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Numbers 15

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1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 Speak to the children of Israel and thou shalt say to them: When you shall be come into the land of your habitation, which I will give you,

3 And shall make an offering to the Lord, for a holocaust, or a victim, paying your vows, or voluntarily offering gifts, or in your solemnities burning a sweet savour unto the Lord, of oxen or of sheep:

4 Whosoever immolateth the victim, shall offer a sacrifice of fine flour, the tenth part of an ephi, tempered with the fourth part of a hin of oil:

5 And he shall give the same measure of wine to pour out in libations for the holocaust or for the victim. For every lamb,

6 And for every ram there shall be a sacrifice of hour of two tenths, which shall be tempered with the third part of a hin of oil:

7 And he shall offer the third part of the same measure of wine for the libation, for a sweet savour to the Lord.

8 But when thou offerest a holocaust or sacrifice of oxen, to fulfil thy vow or for victims of peace offerings,

9 Thou shalt give for every ox three tenths of flour tempered with half a hin of oil,

10 And wine for libations of the same measure, for an offering of most sweet savour to the Lord.

11 Thus shalt thou do

12 For every ox and ram and lamb and kid.

13 Both they that are born in the land, and the strangers

14 Shall offer sacrifices after the same rite.

15 There shall be all one law and judgment both for you and for them who are strangers in the land.

16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

17 Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them:

18 When you are come into the land which I will give you,

19 And shall eat of the bread of that country, you shall separate firstfruits to the Lord,

20 Of the things you eat. As you separate firstfruits of your barnfloors:

21 So also shall you give firstfruits of your dough to the Lord.

22 And if through ignorance you omit any of these things, which the Lord hath spoken to Moses,

23 And by him hath commanded you, from the day that he began to command and thenceforward,

24 And the multitude have forgotten to do it: they shall offer a calf out of the herd, a holocaust for a most sweet savour to the Lord, and the sacrifice and libations thereof, as the ceremonies require, and a buck goat for sin:

25 And the priest shall pray for all the multitude of the children of Israel: and it shall be forgiven them, because they sinned ignorantly, offering notwithstanding a burnt offering to the Lord for themselves and for their sin and their ignorance:

26 And it shall be forgiven all the people of the children of Israel: and the strangers that sojourn among them: because it is the fault of all the people through ignorance.

27 But if one soul shall sin ignorantly, he shall offer a she goat of a year old for his sin.

28 And the priest shall pray for him, because he sinned ignorantly before the Lord: and he shall obtain his pardon, and it shall be forgiven him.

29 The same law shall be for all that sin by ignorance, whether they be natives or strangers.

30 But the soul that committeth any thing through pride, whether he be born in the land or a stranger (because he hath been rebellious against the Lord) shall be cut off from among his people:

31 For he hath contemned the word the Lord, and made void his precept: therefore shall he be destroyed, and shall bear his iniquity.

32 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and had found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day,

33 That they brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole multitude.

34 And they put him into prison, not knowing what they should do with him.

35 And the Lord said to Moses: Let that man die, let all the multitude stone him without the camp.

36 And when they had brought him out, they stoned him, and he died as the Lord had commanded.

37 The Lord also said to Moses:

38 Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt tell them to make to themselves fringes in the corners of their garments, putting in them ribands of blue:

39 That when they shall see them, they may remember all the commandments of the Lord, and not follow their own thoughts and eyes going astray after divers things,

40 But rather being mindful of the precepts of the Lord, may do them and be holy to their Cod.

41 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might be your God.

   

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Life # 79

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79. The following passages show that spiritually understood, "adultery" means polluting what is good in the Word and distorting what is true in it:

Babylon has made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication. (Revelation 14:8)

An angel said, "I will show you the judgment of the great whore who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication." (Revelation 17:1-2)

Babylon has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. (Revelation 18:3)

God has judged the great whore who corrupted the earth with her fornication. (Revelation 19:2)

Fornication is associated with Babylon because Babylon means people who claim the Lord's divine power for themselves and profane the Word by polluting and distorting it. That is why Babylon is called "the Mother of Fornications and of the Abominations of the Earth" in Revelation 17:5.

[2] Fornication means much the same in the prophets - in Jeremiah, for example:

In the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen appalling obstinacy; they commit adultery and walk in a lie. (Jeremiah 23:14)

In Ezekiel:

Two women, daughters of one mother, played the whore in Egypt; in their youth they behaved wantonly. The first was unfaithful to me and took delight in lovers from neighboring Assyria. Upon them, too, she bestowed her acts of whoredom, but without giving up her wantonness in Egypt. The second became more corrupt in her love than the first, and her acts of whoredom were worse than her sister's. She increased her whoredom and made love to Chaldeans; sons of Babel came to her, into the bed of love, and defiled her with their debauchery. (Ezekiel 23:2-17)

This is about the church of Israel and Judah, who are the "daughters of one mother" in this passage. Their acts of whoredom mean their pollutions and distortions of the Word, and since in the Word Egypt means factual knowledge, Assyria reasoning, Chaldea the profanation of what is true, and Babel the profanation of what is good, it says that they committed acts of whoredom with those countries.

[3] Much the same is said in Ezekiel of Jerusalem, meaning the church in respect to its teachings:

Jerusalem, you trusted in your own beauty, and played the whore because of your fame, even to the point that you poured out your whoredom on everyone who passed by. You played the whore with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of whoredom. You played the whore with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the whore with them. You multiplied your acts of whoredom as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea. An adulterous wife takes strangers instead of her husband. All make payment to their whores, but you made payments to all your lovers to come to you from all around for your whoredom. Now then, O whore, hear the Word of Jehovah. (Ezekiel 16:15, 26, 28-29, 32-33, 35, and following)

On Jerusalem meaning the church, see Teachings on the Lord 62-63. Fornication means much the same in Isaiah 23:17-18; 57:3; Jeremiah 3:2, 6, 8-9; 5:7; 13:27; 29:23; Micah 1:7; Nahum 3:4; Hosea 4:7, 10-11; also Leviticus 20:5; Numbers 14:33; 15:39; and elsewhere.

That is why the Lord called the Jewish nation "an adulterous generation" (Matthew 12:39; 16:4; Mark 8:38).

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