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Deuteronomy 7

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1 When Jehovah thy God shall bring thee to the land whither thou comest to possess it, and shall shake·​·off many nations from before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations of many, and more numerous than thou;

2 and Jehovah thy God shall give· them ·over before thee, and thou shalt smite them, dooming thou shalt·​·doom them; thou shalt not cut a covenant with them, nor be·​·gracious to them;

3 and thou shalt not make·​·marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give to his son, and his daughter thou shalt not take to thy son.

4 For they will turn·​·aside thy son from following after Me, that they may serve other gods; and the anger of Jehovah shall be·​·fierce against you, and blot· thee ·out hastily.

5 But thus you shall do to them; you shall tear·​·down their altars, and break their statues, and hew·​·down their groves, and burn·​·up their graven images with fire.

6 For thou art a holy people to Jehovah thy God; Jehovah thy God has chosen thee to be a special people to Himself, above all the peoples who are on the faces of the ground.

7 It was not on account of your multitude being more than all the peoples that Jehovah delighted in you, and chose you; for you were the fewest of all the peoples;

8 but from the love of Jehovah for you, and from His keeping the promise which He had promised to your fathers, Jehovah has brought· you ·out with a firm hand, and redeemed you from the house of servitude*, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 And know that Jehovah thy God, He is God, the faithful God, keeping the covenant and the mercy for them who love Him and keep His commandments for a thousand generations;

10 and repaying those who hate Him to His face, to make him perish; He will not delay for him who hates Him to His face, He will repay him.

11 And thou shalt keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee today, to do them.

12 And it shall be, if you hear these judgments, and keep and do them, then Jehovah thy God shall keep for thee the covenant and the mercy which He promised to thy fathers;

13 and He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee; and He will bless the fruit of thy belly, and the fruit of thy ground, thy grain, and thy must*, and thine olive·​·oil, the progeny of thine oxen, and the sheep of thy flock, on the ground which He promised to thy fathers to give to thee.

14 Thou shalt be blessed above all the peoples; there shall not be sterile or barren* among you, or among your beasts.

15 And Jehovah will remove from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which· thou ·knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

16 And thou shalt devour all the people which Jehovah thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall not spare them; neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare to thee.

17 For if thou shalt say in thy heart, These nations are more than I; how am· I ·able to dispossess them?

18 Thou shalt not fear them; remembering thou shalt remember what Jehovah thy God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt;

19 the great proofs which thine eyes saw, and the signs and the miracles, and the firm hand, and the stretched·​·out arm, by which Jehovah thy God brought· thee ·out; so shall Jehovah thy God do to all the peoples whose faces thou fearest.

20 And also Jehovah thy God will send the hornet among them, until they who are left, and hide themselves from thy face, perish.

21 Thou shalt not be terrified at their faces; for Jehovah thy God is among you, a great God and to be feared.

22 And Jehovah thy God will shake·​·off those nations from before thee a few by a few; thou wilt not be·​·able to consume·​·all of them hastily, lest the wild·​·animals of the field multiply upon thee.

23 But Jehovah thy God shall put them before thy face, and shall upset them with great upset, until they be blotted·​·out.

24 And He shall deliver their kings into thy hand, and thou shalt make· their name ·perish from under heaven; there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have blotted· them ·out.

25 The graven images of their gods you shall burn·​·up with fire; thou shalt not covet the silver and gold that is on them, nor take it to thyself, lest thou be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Jehovah thy God.

26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thy house, lest thou be a doomed·​·thing* like it; detesting thou shalt detest it, and abominating thou shalt abominate it; for it is a doomed·​·thing.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 9331

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9331. 'And I will send the hornet before you' means the dread felt by those who are steeped in falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'hornets' as falsities that are stinging and lethal and therefore cause feelings of dread. Terror is used in reference to those immersed in evils, and dread to those steeped in falsities; regarding the terror felt by the former, see above in 9327. The reason why the dread felt by those steeped in falsities is meant by 'hornets' is that these are winged creatures equipped with stings with which they can administer venomous pricks. For living creatures both great and small mean such things as compose human affections, that is, such as are connected with the will, or else they mean such things as compose human thoughts, that is, such as are connected with the understanding. For everything without exception in the human being has connection either with his will or with his understanding. Things that have no connection with one or the other do not exist in the human being, and so are not part of the human being. Creatures that walk and also ones that creep mean affections in both senses, and so mean forms of good or else evils since these belong to the affections, whereas flying creatures, including insects with wings, mean such things as belong to thought in both senses, and so mean truths or else falsities since these belong to thoughts.

Living creatures mean forms of good or else evils, see 9280. Ones that creep mean forms of good or else evils on the external level of the senses, 746, 909, 994. Flying creatures mean truths or falsities, 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 911, 988, 3219, 5149, 7441. Consequently insects with wings mean the same things, but as they exist on the outermost levels of the human mind.

[2] But falsities, which are the subject now, are of many kinds. There are falsities which do no harm, there are falsities which do slight harm and those which do serious harm, and there are also those which are lethal. What kind they are is recognized from the evils they arise from. Every falsity that is harmful or that is lethal owes its existence to evil; for falsity arising from evil is evil revealing itself in an outward form. In the next life also, when such falsities are represented visually, they are seen as swarms of filthy insects and flying creatures, a terrifying sight that is determined by the type of evil from which the falsities derive. From all this it is evident why it is that the dread felt by those steeped in falsities arising from evil is meant by 'hornets'. Similarly in Deuteronomy,

Jehovah your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you have perished. Deuteronomy 7:20.

[3] Throughout the Word various types of insects are mentioned, and wherever they are mentioned they mean falsities or evils in the outermost levels of the human mind, or the external level of the senses. These evils and falsities have their origin in the illusions of the senses and in various bodily pleasures and appetites, which mislead by means of their allurements and by outward appearances, and cause reason to assent to and so become immersed in falsities arising from evil. This type of falsities is meant by 'the noxious flying insects' of Egypt, see 7441, and likewise by 'the locusts' there, 7643. By 'the frogs' of Egypt reasonings arising from falsities are meant, 7351, 7352, 7384; by 'the lice' there evils of the same kind are meant, 7419; and by 'worms' falsities that devour and torment, 8481.

[4] Such evils and falsities are also meant by the various types of insects referred to in the following places: In Isaiah,

It will happen on that day, that Jehovah will whistle for the fly that is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Asshur. They will come and all of them will rest in the river of desolations, and in the clefts of the rocks, and in all bushes. Isaiah 7:18-19.

This refers to the Lord's Coming, and to the state of the Church then. 'The fly in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt' is falsity on the outermost levels of the human mind, that is, on the external level of the senses, 7441. 'The bee in the land of Asshur' is falsity perverting reasonings in the mind; for 'Asshur' means reasoning, 1186. 'The river of desolations' is falsity reigning everywhere; 'the clefts of the rocks' are the truths of faith lying in obscurity, because they have been removed from the light of heaven, 8581 (end); and 'bushes' are similar but newly developing truths, 2682.

[5] In Amos,

I struck you with blight and mildew; your very many gardens, and your vineyards, and your fig trees, and your olive trees the caterpillar (eruca) devoured. Amos 4:9.

In Joel,

What the caterpillar (eruca) has left the locust will devour, and what the locust has left the beetle (melolontha) will devour, and what the beetle has left the bruchus 1 will devour. Awake, you drunkards; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine that has been cut off from your mouth. Joel 1:4-5.

In the same prophet,

The threshing-floors are full of clean grain; the presses overflow with new wine and oil. And I will recompense for you the years that the locust has consumed, the beetle (melolontha), and the bruchus, and the caterpillar (eruca), My great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:24-25.

Here falsities and evils on the outermost levels or the external level of the senses of a member of the Church are meant by these types of insects, as is evident from the specific details in these quotations; for they refer to the perversion of the Church's truth and good. What 'the locust' and what 'the bruchus' mean may be seen in 7643; and the fact that the Church's forms of good and its truths in general are meant by 'gardens', 'vineyards', 'fig trees', 'olive trees', 'wine', and 'new wine', which are destroyed by such creatures, has been shown often in explanations.

[6] In David,

He caused frogs to crawl forth onto their land, into the chambers of their kings. He spoke, that a swarm might come, lice in all their borders. Psalms 105:30-31.

This refers to Egypt. What is meant by 'frogs' there, see 7351, 7352, 7384; and what by 'lice', 7419. In Moses,

You will plant and dress vineyards, but not drink wine nor gather [the fruit]; for the worm will eat it. Deuteronomy 28:39.

'The worm' stands for all such falsity and evil in general.

[7] In Isaiah,

Do not fear the reproach of man (homo), and do not be dismayed by their slanders. For the moth will devour them as a garment, and the grub will devour them as wool. Isaiah 51:7-8.

'The moth' stands for falsities on the outermost levels of the human mind, and 'the grub' for evils there. For 'a garment' which the moth will devour means the lower or more external truths that belong to the sensory level of the human mind, 2576, 5248, 6377, 6918, 9158, 9212; and 'wool' which the grub will devour means the lower or more external forms of good that belong to the sensory level of the human mind, as is evident from many places in the Word, and also from the meaning of 'a sheep', from which wool is obtained, as the good of charity, 4169. What exactly are the outermost levels of the natural man, which are called those of the senses, and what they are like, see 4009, 5077, 5081, 5084, 5089, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5580, 5767, 5774, 6183, 6201, 6310-6318, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949, 7442, 7645, 7693, 9212, 9216.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. i.e. a (wingless) kind of locust, possibly the larva of a locust

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