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Exodus 34

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1 And Jehovah said to Moses, carve·​·out for thee two tablets of stones like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which thou didst break.

2 And be thou prepared for the morning, and come·​·up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and stand·​·up for Me there on the head of the mountain.

3 And a man shall not come·​·up with thee, and also a man shall not be seen in all the mountain; and a flock and a herd shall not pasture next·​·to this mountain.

4 And he carved·​·out two tablets of stones like the former ones, and Moses got·​·up·​·early in the morning, and went·​·up to Mount Sinai, as Jehovah commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stones.

5 And Jehovah came·​·down in a cloud, and stood·​·forth with him there, and He proclaimed with the name of Jehovah.

6 And Jehovah passed·​·by over his faces, and He proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and of much mercy and truth;

7 observing mercy for thousands, bearing iniquity, and transgression, and sin; and in absolving will not absolve; visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, and on the sons of the sons, on the thirds and on the fourths.

8 And Moses made·​·haste, and bent·​·himself toward the earth, and worshiped.

9 And he said, If, I pray, I have·​·found grace in Thine eyes O Lord, let the Lord, I pray, go in the midst of us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take· us ·for· Thine ·inheritance.

10 And He said, Behold I cut a covenant; before all thy people I will do wonderful things, that have not been created in all the earth, and in all the nations; and all the people in the midst of whom thou art shall see the deed of Jehovah, for it is a fearful thing that I do with thee.

11 Keep for thyself what I command thee today; behold, I drive·​·out from thy faces the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

12 Take·​·heed for thyself, lest perhaps thou cut a covenant with those who dwell·​·in the land on which thou comest, lest perhaps it become a snare in thy midst.

13 For you shall tear·​·down their altars, and shall break their statues, and shall cut·​·off his groves.

14 For thou shalt not bow· thyself ·down to another god; for Jehovah the Jealous is His name, a jealous God is He;

15 lest perhaps thou cut a covenant with those who dwell·​·in the land, and they commit·​·harlotry after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

16 and thou take of his daughters for thy sons, and his daughters commit·​·harlotry after their gods, and make thy sons commit·​·harlotry after their gods.

17 Thou shalt not make for thee molten gods.

18 The festival of unleavened things shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened things, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed of the month Abib; because in the month Abib thou wentest out from Egypt.

19 Everything that opens·​·up the womb is Mine; and of all thy livestock thou shalt give the male, that opens·​·up the womb of an ox and of an animal·​·of·​·the·​·flock.

20 And that which opens·​·up the womb of a donkey thou shalt redeem with an animal·​·of·​·the·​·flock; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt chop· its ·neck. Every firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And My faces shall not be seen empty.

21 Six days thou shalt serve, and on the seventh day thou shall cease; in plowing and in harvest thou shalt cease.

22 And the festival of weeks thou shalt make to thee of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the revolving of the year.

23 Three times in the year shall every male of thine be seen before the faces of the Lord Jehovah, the God of Israel.

24 For I dispossess nations from thy faces, and I will enlarge thy border; and no one shall covet thy land, when thou goest up to see the faces of Jehovah thy God three times in the year.

25 Thou shalt not slaughter the blood of My sacrifice upon what is leavened; and the sacrifice of the festival of the Passover shall not pass·​·the·​·night to the morning.

26 The firstfruits of the first things of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not cook a kid in the milk of its mother.

27 And Jehovah said to Moses, Write for thee these words; because upon the mouth of these words I cut a covenant with thee and with Israel.

28 And he was there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. And He wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

29 And it was, as Moses went down from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the Testimony in Moseshand, as he went down from the mountain, that Moses knew not that the skin of his faces shone when he spoke with Him.

30 And Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and behold the skin of his face shone; and they feared to approach him.

31 And Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the chiefs in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.

32 And after this all the sons of Israel approached; and he commanded them all that Jehovah had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

33 And Moses completed speaking with them, and he put a veiling over his face.

34 And when Moses came·​·in before Jehovah to speak with Him, he removed the veiling until he went out; and he went out, and spoke to the sons of Israel that which was commanded.

35 And the sons of Israel saw the faces of Moses, that the skin of Mosesfaces shone; and Moses turned·​·back the veiling upon his faces until he came in to speak with Him.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 1298

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1298. 'They had brick for stone' means that they had falsity in place of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'brick' as falsity, dealt with just above, and also from the meaning of 'stone' in the broad sense as truth, dealt with already in 643. The reason 'stones' meant truth was that the most ancient people used to mark out boundaries by means of stones and raise up stones to testify that something was so, that is, was the truth. This is clear from the stone which Jacob set up as a pillar, Genesis 28:22; 35:14; from the pillar of stones placed between Laban and Jacob, Genesis 31:46-47, 52; and from the altar which the children of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh erected beside the Jordan as an altar of witness, Joshua 22:10, 28, 34. Consequently 'stones' in the Word means truths, so much so that not only the stones of the altar but also the precious stones in the shoulder-pieces of Aaron's ephod and in the breastplate of judgement meant the holy truths of love.

[2] Regarding the altar, when sacrificial worship on altars was introduced, an altar in that case meant representative worship of the Lord in general. 'The stones' themselves however meant the holy truths belonging to that worship. This was why it was commanded that the altar had to be built of whole and not of hewn stones, and why it was forbidden to use any iron tool on them, Deuteronomy 27:5-7; Joshua 8:31. The reason was that hewn stones, and those on which an iron tool had been used, meant artificialities and thus fabrications in worship. That is to say, they meant things that derive from the proprium, or from the inventions of man's own thought and heart, which was to profane worship, as is clearly stated in Exodus 20:25. For the same reason no tool of iron was used on the stones of the Temple, 1 Kings 6:7.

[3] That the precious stones set in the shoulder-pieces of Aaron's ephod and in the breastplate of judgement in a similar way meant holy truths has been shown already in 114. This is clear also in Isaiah,

Behold, I will set your stones in carbuncle and lay your foundations in sapphires; and I will make your suns (windows) of ruby, and your gates into precious stones, and all your border into pleasant stones And all your sons will be taught by Jehovah, and great will be the peace of your sons. Isaiah 54:11-13

The stones mentioned here stand for holy truths, and this is why it is said that 'all your sons will be taught by Jehovah'. It is also the reason why it is said in John that the foundations of the wall of the city, holy Jerusalem, were adorned with every kind of precious stone, which are each mentioned by name, Revelation 21:19-20. 'The holy Jerusalem' stands for the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, the foundations of which kingdom are holy truths. Holy truths were similarly meant by the tables of stone on which the commandments of the Law, or Ten Commandments, were written. This was why they were made of stone or had a stone base, concerning which see Exodus 24:12; 31:18; 34:1; Deuteronomy 5:22; 10:1; for the commandments themselves are nothing else than truths of faith.

[4] Now because stones in ancient times meant truths, and because later on when worship on pillars, on altars, and in the Temple began, pillars, altars, and the Temple meant holy truths, the Lord also is therefore called 'a Stone': In Moses,

The Mighty One of Jacob - from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. Genesis 49:24.

In Isaiah,

The Lord Jehovih said, I am laying in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tested Corner-Stone, precious, of sure foundation. Isaiah 28:16.

In David,

The Stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner Psalms 118:22.

The same is meant in Daniel 2:34-35, 45, by the stone cut out of the rock which smashed Nebuchadnezzar's statue to pieces.

[5] That 'stones' means truths is clear in Isaiah,

By this the iniquity of Jacob will be expiated, and this will be the full fruit to remove his sin, when He makes all the stones of the altar like chalk-stones scattered about. Isaiah 27:9.

'The stones of the altar' stands for truths in worship that have been dissipated. In the same prophet,

Make level the way of the people; level out, level out the highway; gather out the stones. Isaiah 62:10.

'The way' and 'the stones' stand for truths. In Jeremiah,

I am against you, O destroying mountain. I will roll you down from the rocks and I will make you into a mountain of burning. And they will not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations. Jeremiah 51:25-26.

This refers to Babel. 'A mountain of burning' is self-love. 'Taking no stone from it' means that there is no truth from this source.

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