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Leviticus 9

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1 And when the eighth day was come, Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the ancients of Israel, and said to Aaron:

2 Take of the herd a calf for sin, and a ram for a holocaust, both without blemish, and offer them before the Lord.

3 And to the children of Israel thou shalt say: Take ye a he goat for sin, and a calf, and a lamb, both of a year old, and without blemish for a holocaust,

4 Also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings: and immolate them before the Lord, offering for the sacrifice of every one of them flour tempered with oil; for to day the Lord will appear to you.

5 They brought therefore all things that Moses had commanded before the door of the tabernacle: where when all the multitude stood,

6 Moses said: This is the word, which the Lord hath commanded: do it, and his glory will appear to you.

7 And he said to Aaron: Approach to the altar, and offer sacrifice for thy sin: offer the holocaust, and pray for thyself and for the people: and when thou hast slain the people's victim, pray for them, as the Lord hath commanded.

8 And forthwith Aaron, approaching to the altar, immolated the calf for his sin:

9 And his sons brought him the blood of it: and he dipped his finger therein, and touched the horns of the altar, and poured the rest at the foot thereof.

10 And the fat, and the little kidneys, and the caul of the liver, which are for sin, he burnt upon the altar, as the Lord had commanded Moses:

11 But the flesh and skins thereof he burnt with fire without the camp.

12 He immolated also the victim of holocaust: and his sons brought him the blood thereof, which he poured round about on the altar.

13 And the victim being cut into pieces, they brought to him the head and all the members, all which he burnt with fire upon the altar,

14 Having first washed the entrails and the feet with water.

15 Then offering for the sin of the people, he slew the he goat: and expiating the altar,

16 He offered the holocaust:

17 Adding in the sacrifice the libations, which are offered withal, and burning them upon the altar, besides the ceremonies of the morning holocaust.

18 He immolated also the bullock and the ram, the peace offerings of the people: and his sons brought him the blood, which he poured upon the altar round about.

19 The fat also of the bullock, and the rump of the ram, and the two little kidneys, with their fat, and the caul of the liver,

20 They put upon the breasts. And after the fat was burnt upon the altar,

21 Aaron separated their breasts, and the right shoulders, elevating them before the Lord, as Moses had commanded.

22 And stretching forth his hands to the people, he blessed them. And so the victims for sin, and the holocausts, and the peace offerings being finished, he came down.

23 And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the testimony, and afterwards came forth and blessed the people. And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the multitude:

24 And behold a fire, coming forth from the Lord, devoured the holocaust, and the fat that was upon the altar: which when the multitude saw, they praised the Lord, falling on their faces.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 9938

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9938. 'Which the children of Israel shall sanctify, even in all their gifts of holy things' means acts of worship representative of removal from sins. This is clear from the meaning of 'gifts' - or presents, which among the Israelite and Jewish nation were primarily burnt offerings, sacrifices, and minchahs - as the inner realities of acts of worship; for those realities were represented by these acts. The inner realities of worship are the fruits of love and faith; they are therefore pardonings of sins, that is, removals from them, since faith and love are the means by which the Lord moves sins away. For in the measure that the good of love and faith comes in, or what amounts to the same thing, heaven comes in, sins are removed, that is, hell is removed - the hell within the person as well as the hell outside him. From this it is evident what should be understood by the gifts which they made holy, that is, offered. The gifts were called holy, and giving or offering them was called sanctifying them, because they represented holy realities. For they were offered to expiate people, thus to remove them from their sins, which is accomplished by means of faith in and love to the Lord received from the Lord.

[2] Gifts and presents were said to be made to Jehovah, though Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is not the receiver of gifts or presents, but the giver of them, freely to everyone. Even so, His will is that they should come from a person as though they did so from that person himself, provided the person acknowledges that they do not actually come from him but from the Lord. For the Lord imparts a desire to do good because he loves it, and a desire to speak the truth because he believes it. The actual desire flows in from the Lord, yet appears to be inherent in the person and so to flow from the person. For whatever a person does out of love and desire for it, he does from his life, love being what composes anyone's life. From this it is evident that the things that are called gifts and presents made to the Lord by a person are essentially gifts and presents made to a person by the Lord, and that they are called gifts and presents on account of what they appear to be. All who are wise at heart recognize this appearance, but not so the simple. Yet their gifts and presents are acceptable, so far as they are made in ignorance that has innocence within it. Innocence is the good of love to God, and dwells within ignorance, especially with the wise at heart. Those who are wise at heart know, indeed perceive, that nothing whatever of the wisdom within themselves originates in themselves, but that the all of wisdom is attributable to the Lord, that is, the all of the good of love and the all of the truth of faith are attributable to Him, and that for this reason even with the wise innocence dwells in ignorance. From this it is evident that the acknowledgement of this matter, and especially the perception of it, constitutes the innocence of wisdom.

[3] The gifts offered in the Jewish Church, which were primarily burnt offerings, sacrifices, and minchahs, were also spoken of as offerings made for the expiations of sins; for they were offered for the sake of being pardoned from sins, that is, being removed from them. Those who belonged to that Church also thought that sins were pardoned, indeed completely taken away, by means of these offerings; for it is said of people who have offered them that they will be pardoned, see Leviticus 4:26, 31, 35; 5:6, 10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7; 9:7; 15:15, 30. But they were unaware of the fact that their gifts represented more internal things, thus the kinds of things that are done by a person from love and faith received from the Lord; that these are what expiate, that is, remove sins; and that when they have been removed they appear to have been completely removed or banished, as has been shown above in the present paragraph and the one before it. The worship of that nation was representative, and so was external devoid of anything internal; and it was by means of this worship that heaven was joined to mankind, in those times, see the places referred to in 9320 (end), 9380.

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