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Exodus 7

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1 And Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have given thee as a god to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

2 Thou shalt speak all that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak to Pharaoh, and let him send the sons of Israel out of his land.

3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My miracles in the land of Egypt.

4 And Pharaoh will not hear you; and I will put My hand upon the Egyptians, and lead out My armies, My people, the sons of Israel, out of the land of Egypt, with great judgments.

5 And the Egyptians shall·​·know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth My hand upon Egypt, and lead out the sons of Israel from the midst of them.

6 And Moses and Aaron did so; as Jehovah commanded them, so they did.

7 And Moses was a son of eighty years, and Aaron a son of three and eighty years, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

8 And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

9 And Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Give for yourselves a miracle, and thou shalt say to Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, it shall become a sea·​·serpent*.

10 And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a sea·​·serpent.

11 And Pharaoh also called the wise and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did so with their enchantments.

12 And they cast every man his rod, and they became sea·​·serpents; and Aaron’s rod swallowed·​·up their rods.

13 And the heart of Pharaoh was made·​·firm, and he hearkened not to them; as Jehovah had spoken.

14 And Jehovah said to Moses, The heart of Pharaoh is made·​·heavy, he refuses to send· the people ·away.

15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning; behold, he goes·​·out to the waters; and thou shalt stand on the lip of the river to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent take in thy hand.

16 And thou shalt say to him, Jehovah the God of the Hebrews has sent me to thee, saying, Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness; and behold hitherto thou hast not heard.

17 Thus says Jehovah, In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah; behold I smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

18 And the fish that is in the river shall·​·die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall be·​·weary to drink waters from the river.

19 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch·​·out thy hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over the branches of their Nile, and over their ponds, and over every reservoir of their waters, and they shall be blood; and there shall be blood in all the land of Egypt, and in the trees and in the stones.

20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah commanded; and he lifted·​·high the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, to the eyes of Pharaoh, and to the eyes of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood.

21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink water from the river; and there was blood in all the land of Egypt.

22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments; and the heart of Pharaoh was made·​·firm, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had spoken.

23 And Pharaoh turned· his ·face back, and came to his house, and did not set his heart even to this.

24 And all the Egyptians dug all around the river for waters to drink; for they could not drink of the waters of the river.

25 And seven days were·​·fulfilled after that Jehovah had smitten the river.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 7298

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7298. 'And they threw down each one his rod, and they were made into water-serpents' means power derived from order by which they became obtuse in their discernment of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'throwing down the rod' as a demonstration of power, dealt with in 7292; and from the meaning of 'water-serpents' as falsities resulting from illusions, dealt with in 7293, here obtuseness in the discernment of truth, for when illusions prevent people from discerning truths, that ability is also made obtuse or is blunted. A like blunting of it is also brought about by magicians in the next life; they achieve it by the misuse and perversion of order. For they know how to remove influences coming in from heaven; and once they have done that the ability to discern truth is blunted. They also know how to introduce illusions and present them in light that is seemingly the light of truth, and how at the same time to blur actual truths. They know too how to instill false belief and thereby blunt a person's ability to discern truth, besides other ways of producing the same effect. When that ability has been blunted falsities are seen as truths, and these are meant by sorceries and enchantments. From all this one may see how magicians can produce something which to outward appearances looks similar [to Aaron's miracle].

[2] In addition it should be recognized that it is in accordance with the laws of order that no one should become convinced of the truth instantaneously, that is, should instantaneously be made so sure of the truth that he is left in no doubt at all about it. The reason for this is that when truth is impressed on a person in that kind of way, he becomes so fully convinced of it that it cannot be broadened in any way or qualified in any way. Truth like this is represented in the next life as that which is hard, not allowing good into itself to make it pliable. This goes to explain why in the next life as soon as some truth is presented through plain experience to good spirits, some opposing idea giving rise to doubt is presented. In this way they are led to think and ponder over whether it is indeed a truth, gather reasons in support of it, and so introduce that truth into their minds by the use of reason. This enables their spiritual vision in respect of that truth to be broadened, seeing even into the ideas that are opposed to it. They therefore see and perceive with their understanding every characteristic of the truth, and from this are able to let in the influences coming from heaven as the situation demands; for truths take varying forms as dictated by circumstances. This is also the reason why the magicians were allowed to do the same as Aaron had done; for in that way a miracle performed among the children of Israel was placed in doubt as to whether it was Divine, and that gave them the opportunity to think and ponder over whether it was Divine before at length assuring themselves that it was.

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