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Deuteronomy 30

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1 And it shall be, that all these things shall come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have put before thee, and thou shalt return to thy heart, in all the nations whither Jehovah thy God has expelled thee.

2 And thou shalt return even·​·to Jehovah thy God, and shalt hearken to His voice, according·​·to all that I command thee today, thou and thy sons, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;

3 and Jehovah thy God will turn·​·back thy captivity, and have·​·compassion·​·on thee, and will return and bring· thee ·together from all the peoples, whither Jehovah thy God has scattered thee.

4 If any of thine be expelled to the end parts of the heavens, from thence will Jehovah thy God bring· thee ·together, and from thence will He fetch thee;

5 and Jehovah thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do· thee ·good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

6 And Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, so·​·that thou mayest live.

7 And Jehovah thy God will put all these curses on thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, who persecuted thee.

8 And thou shalt return and hearken to the voice of Jehovah, and do all His commandments which I command thee today.

9 And Jehovah thy God will make thee excel in every work of thy hand, in the fruit of thy belly, and in the fruit of thy beasts, and in the fruit of thy ground, for good; for Jehovah will return to have·​·joy over thee for good, as He had·​·joy over thy fathers:

10 when thou obey the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the Law, and when thou return to Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

11 For this commandment which I command thee today, is not too wonderful for thee, neither is it far·​·off.

12 It is not in the heavens, to say, Who shall go·​·up for us to the heavens, and fetch it for us, that we may hear it, and do it?

13 Neither is it across the sea, to say, Who shall cross the sea for us, and fetch it for us, that we may hear it, and do it?

14 But the Word is very near to thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, to do it.

15 See, I have put before thee today life and good, and death and evil;

16 in that I command thee today to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments; and thou shalt live and multiply; and Jehovah thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou come to possess it.

17 But if thy heart turn, and thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

18 I tell you today, that perishing you shall perish, you shall not prolong your days upon the ground, whither thou cross·​·over the Jordan to go·​·in to possess it.

19 I call· the heavens and the earth ·to·​·testify today against you, that I have put before thee life and death, blessing and cursing; and choose life, so·​·that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed:

20 to love Jehovah thy God, to obey His voice, and to stick to Him; for He is thy lives*, and the length of thy days, to dwell on the ground which Jehovah promised to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 2039

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2039. 'Every male [among you] is to be circumcised' means purity. This is clear from the representation and consequently the meaning of 'circumcising' in the internal sense. Circumcision or cutting off the foreskin meant nothing else than the removal and rejection of those elements which stand in the way of and defile heavenly love, namely evil desires, especially those of self-love, and falsities resulting from those desires. The reason why this is the meaning is that the genital organs of both sexes represent heavenly love. There are three kinds of love which constitute the heavenly things of the Lord's kingdom - conjugial love, the love of infants, and social or mutual love. Conjugial love is the chief love of all because it has within it the end of serving the greatest use, namely the propagating of the human race, and therefore of the Lord's kingdom for which it is the seminary. Next to conjugial love, and deriving from it, comes the love of infants, and after that social or mutual love. Whatever covers over, obstructs, and defiles those loves is meant by the foreskin, the cutting away of which, or circumcision, therefore became representative. Indeed to the extent evil desires and resulting falsities are removed, a person is purified and heavenly love can show itself. How contrary self-love is to heavenly love, and how filthy, has been stated and shown in 760, 1307, 1308, 1321, 1594, 2045, 2057. From these considerations it is plain that circumcision in the internal sense means purity.

[2] That circumcision is no more than the sign of a covenant or of conjunction becomes quite clear from the fact that circumcising the foreskin counts for absolutely nothing if unaccompanied by circumcision of the heart; and that purification from those filthy loves is what circumcision of the heart means is quite evident from the following places in the Word: In Moses,

Jehovah God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, so that you will love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Deuteronomy 30:6.

From these words it is clear that 'circumcising the heart' means being purified from filthy loves in order that Jehovah God or the Lord may be loved with all the heart and all the soul.

[3] In Jeremiah,

Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and remove the foreskin of your heart, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 4:3-4.

'Circumcising oneself to Jehovah and removing the foreskin of the heart' is nothing other than removing such things as stand in the way of heavenly love. From this it is also clear that circumcision of the heart is something more interior that is meant by circumcision of the foreskin. In Moses,

You shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and you shall be stiff-necked no longer. [Jehovah] executes judgement for the orphan and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and clothing. Deuteronomy 10:16, 18.

Here also it is plain that 'circumcising the foreskin of the heart' means being purified from the evils that accompany filthy loves and from resulting falsities. The heavenly things of love are described as charitable works, namely 'executing judgement for the orphan and widow', and 'loving the sojourner to give him bread and clothing'.

[4] In Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming in which I will visit every one circumcised in the foreskin - Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut and who dwell in the wilderness, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. Jeremiah 9:25-26.

This too shows that circumcision was a sign meaning purification. Although they are called 'circumcised in the foreskin', these nations - the Jews included along with the rest - are considered to be 'uncircumcised nations', and Israel to be 'uncircumcised in heart'. In Moses,

If at that time their uncircumcised heart is humbled. Leviticus 26:41.

Here the meaning is similar.

[5] That the foreskin and being uncircumcised means that which is unclean is clear in Isaiah,

Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion, put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for there will no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. Isaiah 52:1.

'Zion' is used to mean the celestial Church and 'Jerusalem' the spiritual Church into which the uncircumcised, which means the unclean, will not enter.

[6] That circumcision is 'a sign of the covenant' or token of conjunction is quite clear from the fact that the same was represented by the requirement to circumcise the fruits of trees also, spoken of in Moses as follows,

When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food you shall circumcise its foreskin, its fruit. For three years it shall be to you uncircumcised; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth all its fruit shall be holy. to the praises of Jehovah. Leviticus 19:23-24.

'Fruit' similarly represents and means charity, as becomes clear from many places in the Word. Their 'foreskin' accordingly means the uncleanness that obstructs and pollutes charity.

[7] Here is a marvel: When angels in heaven conceive the idea of purification from natural things that are filthy, something akin to circumcision is represented very speedily in the world of spirits, for in the world of spirits angelic ideas come over as representatives. In the Jewish Church there were some representative religious ceremonies which had those same origins and there were others which did not. The spirits with whom that swift circumcision was represented in the world of spirits were people who wished to be allowed into heaven, but before they were allowed in this representation took place. This explains why Joshua was commanded to circumcise the people after they had crossed the Jordan and were about to enter the land of Canaan. The people's entry into the land of Canaan represented nothing else than the admission into heaven of those who have had faith.

[8] This is why circumcision was commanded a second time, described in Joshua as follows,

Jehovah said to Joshua, Make swords of flint for yourself; circumcise the children of Israel a second time. And Joshua made swords of flint for himself, and circumcised the children of Israel on the hill of foreskins. And Jehovah said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. And he called the name of that place Gilgal (rolling away). Joshua 5:2-3, 9.

'Swords of flint' means the truths which they were to be provided with to enable them to correct and cut back filthy loves, for without cognitions of truth no purification is possible. That 'stone' or 'flirt' means truths has been shown already, in 643, 1298, and that 'a sword' has reference to truths by which evils may be corrected is clear from the Word.

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