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Deuteronomy 12

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1 These are the statutes and judgments, which you shall observe to do in the land, which Jehovah God of thy fathers gives thee to possess it, all the days that you are alive upon the ground.

2 Making·​·to·​·perish you shall make· all the places ·perish, wherein the nations, which you shall dispossess, served their gods, on the exalted mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree;

3 and you shall tear·​·down their altars, and break their statues, and burn·​·up their groves with fire; and you shall hew·​·down the graven images of their gods, and make· their names ·perish from that place.

4 You shall not do so to Jehovah your God.

5 But to the place which Jehovah your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even to His Habitation you shall inquire, and thither thou shalt come;

6 and thither you shall bring your burnt·​·offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and upliftings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks;

7 and there you shall eat before Jehovah your God, and you shall be·​·glad in all that you put·​·forth your hand to, you and your houses, in which Jehovah thy God has blessed thee.

8 You shall not do after all that we do here today, each man, all that is upright in his own eyes.

9 For you have not yet come to rest and to the inheritance, which Jehovah thy God gives thee.

10 And you shall cross·​·over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Jehovah your God causes you to inherit; and He shall give you rest from all your enemies from all around you, and you shall dwell securely.

11 And there shall be a place which Jehovah your God shall choose to cause His name to abide there; thither you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt·​·offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the uplifting of your hand, and all the choice of your vows which you vow to Jehovah;

12 and you shall be·​·glad before Jehovah your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your servants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he has no part nor inheritance with you.

13 Take·​·heed to thyself lest thou offer·​·up thy burnt·​·offerings in every place that thou seest;

14 but in the place which Jehovah shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer up thy burnt·​·offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.

15 Only with all the longing of thy soul thou mayest sacrifice and eat flesh, according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God, which He has given thee in all thy gates; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the roebuck, and as of the stag.

16 Only the blood you shall not eat; you shall spill it on the earth as water.

17 Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy grain, or of thy must*, or of thine olive·​·oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or uplifting of thy hand;

18 but thou must eat them before Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy servant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite who is within thy gates; and thou shalt be·​·glad before Jehovah thy God in all that thou puttest·​·forth thy hands.

19 Take·​·heed to thyself lest thou forsake the Levite all thy days on thy ground.

20 When Jehovah thy God shall enlarge thy border, as He has spoken to thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longs to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh with all the longing of thy soul.

21 If the place which Jehovah thy God has chosen to set His name there be· too ·far from thee, then thou shalt sacrifice from thy herd and from thy flock, which Jehovah has given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates with all the longing of thy soul.

22 Surely as one eats the roebuck and the stag, so thou shalt eat them; the unclean and the clean shall eat of them together.

23 Only be·​·firm not to eat the blood; for the blood, it is the soul; and thou shalt not eat the soul with the flesh.

24 Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt spill it on the earth as water.

25 Thou shalt not eat it; so·​·that it may be·​·good for thee, and for thy sons after thee, for thou shalt do what is upright in the eyes of Jehovah.

26 Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt carry, and come to the place which Jehovah shall choose;

27 and thou shalt make thy burnt·​·offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Jehovah thy God; and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be spilled on the altar of Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh.

28 Keep and hear all these words which I command thee, so·​·that it may be·​·good for thee, and for thy sons after thee even·​·to eternity, when thou doest what is good and upright in the eyes of Jehovah thy God.

29 When Jehovah thy God shall cut·​·off the nations from before thee, whither thou comest to possess them, and thou shalt possess them, and dwell in their land;

30 take·​·heed for thyself, lest thou be ensnared following after them, after they be blotted·​·out from before thee; and lest thou inquire as·​·to their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? and so will I do, even I.

31 Thou shalt not do so to Jehovah thy God; for every abomination to Jehovah, which He hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

32 13:1 Every word that I command you, thou shalt observe to do it; thou shalt not add to it, and thou shalt not diminish from it.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Arcana Coelestia # 3727

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3727. As regards the meaning of 'a pillar', the reason why it means a holy boundary and so the ultimate degree of order is that in most ancient times people used to place stones where their boundaries ran which separated one person's property or inheritance from another's. These served as a sign and witness to the existence of the boundaries there. The most ancient people, who in every object and in every pillar thought of something celestial or spiritual, 1977, 2995, thought, when they saw these stones set up as pillars, of the ultimate things present in man, and so of the ultimate degree of order, which is truth in the natural man. And it was from those most ancient people who lived before the Flood that the ancients who lived after it acquired this custom, 920, 1409, 2179, 2896, 2897, and began to regard the stones they set up on their boundaries as sacred, for the reason, as stated, that they meant holy truth as it exists in the ultimate degree of order, and also called those stones 'pillars'. This was how it came about that pillars were introduced into their worship, and why they erected them where they had their sacred groves and subsequently their temples, and also anointed them with oil, a point to be dealt with shortly. Indeed the worship of the Ancient Church consisted of things that had been perceived and things that had carried a meaning among the most ancient people prior to the Flood, as is evident from the paragraphs that have just been referred to. Since the most ancient people talked to angels and were in their company while still on earth, they received it from heaven that 'stones' means truth and 'wood' good; see just above in 3720. This then is why 'pillars' means a holy boundary, and so truth as it exists in the ultimate degree of order with man. For good which flows in from the Lord by way of the internal man terminates in the external man, and in the truth that is there. Man's thought, speech, and activity, which are the ultimates of order, are nothing else than truths stemming from good. In fact they are the images or forms which good takes, for they belong to the understanding part of the human mind, whereas the good that is within them, and from which they spring, belongs to the will part.

[2] The fact that pillars were erected as a sign and a witness, and were also introduced into worship, and that in the internal sense they mean a holy boundary, or truth within man's natural, which is the ultimate degree of order, becomes clear from other places in the Word, as in the following verses where the subject is the covenant made between Laban and Jacob,

Now come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and let it be a witness between me and you. And Jacob took a stone and erected it as a pillar. Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have erected between me and you. This heap is a witness and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and that you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. Genesis 31:44-45, 51-52.

Here 'pillar' means truth, as will be seen in the explanation of those verses.

[3] In Isaiah,

On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak with the lips of Canaan and swear to Jehovah Zebaoth. On that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border to Jehovah, which will be a sign and a witness to Jehovah Zebaoth in the land of Egypt. Isaiah 19:18-20.

'Egypt' stands for facts which belong to the natural man, 'an altar' for Divine worship in general, for in the second Ancient Church that began with Eber the altar became the first and foremost representative in its worship, 921, 1343, 2777, 2811. 'The midst of the land of Egypt' stands for the primary and inmost aspect of worship, 2940, 2973, 3436. 'Pillar' stands for truth as it exists in the ultimate degree of order in the natural. The fact that it stood at the border as a sign and a witness is quite evident.

[4] In Moses,

Moses wrote down all the words of Jehovah and rose up in the morning and built an altar beside Mount Sinai, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. Exodus 24:4.

Here similarly 'an altar' was the representative of all worship, and indeed was the representative of good present in worship. 'The twelve pillars' however were the representative in worship of truth that stems from good - 'twelve' meaning every aspect of truth in its entirety, see 577, 2089, 2129 (end), 2130 (end), 3272; and the twelve tribes likewise meaning every aspect of truth in the Church, as in the Lord's Divine mercy will be shown in the next chapter.

[5] Because altars were representative of all good in worship, and the Jewish Church was established so as to represent the celestial Church which acknowledged no other truth than truth stemming from good, which is called celestial truth (for the celestial Church was totally unwilling to separate truth from good, so much so that it was unwilling even to refer to anything of faith or truth without thinking about good, and doing so from good, see 202, 337, 2069, 2715, 2718, 3246), truth was therefore represented by the stones of the altar. And they were forbidden to represent it by means of pillars lest in so doing they separated truth from good and by representation worshipped truth instead of good. This accounts for the following prohibition in Moses,

You shall not plant for yourself a grove of any kind of tree beside the altar of Jehovah your God which you shall make for yourself. And you shall not erect for yourself a pillar, which Jehovah your God hates. Deuteronomy 16:21-22.

For worshipping truth separated from good, or faith separated from charity, is contrary to the Divine since it is contrary to order, meant by 'you shall not erect for yourself a pillar, which Jehovah your God hates'.

[6] Despite this they did erect them and so represented things that are contrary to order, as is clear in Hosea,

Israel, according to the multiplying of his fruit, multiplies altars; according to the goodness of their land they make well their pillars. But He will overturn their altars, and lay waste their pillars. Hosea 10:1-2.

In the first Book of Kings,

Judah did what was evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and they built for themselves high places and pillars and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree. 1 Kings 14:22-23.

In the second Book of Kings,

The children of Israel set up pillars for themselves and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. 2 Kings 17:10.

In the same book,

Hezekiah removed the high places, and broke down the pillars, and cut down the grove, and smashed the bronze snake which Moses had made, because they had been burning incense to it. 2 Kings 18:4.

[7] Since gentile nations too derived through tradition the idea that the holiness of worship was to be represented by means of altars and pillars, and yet they were under the influence of evil and falsity, the altars among the nations therefore mean the evils of worship and the pillars the falsities. This was why the command was given for them to be destroyed. In Moses,

The altars of the nations you shall overthrow, and you shall break down their pillars and tear down their groves. Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; 12:3.

In the same author,

You shall not bow down to the gods of the nations, or worship them, or do according to their works, for you shall utterly destroy them, and utterly break down their pillars. Exodus 23:24.

'The gods of the nations' stands for falsities, 'their works' for evils, 'breaking down their pillars' for destroying worship arising out of falsity.

[8] In Jeremiah,

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel will break down the pillars of the house of the sun that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire. Jeremiah 43:13.

In Ezekiel,

By means of the hoofs of his horses Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel will trample all your streets, slay the people with the sword, and cause your mighty pillars to come down to the ground. Ezekiel 26:11.

This refers to Tyre. 'Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel' stands for that which lays waste, 1327 (end). 'The hoofs of horses' stands for the lowest form of intellectual concepts, such as facts based on mere sensory impressions - 'hoofs' meaning lowest concepts, as will in the Lord's Divine mercy be confirmed elsewhere. 'Horses' stands for matters of the understanding, 2760-2762, 'streets' for truths, and in the contrary sense for falsities, 2336. 'trampling' on them is destroying cognitions of truth, which are meant by 'Tyre' - 'Tyre', the subject here, meaning cognitions of truth, 1201. 'Slaying the people with the sword' stands for destroying truths by means of falsity - 'people' being used in reference to truths, 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, and 'sword' meaning falsity engaged in conflict, 2799. From this one may see what 'causing your mighty pillars to come down to the ground' means - 'might' being used in reference either to truth or to falsity, as is also clear from the Word.

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