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Deutéronome 10

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1 En ce temps-là, l'Eternel me dit: Taille deux tables de pierre comme les premières, et monte vers moi sur la montagne; tu feras aussi une arche de bois.

2 J'écrirai sur ces tables les paroles qui étaient sur les premières tables que tu as brisées, et tu les mettras dans l'arche.

3 Je fis une arche de bois d'acacia, je taillai deux tables de pierre comme les premières, et je montai sur la montagne, les deux tables dans ma main.

4 L'Eternel écrivit sur les tables ce qui avait été écrit sur les premières, les dix paroles qu'il vous avait dites sur la montagne, du milieu du feu, le jour de l'assemblée; et L'Eternel me les donna.

5 Je retournai et je descendis de la montagne, je mis les tables dans l'arche que j'avais faite, et elles restèrent là, comme l'Eternel me l'avait ordonné.

6 Les enfants d'Israël partirent de Beéroth-Bené Jaakan pour Moséra. C'est là que mourut Aaron, et qu'il fut enterré; Eléazar, son fils, lui succéda dans le sacerdoce.

7 Ils partirent de là pour Gudgoda, et de Gudgoda pour Jothbatha, pays où il y a des cours d'eaux.

8 En ce temps-là, l'Eternel sépara la tribu de Lévi, et lui ordonna de porter l'arche de l'alliance de l'Eternel, de se tenir devant l'Eternel pour le servir, et de bénir le peuple en son nom: ce qu'elle a fait jusqu'à ce jour.

9 C'est pourquoi Lévi n'a ni part ni héritage avec ses frères: l'Eternel est son héritage, comme l'Eternel, ton Dieu, le lui a dit.

10 Je restai sur la montagne, comme précédemment, quarante jours et quarante nuits. L'Eternel m'exauça encore cette fois; L'Eternel ne voulut pas te détruire.

11 L'Eternel me dit: Lève-toi, va, marche à la tête du peuple. Qu'ils aillent prendre possession du pays que j'ai juré à leurs pères de leur donner.

12 Maintenant, Israël, que demande de toi l'Eternel, ton Dieu, si ce n'est que tu craignes l'Eternel, ton Dieu, afin de marcher dans toutes ses voies, d'aimer et de servir l'Eternel, ton Dieu, de tout ton coeur et de toute ton âme;

13 si ce n'est que tu observes les commandements de l'Eternel et ses lois que je te prescris aujourd'hui, afin que tu sois heureux?

14 Voici, à l'Eternel, ton Dieu, appartiennent les cieux et les cieux des cieux, la terre et tout ce qu'elle renferme.

15 Et c'est à tes pères seulement que l'Eternel s'est attaché pour les aimer; et, après eux, c'est leur postérité, c'est vous qu'il a choisis d'entre tous les peuples, comme vous le voyez aujourd'hui.

16 Vous circoncirez donc votre coeur, et vous ne roidirez plus votre cou.

17 Car l'Eternel, votre Dieu, est le Dieu des dieux, le Seigneur des seigneurs, le Dieu grand, fort et terrible, qui ne fait point acception des personnes et qui ne reçoit point de présent,

18 qui fait droit à l'orphelin et à la veuve, qui aime l'étranger et lui donne de la nourriture et des vêtements.

19 Vous aimerez l'étranger, car vous avez été étrangers dans le pays d'Egypte.

20 Tu craindras l'Eternel, ton Dieu, tu le serviras, tu t'attacheras à lui, et tu jureras par son nom.

21 Il est ta gloire, il est ton Dieu: c'est lui qui a fait au milieu de toi ces choses grandes et terribles que tes yeux ont vues.

22 Tes pères descendirent en Egypte au nombre de soixante-dix personnes; et maintenant l'Eternel, ton Dieu, a fait de toi une multitude pareille aux étoiles des cieux.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 529

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529. Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. (11:19) This symbolizes the New Heaven, in which the Lord is worshiped in His Divine humanity, and where people live in accordance with the Ten Commandments, which constitute the two essential elements of the New Church that are the means of conjunction.

The temple of God symbolizes the Lord's Divine humanity, also heaven where angels dwell, and likewise the church on earth. To be shown that the temple of God has these three symbolic meanings, and that the three cannot be separated, see no. 191. Here, however, the temple of God symbolizes the Lord in His Divine humanity in heaven where angels dwell, because it is said to be the temple of God in heaven. The ark in the temple means the Ten Commandments, for the ark had as its sole contents the two tables on which the Ten Commandments were written. 1 The temple's being opened means, symbolically, that these two, the Divine humanity and the Ten Commandments, which are the two essential elements of the New Church, are now visible, and that they became visible after the evil were cast into hell (no. 528). The ark is called the ark of His covenant in His temple because a covenant symbolizes conjunction, as we will see below. But first we must say something about the Ten Commandments.

[2] What nation in the entire world does not know that it is evil to kill, commit adultery, steal, and bear false witness? If nations did not know this and enact laws to keep people from doing these things, it would be all over with them. For society, the republic, or kingdom would collapse without these laws.

Who can suppose that the Israelite nation was so stupid in comparison to all other nations as not to know that such actions are evil? One may wonder, therefore, why these laws, being so universally known throughout the whole world, were promulgated by Jehovah Himself from Mount Sinai, attended by the great miracle they were, and written, moreover, with His finger.

But listen, they were promulgated by Jehovah with such a great miracle and written with His finger in order that people might know that these laws are not only civil and moral laws, but also spiritual laws, and that to disobey them is not only to do evil to one's fellow citizen and to society, but is also to sin against God. Their promulgation by Jehovah from Mount Sinai made them therefore laws of religion. For it is evident that whatever Jehovah God commands, He commands to make it a matter of religion, so that it must be obeyed for His sake, and for a person's own sake, that he may be saved.

[3] Because these laws were the first elements of the church to be established by the Lord with the Israelite nation, and because they embrace in brief summary everything having to do with religion which makes possible a conjunction of the Lord with a person and of a person with the Lord, therefore they were so holy that nothing was more holy.

That they were so very holy can be seen from the following: That Jehovah Himself, that is to say, the Lord, descended in fire; that the mountain then smoked and quaked; and that this was attended by thunderings, lightnings, a thick cloud, and the sound of a trumpet (Exodus 19:16, 18, Deuteronomy 5:22-26). That before Jehovah descended, the people readied themselves and sanctified themselves for three days (Exodus 19:10-11, 15). That in the Temple at Jerusalem the Ark constituted the inner sanctuary (1 Kings 6:19ff., 8:3-9). That the tablets on which the Law was written were called the tablets of the covenant, and because of them the Ark was called the ark of the covenant, with the Law itself being called the covenant (Numbers 10:33, Deuteronomy 4:13, 23; 5:2-3; 9:9, Joshua 3:11, 1 Kings 8:19, 21, and elsewhere).

The Law's being called a covenant symbolizes conjunction. The reason is that covenants are made for the sake of love, friendship, and association, thus for the sake of conjunction. That is why we find it said of the Lord that He will be "a covenant to the people" (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8), and He is called "the Messenger of the covenant" (Malachi 3:1). His blood also is called "the blood of the covenant" (Matthew 26:28, cf. Zechariah 9:11, Exodus 24:4-10). And therefore the Word is called the Old and New Testaments or Covenants.

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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.