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Daniyel 5:15

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15 וכען העלו קדמי חכימיא אשפיא די־כתבה דנה יקרון ופשרה להודעתני ולא־כהלין פשר־מלתא להחויה׃

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Arcana Coelestia # 9093

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9093. 'And divide the silver from it' means that its truth will be dispersed. This is clear from the meaning of 'dividing' as banishing and dispersing, dealt with in 6360, 6361; and from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2048, 5658, 6112, 6914, 6917, 7999. The reason why 'dividing' means dispersing is that if things existing in association are divided they are also scattered, as when a person destroys his mind by dividing it. For the human mind consists of two parts existing in association; one part is called the understanding, the other part is called the will. A person who divides these two parts scatters what belongs to each part individually; for one part must receive its life from the other, and therefore when one perishes, so does the other. It is similar when someone divides truth from good, or what amounts to the same thing, faith from charity; when anyone does this he destroys both. In short, all the things which ought to be a single whole perish if they are divided.

[2] This division is meant by the Lord's words in Luke,

No one can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will prefer the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13.

That is, it is not possible to serve the Lord through belief in Him and at the same time serve the world by loving it, thus to acknowledge truth and at the same time to do evil. Anyone who behaves in this way has his mind divided, as a result of which it is destroyed. From all this it is evident why it is that 'dividing' means dispersing; and the same is clearly the meaning in Matthew also,

The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and in an hour he does not know. And he will divide him and assign him his part with the hypocrites. Matthew 24:50-51.

'Dividing' here means separating and removing from forms of good and truths, 4424, thus dispersing them.

[3] In Moses,

Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is hard. 1 I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel. Genesis 49:7.

These words occur in Israel's prophetic utterance regarding Simeon and Levi. 'Simeon' and 'Levi' here represent those steeped in faith separated from charity, 6352; and 'Jacob' and 'Israel' represent the external and the internal Church, also the external and the internal man, 4286, 4598, 5973, 6360, 6361. 'Dividing them in Jacob' means banishing them from the external Church, and 'scattering them in Israel' from the internal Church, thus dispersing the Church's forms of good and its truths residing with them.

[4] It is also evident that 'dividing' has this meaning from the words written on the wall when Belshazzar king of Babel, together with his nobles, wives, and concubines, drank wine out of the vessels of gold and of silver that had belonged to the Temple in Jerusalem, Daniel 5:2-4, 25, 28. What was written said, 'Numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided,' 'divided' here meaning separated from the kingdom. Those verses show how all things at that time were representative. They describe the profanation of goodness and truth, which is meant by 'Babel'. Profanation is meant by 'Babel', see 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304-1308, 1321, 1322, 1326. Forms of the good of love, also the truths of faith, received from the Lord, are meant by 'the vessels of gold and silver', 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917. Profanation is meant by drinking out of them, and by praising then the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone (as verse 4 says there), which are a string of evils and falsities, 4402 (end), 4544, 7873, 8941. 'The Temple in Jerusalem' from which the vessels had come means in the highest sense the Lord, and in the representative sense His kingdom and Church, 3720. Belshazzar's kingdom when it had been divided was a sign of the dispersion of goodness and truth, and his being killed that very night a sign of deprivation of the life of truth and good, which is damnation. For 'being divided' is being dispersed; 'king' is the truth of good, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148, the same thing being meant by 'kingdom', 1672, 2547, 4691; 'being killed' means being deprived of the life of truth and good, 3607, 6767, 8902; and 'the night' in which he was killed is a state of evil and falsity, 2353, 7776, 7851, 7870, 7947. From this it is evident that all things there were representative.

[5] It says in David,

They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing cast lots. Psalms 22:18.

And in Matthew,

They divided the garments (the Lord's), casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophet. Matthew 27:35.

Also in John,

The soldiers took the garments and made four parts; and the tunic. The tunic was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said regarding it Let us not divide it, but cast lots for it, whose it may be - so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. John 19:23-24.

The person who reads these things, knowing nothing about the internal sense of the Word, is unaware of any arcanum that lies concealed within them, when in fact every detail holds a Divine arcanum. The arcanum was that Divine Truths had been dispersed by the Jews. For the Lord was Divine Truth, which is why He is called the Word in John 1:1 and the following verses, 'the Word' being Divine Truth. His garments represented truths in the outward form they take, His tunic truths in their inward form; and the dividing of the garments represented the dispersing of the truths of faith by the Jews. For the meaning of 'garments' as truths in the outward form they take, see 2576, 5248, 5954, 6918, and for that of 'tunic' as truth in its inward form, 4677. Truths in their outward form are truths as they exist in the literal sense of the Word, but truths in their inward form are truths as they exist in the spiritual sense of the Word. 'Dividing the garments into four parts' meant total dispersion, in the same way that dividing does in Zechariah 14:4, and elsewhere. Dividing into two parts - as it says in Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38, regarding the veil of the Temple - has a like meaning. The splitting apart of the rocks also at that time, Matthew 27:51, represented the dispersing of all matters of faith; for 'rock' means the Lord in respect of faith, and therefore means faith received from the Lord, 8581.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. i.e. cruel

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

Bible

 

Genesis 35

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1 God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother."

2 Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments.

3 Let us arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went."

4 They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

5 They traveled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn't pursue the sons of Jacob.

6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.

7 He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

8 Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth.

9 God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him.

10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel." He named him Israel.

11 God said to him, "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body.

12 The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your seed after you will I give the land."

13 God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him.

14 Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it.

15 Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him "Bethel."

16 They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor.

17 When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for now you will have another son."

18 It happened, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.

19 Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem).

20 Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.

21 Israel traveled, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

22 It happened, while Israel lived in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

23 The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

25 The sons of Bilhah (Rachel's handmaid): Dan and Naphtali.

26 The sons of Zilpah (Leah's handmaid): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

27 Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners.

28 The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.

29 Isaac gave up the spirit, and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him.