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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 # 7337

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7337. 'And the magicians of Egypt did the same with their enchantments' means that [by a misuse of order] the falsifiers among them produced something that looked the same. This is clear from the meaning of 'Egyptian magic' and 'enchantments' as misuses of Divine order, dealt with in 5223, 6052, 7296. As regards miracles, it should be recognized that Divine miracles are as different from miracles involving the use of magic as heaven is from hell. Divine miracles spring from Divine Truth and take place in accordance with true order. Effects on lowest levels are miracles when it pleases the Lord that they should present themselves in that form. Thus it is that all Divine miracles represent states of the Lord's kingdom in heaven, and of the Lord's kingdom on earth, which is the Church. And this is the inward form that Divine miracles take. This is the situation with all the miracles performed in Egypt, as it is with all the rest that are referred to in the Word. All the miracles too which the Lord Himself performed when He was in the world were signs of the future state of the Church. Opening the eyes of the blind, for example, and the ears of the deaf, loosing the tongues of the dumb, enabling the lame to walk, and making the maimed whole and the leprous too, were signs that the kind of people meant by the blind, deaf, dumb, lame, maimed, and leprous would receive the Gospel and be spiritually restored to health, which would be accomplished by the Lord's Coming into the world.

[2] This is what Divine miracles are like as to the inward form they take. But miracles involving the use of magic hold nothing at all like that; they are performed by the evil to gain power over others, and in outward form seem to be the same as Divine miracles. The reason why they seem to be the same is that they start from order, and on its lowest level, where miracles present themselves, order always looks the same. Take for example the consideration that Divine Truth coming forth from the Lord has all power within it. This being so, truths also on the last and lowest levels of order have power within them, and therefore the evil use truths to gain power and exercise control over others.

[3] To give another example, it is in accordance with order that in the next life states of affection and thought give rise to people's ideas of spatial position and distance, and that the distances seen to separate people from one another are determined by the differences in their states. The purpose behind this law of order from the Divine is that all within the Grand Man should be distinct from one another. But magicians in the next life misuse this law of order, for they bring about changes of state in others and then move them about, at one time to a position high up, at another to a position low down, and also force them into communities where they can serve as the magicians' subordinates. They misuse order in countless other ways like this. From all this it is evident that although in outward form miracles involving the use of magic seem to be the same as Divine miracles, inwardly they nevertheless have a contrary end in view. That is to say, they have in view the destruction of things of the Church, whereas Divine miracles have inwardly as their end in view the building up of things of the Church. They are like two beautiful women, one of whom because of her promiscuity is wholly rotten within, while the other because of her chastity or true matrimonial love is wholly pure within. Outwardly those women are alike, but inwardly they are as different as heaven and hell.

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