves are nothing else than truths of faith.

[4] As then in ancient times truths were signified by stones, and afterwards, when worship began upon pillars and altars, and in a temple, holy truths were signified by the pillars, altars, and temple, therefore the Lord also was called “a Stone;” as in Moses:

The Mighty One of Jacob, from thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel (Genesis 49:24).

In Isaiah:

Thus saith the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tried Stone of the corner, of price, of a sure foundation (Isaiah 28:16).

In David:

The Stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner (Psalms 118:22).

The like is signified in Daniel by “the stone cut out of the rock,” which brake in pieces the statue of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:34-35, 45).

[5] That “stones” signify truths, is evident also in Isaiah:

By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be expiated, and this shall be all the fruit, to take away his sin; when he shall put all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are scattered (Isaiah 27:9);

“the stones of the altar” denote truths in worship, which are dispersed. Again:

Make ye level the way of the people; flatten out, flatten ye out the path; gather out the stones (Isaiah 62:10);

“Way” and “stone” denote truths.

In Jeremiah:

I am against thee, O destroying mountain; I will roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee into a mountain of burning; and they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone of foundation (Jeremiah 51:25-26).

This is said of Babel; “a mountain of burning,” is the love of self. That “a stone should not be taken from it,” means that there is no truth.

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