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Exodus 30

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1 And thou shalt make an altar for the burning· of incense ·as·​·incense; of shittim* wood shalt thou make it.

2 A cubit its length, and a cubit its breadth; foursquare shall it be; and two cubits its height; out of it shall be its horns.

3 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, its roof and its walls round·​·about, and its horns; and thou shalt make for it a rim of gold all around.

4 And thou shalt make for it two rings of gold beneath its rim, upon its two ribs; upon its two ribs shalt thou make them; and it shall be for the housings for the poles, to carry it in them.

5 And thou shalt make the poles of shittim wood, and shalt overlay them with gold.

6 And thou shalt put it before the veil that is over the ark of the Testimony, before the place of atonement that is over the Testimony, whither I will meet·​·together with thee.

7 And Aaron shall burn·​·incense on it, fragrant incense in the morning by the morning; in his adorning the lamps* he shall burn· it ·for·​·incense.

8 And when Aaron causes the flame of the lamps to go·​·up* between the two·​·evenings*, he shall burn· it ·for·​·incense, a continual incense before Jehovah for your generations.

9 You shall not offer·​·up strange incense nor burnt·​·offering nor gift·​·offering upon it; and you shall not pour·​·out a poured·​·offering upon it.

10 And Aaron shall make·​·atonement upon the horns of it once in the year, from the blood of the sin offering of atonements; once in the year he shall make·​·atonement upon it to your generations; a holy of holies is this to Jehovah.

11 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

12 When thou shalt take·​·up the sum of the sons of Israel, as to those who are numbered of them, then they shall give, each·​·man, an atonement of his soul to Jehovah when numbering them, that there be not among them a plague striking when numbering them.

13 This they shall give, everyone that passes·​·by upon those who are numbered, half a shekel, in the shekel of holiness, a shekel of twenty gerahs, the half of a shekel an uplifting to Jehovah.

14 Everyone that passes·​·by upon those who are numbered, from a son of twenty years and upward, shall give an uplifting to Jehovah.

15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half of the shekel, to give the uplifting to Jehovah, to make·​·atonement on your souls.

16 And thou shalt take the silver of atonements from among the sons of Israel, and thou shalt give it for the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation; and it shall be to the sons of Israel for a memorial before Jehovah, to make·​·atonement upon your souls.

17 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

18 And thou shalt make a laver of bronze, and its base of bronze, for bathing; and thou shalt put it between the Tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put waters there.

19 And Aaron and his sons shall bathe from it their hands and their feet.

20 When they come into the Tabernacle of the congregation they shall bathe with waters, that they die not; or when they approach the altar to minister, to burn·​·for·​·incense a fire·​·offering to Jehovah.

21 And they shall bathe their hands and their feet, that they die not; and it shall be to them a statute of an age, to him and to his seed, to their generations.

22 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

23 And take thou for thee the foremost spices, the best myrrh* five hundred, and cinnamon spice the half of it, fifty and two·​·hundred, and calamus spice, fifty and two·​·hundred;

24 and cassia five hundred, in the shekel of holiness; and oil of olive a hin.

25 And thou shalt make it an oil of anointing of holiness, an ointment of ointment, made·​·by the ointment·​·maker; an oil of anointing of holiness it shall be.

26 And thou shalt anoint with it the Tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the Testimony;

27 and the table and all its vessels, and the lampstand and its vessels, and the altar of incense;

28 and the altar of burnt·​·offering and all its vessels, and the laver and its base.

29 And thou shalt sanctify them, and they shall be a holy of holies; whoever touches them shall be made·​·holy.

30 And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and shalt sanctify them, to be·​·priests to Me.

31 And thou shalt speak to the sons of Israel, saying, This shall be for Me an oil of anointing of holiness for your generations.

32 On the flesh of man shall it not be poured·​·out; and according to its fixed·​·measure you shall not make any like it; holy it is; holy shall it be to you.

33 The man who shall make·​·ointment like it, and who shall put of it on a stranger, even he shall be cut·​·off from his peoples.

34 And Jehovah said to Moses, Take for thee fragrances, a drop, and onycha, and galbanum, fragrances, and pure frankincense, so much in so much shall it be.

35 And thou shalt make it an incense, an ointment made·​·by the ointment·​·maker, salted, pure, holy.

36 And thou shalt pound some of it, making· it ·thin, and shalt put some of it before the Testimony in the Tabernacle of the congregation, whither I will meet·​·together with thee, a holy of holies shall it be to you.

37 And the incense which thou makest in its fixed·​·measure, you shall not make for yourselves; holy to Jehovah shall it be to thee.

38 The man who shall make like to it, to cause a smell with it, even he shall be cut·​·off from his peoples.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 10252

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10252. 'The best myrrh' means the perception of truth on the level of the senses. This is clear from the meaning of 'odour-bearing myrrh' as the perception of truth on the level of the senses; for its 'odour' means perception, as immediately above, and 'myrrh' truth on the level of the senses. The subject in the verses that come now is the anointing oil, by which celestial good, which is the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love in the inmost heaven, is meant. The nature of that good is described by the fragrant substances from which it was made. These were the best myrrh, sweet-smelling cinnamon, sweet-smelling calamus, cassia, and olive oil, which mean celestial truths and forms of good in their proper order, that is to say, ranging from those which are last and lowest in order to those which are first, or from those which are outermost to those which are inmost, the last or outermost being meant by 'myrrh'. The reason why celestial good, or the good of the inmost heaven, is described in this manner is that the truths meant by those spices are the means by which such good comes into being and is also kept in being.

[2] But since this matter demands to be investigated more deeply, the whole nature of it must be explained more fully. In order that the birth of celestial good, which is inmost good, may take place in a person, which is accomplished through being regenerated by the Lord, truths must be acquired from the Word, or from the teachings of the Church which are drawn from the Word. These truths first find 1 their seat in the memory within the natural or external man. From there they are summoned by the Lord into the internal man, which happens when the person leads a life in keeping with them. And so far as the person has an affection for them, that is, loves them, they are raised by the Lord to an even higher or more internal level, where they are transformed into celestial good.

[3] Celestial good is the good of the love which desires to put truths from the Word into practice for the sake of good, thus for the Lord's sake since the Lord is the source of good and therefore is such good. This is how that good comes to be born, from which it is evident that such good is brought into being by means of truths from the Word, first by their presence on the most external level in a person, which is that of the senses, then by their being raised to an internal level, and finally to the inmost one itself, where those truths are transformed into celestial good. And since that good is brought into being in this way by means of truths in their own order, so subsequently is it kept in being in similar order by means of those very truths; for continuance in being is a perpetual coming into being. When good is kept in being in that manner, the same as it had been brought into being, it is complete. For now higher things descending in order have lower ones to depend on as an infrastructure for their continued existence, for a resting-place, and for a plane of support.

[4] And they have outermost or last and lowest ones, which are truths present within knowledge on the level of the senses, as a foundation. These truths are described in John, in the Book of Revelation, by the precious stones forming the foundations of the wall of the Holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, Revelation 21:19-20. By 'precious stones' God's truths received within good are meant, see 9476, 9863, 9873, 9905.

The fact that 'odour-bearing myrrh' means truth on the level of the senses is also clear in David,

You have loved righteousness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions. With myrrh, aloes, and kessia 2 [He has anointed] all Your garments. Psalms 45:7-8.

These words refer to the Lord, who alone is Jehovah's Anointed, because the Divine Good of Divine Love, meant by 'anointing oil', was within Him, 9954. By 'His garments', which are said to have been anointed with myrrh, aloes, and kessia, Divine Truths springing from His Divine Good, present in the natural degree, are meant, 5954, 9212, 9216, 9814, so that 'myrrh' means Divine Truth on the level of the senses since it is mentioned first.

[5] In Matthew,

Opening their treasures the wise men from the east offered gifts to the new-born Lord - gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 2:11.

'Gold' here means good, 'frankincense' internal truth, and 'myrrh' external truth; both kinds of truth spring from good. In this instance 'gold' is the first to be mentioned because it means good, which is inmost; 'frankincense' is the second because it means internal truth springing from good; and 'myrrh' is the third or last to be mentioned because it means external truth springing from good. For the meaning of 'gold' as good, see in the places referred to in 9874, 9881; and for that of 'frankincense' as internal truth springing from good, see below at verse 34 of the present chapter.

[6] The wise men from the east offered those gifts to the Lord born at that time to indicate His Divinity within His Humanity; for having a knowledge of correspondences and representations they knew what gold, frankincense, and myrrh each served to mean. That knowledge was the chief kind that existed in those times among Arabs, Ethiopians, and others in the east, which also explains why in the Word those who possess cognitions or knowledge of heavenly things are meant in the internal sense by Arabia, Ethiopia, and 'the sons of the east', 1171, 3240, 3242, 3762. But such knowledge during that time perished, for when the good of life passed away the knowledge was turned into magic. First it was erased among the Israelite nation, and subsequently among all the rest. At the present day it has been erased to such an extent that people do not even know of its existence; indeed it is so completely absent from the Christian world that if anyone tells them that all things in the literal sense of the Word serve by virtue of their correspondence to mean heavenly realities, and that these constitute its internal sense, they do not know what to make of it.

[7] Because myrrh served to mean the most external truth, which is truth on the level of the senses, and perception of that truth, the bodies of those who had died were anointed in former times with myrrh and aloes. That anointing served to mean the preservation of all of a person's truths and forms of good, and also to mean resurrection. Therefore also such [spices] were used as served to mean the last and lowest level of a person's life, called the life of the senses. The Lord's body was anointed with such, and together with them was wrapped in a linen cloth; and this was the custom among the Jews, see John 19:39-40, and also Luke 23:55-56. But it should be remembered that things said in the Word about the Lord Himself are to be understood in a pre-eminent sense. Consequently the spices mentioned in those verses mean His Divine life on the level of the senses, which is the life proper to the body, and also the resurrection of this with Him. As is well known, unlike anyone else the Lord rose again with the whole body He had in the world, for He left nothing in the tomb. Therefore also, when the disciples beheld the Lord and thought that they were seeing a spirit, He said to them,

Why are you troubled? See My hands and My feet; handle Me, see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Me have. Luke 24:38-39.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. Reading nanciscuntur (find) for nascuntur (are born)

2. The Hebrew word which appears in Psalms 45:8 is q'tsi-oth, the plural of q'tsi-ah, while that in Exodus 30:24 and Ezekiel 27:19 is qiddah. Nowadays both Hebrew words are taken to mean cassia; but the unusual spelling kessia is used to show the difference.

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