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Deuteronomy 29

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1 28:69 These are the words of the covenant, which Jehovah commanded Moses to cut with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He cut with them in Horeb.

2 1 And Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, You have seen all that Jehovah did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land;

3 2 the great proofs which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles;

4 3 and Jehovah has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, even·​·to this day.

5 4 And I have caused you to go forty years in the wilderness; your raiment is not worn·​·out from upon you, and thy shoe is not worn·​·out from upon thy foot.

6 5 You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong·​·drink; that you might know that I am Jehovah your God.

7 6 And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, went·​·out to meet us for battle, and we smote them;

8 7 and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of the Manassites.

9 8 And you shall keep the words of this covenant, and do them, and you shall have·​·intelligence in all that you do.

10 9 You stand·​·up today, all of you before Jehovah your God; your heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, every man of Israel,

11 10 your infants, your wives, and thy sojourner who is in the midst thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood to the drawer of thy water;

12 11 that thou shouldest pass into a covenant with Jehovah thy God, and into His oath, which Jehovah thy God cuts with thee today;

13 12 so·​·that He may raise· thee ·up today, for a people for Himself, that He may be to thee for God, as He has spoken to thee, and as He has promised to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

14 13 Neither with you only do I cut this covenant and this oath;

15 14 but with him who is standing here with us today before Jehovah our God, and also with him who is not here with us today.

16 15 For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we crossed·​·through the midst of the nations which you crossed·​·through;

17 16 and you have seen their detestable things, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were with them,

18 17 lest there·​·be among you a man, or a woman, or a family, or a tribe, whose heart turns· the ·face away today from Jehovah our God, to go serve the gods of these nations; lest there·​·be among you a root that makes the fruit of gall and wormwood;

19 18 and it shall be, when he hears the words of this oath, that he shall bless himself in his heart, saying, Peace shall be for me; for I walk in the stubbornness of my heart to gather the drunken with the thirsty;

20 19 Jehovah is· not ·willing to pardon him, for then the anger of Jehovah and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and every oath written in this book shall couch against him, and Jehovah shall wipe·​·away his name from under the heavens.

21 20 And Jehovah shall separate him into evil out·​·of all the tribes of Israel, according·​·to all the oaths of the covenant that are written in the book of this law.

22 21 And the later generation of your sons who shall rise·​·up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the smitings of that land, and the sicknesses with which Jehovah has made· her ·sick:

23 22 All her land is burning·​·up, sulfur and salt. It is not sown, nor grows, nor does any herb go·​·up in it, as the overturning of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which Jehovah overturned in His anger, and in His fury.

24 23 And all nations shall say, Why has Jehovah done thus to this land? What means the fierceness of this great anger?

25 24 And they shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, which He cut with them when He brought· them ·out from the land of Egypt.

26 25 And they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom He had not imparted to them.

27 26 And the anger of Jehovah was·​·fierce against this land, to bring upon her all the curses written in this book.

28 27 And Jehovah plucked· them ·up from upon their ground in anger, and in fury, and in great rage, and cast them into another land, as at this day.

29 28 The secret things belong to Jehovah our God; but those which are revealed belong to us and to our sons even·​·to eternity, that we may do all the words of this law.

   


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

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Apocalypse Revealed # 502

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502. Which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. This symbolizes the two hellish loves, namely, a love of ruling springing from a love of self, and a love of holding sway from a conceit in one's own intelligence, loves which are present in the church where there is not one God and where the Lord is not worshiped, and where people do not live in accordance with the Ten Commandments.

Sodom symbolizes, in the spiritual sense, a love of ruling springing from a love of self, as we shall presently see; and Egypt symbolizes, in the spiritual sense, a love of holding sway from a conceit in one's own intelligence, as we shall also presently see. So, because these two loves are symbolized, therefore the city is called, spiritually speaking, Sodom and Egypt.

These two loves are present in the church where there is not one God and where the Lord is not worshiped, and where people do not live in accordance with the Ten Commandments, because people are born with these two loves, and they come into them as they grow up. Nor can these loves be removed except by God the Savior and by a life in accordance with His commandments, and God cannot remove them unless people turn to Him, and neither is a life in accordance with His commandments possible unless a person is led by Him. Actually it is possible, but not a life that contains anything of heaven and so of the church.

A life like that is possible only from Him who is life. That the Lord is that life may be seen in John 1:1, 4; 5:26; 6:33-35ff., 11:25-26; 14:6, 19, and in many other places.

[2] A love of ruling springing from a love of self, and a love of holding sway from a conceit in one's own intelligence, are the principal loves of all the loves in hell, and so are the origin of all the evils and thus of all the falsities in the church. This is something unknown at the present day. The delights of these loves, which surpass the delights of all the heart's pleasures, cause it to be unknown, even though they are, spiritually, Sodom and Egypt.

That Sodom is a love of ruling springing from a love of self can be seen from the description of Sodom in Genesis, where we are told that when angels arrived there, the inhabitants tried to forcibly assault them at the house of Lot, and that fire and brimstone rained down on them from heaven (Genesis 19:1ff.). Fire and brimstone symbolize that love, together with its appetites.

I saw similar sights when cities and societies of people like that were overthrown at the time of the Last Judgment and their inhabitants cast into hell.

These loves and their accompanying evils are symbolized by Sodom and Gomorrah in the following passages: Isaiah 1:10; 3:8-9; 13:19.

[3] That this love is symbolically meant by Sodom is unknown in the world, but remember it and recall it when you come after death into the world of spirits and you will be completely convinced.

It should be known, however, that a love of ruling springing from a love of self and a love of ruling springing from a love of performing useful services are two different things. The latter love is a heavenly love, while the first is a hellish one. Consequently, when one is in first place, the other is in last place; which is to say, when a love of ruling springing from a love of self forms the head, then a love of ruling springing from a love of performing useful services - which is a love of serving the neighbor originating from the Lord - forms first the feet, then the soles of the feet, and finally is trampled underfoot.

On the other hand, when a love of ruling springing from a love of performing useful services - which, as we said, is a heavenly love - forms the head, then a love of ruling springing from a love of self - which, as we said, is a hellish love - forms first the feet, then the soles of the feet, and finally is trampled underfoot.

Still, these two loves can hardly be distinguished by a person in the world. That is because in outward appearance they are similar. But they can be told apart by this, that a heavenly love is present in people who turn to the Lord and live in accordance with the Ten Commandments, while a hellish love is present in people who do not turn to the Lord, and who do not live in accordance with the Ten Commandments.

  
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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.