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Exodus 9

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1 And Jehovah said to Moses, Come to Pharaoh, and speak to him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

2 For if thou refuse to send· them ·away, and thou still hold· them ·firmly,

3 behold, the hand of Jehovah shall be on thy livestock which is in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herd, and on the flock; a very heavy pestilence.

4 And Jehovah shall set·​·apart the livestock of Israel from the livestock of the Egyptians, and there shall· nothing ·die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel.

5 And Jehovah set an appointed·​·time, saying, Tomorrow Jehovah shall do this word in the land.

6 And Jehovah did this word on the morrow, and all the livestock of the Egyptians died; and of the livestock of the sons of Israel not one died.

7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold there was not so much as one of the livestock of Israel dead; and Pharaoh’s heart was made heavy, and he did not let the people go.

8 And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron, Take to you fistfuls of the soot of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heavens to the eyes of Pharaoh.

9 And it shall become powdery dust over all the land of Egypt, and it shall be upon man, and upon the beast, an ulcer flourishing with boils in all the land of Egypt.

10 And they took the soot of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it toward the heavens; and it became an ulcer with boils flourishing on man and on beast.

11 And the magicians were· not ·able to stand before Moses because of the ulcer; for the ulcer was on the magicians and on all Egypt.

12 And Jehovah made· the heart of Pharaoh ·firm, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had spoken to Moses.

13 And Jehovah said to Moses, Get·​·up·​·early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

14 For this time I will send all My plagues to thy heart, and against thy servants, and against thy people; so·​·that thou mayest know that there is no·​·one like Me in all the earth.

15 For now I would put·​·forth My hand, and smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou wouldst be cut·​·off from the earth.

16 Nevertheless for the sake of this have I made thee to stand, so·​·that thou mayest see My power, and so·​·that My name may be recounted in all the earth.

17 As yet thou buildest· thyself ·up against My people, in thy not letting them go.

18 Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very heavy hail, as has not been in Egypt from the day it was founded even until now.

19 And now send, muster·​·together thy livestock, and all that thou hast in the field; every man and beast, that shall·​·be·​·found in the field, and shall not be gathered to the house, and the hail shall come·​·down on them, and they shall·​·die.

20 He that feared the word of Jehovah of the servants of Pharaoh, made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses.

21 And he that did not set his heart to the word of Jehovah, left his servants and his livestock in the field.

22 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch·​·out thy hand to* the heavens, and there shall be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man, and on beast, and upon every herb of the field in the land of Egypt.

23 And Moses stretched·​·out his rod to the heavens; and Jehovah gave voices and hail, and fire walked toward the land, and Jehovah made hail rain on the land of Egypt.

24 And there was hail, and fire taking itself in the midst of the hail, very heavy, such as had not been like it in all the land of Egypt since’ it became a nation.

25 And the hail smote in all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, from man and even·​·to beast, and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field.

26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the sons of Israel were, was there no hail.

27 And Pharaoh sent, and called Moses and Aaron, and said to them, I have sinned this time; Jehovah is just, and I and my people are wicked.

28 Supplicate ye to Jehovah, there has been more than enough voices of God and hail; and I will send· you ·away, and you shall not still stand.

29 And Moses said to him, As I go out of the city, I will spread my palms to Jehovah; and the voices shall stop, and there shall be no more hail; that thou mayest·​·know that the earth is Jehovah’s.

30 And thou and thy servants, I know that you will not yet fear the face of Jehovah God.

31 And the flax and the barley were smitten; for the barley was a maturing·​·ear, and the flax was a stalk.

32 And the wheat and the spelt were not smitten, for they were hidden.

33 And Moses went·​·out of the city from with Pharaoh, and spread his palms to Jehovah; and the voices and the hail stopped and the rain poured· not ·out toward the earth.

34 And Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the voices had stopped, and he sinned yet more, and made heavy his heart, he and his servants.

35 And the heart of Pharaoh was made·​·firm, and he did not send· the sons of Israel ·away; as Jehovah had spoken by the hand of Moses.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 3049

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3049. 'And every good thing that was his master's was in his hand' means the goods and truths associated with those facts residing with the natural man. This is clear from the meaning of 'every good thing that was his master's' as both good and truth, for in itself truth is good since it springs from good - truth being the form that good takes, that is, when good receives a form so that it can be perceived in the understanding it is called truth; and from the meaning of 'the hand' as power, dealt with in 878. Thus the goods and truths residing with the natural man are meant here. General facts are not in themselves good, nor do they have any life; but the affection for them is what causes them to be good and to have life, for in that case they exist for the sake of their use. No one's affection is stirred by any fact or truth, except on account of the use it serves. The use is what makes it good, though the particular nature of the use determines the nature of the good.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 2762

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2762. The origin of 'a horse' meaning the understanding part of the mind lies nowhere else than in representatives in the next life. Frequently there, in the world of spirits, horses which display great variety are seen, and also people seated on horses. And whenever they are seen the understanding is meant by them. Such representatives are of constant occurrence among spirits. It is because the horse is a representative of the understanding that when horses are mentioned in the Word the spirits and angels present with man know instantaneously that it is the understanding which is being spoken of. It is also why, when spirits from some other planet who have been endowed with intelligence and wisdom are raised up from the world of spirits into heaven, horses shining as though they consisted of fire appear, which I also have seen when those people were carried up.

[2] This experience has made clear to me what is meant by the fiery chariot and the fiery horses which Elisha saw when Elijah went up with the whirlwind into heaven, and what also by Elisha's shout at that time,

My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and its riders. 2 Kings 2:11-12, and by the same spoken by Joash king of Israel to Elisha when the latter was dying,

My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and its riders. 2 Kings 13:14.

In the Lord's Divine mercy it will be shown elsewhere that Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word. That is to say, it will there be shown that the doctrine of love and charity drawn from the Word is meant by 'the fiery chariot', and the doctrine of faith deriving from these by 'the fiery horses'. The doctrine of faith is the same as an understanding of the Word as to its inner content, which is the internal sense.

[3] As regards chariots and horses being seen in heaven among spirits and angels, this is evident not only from the fact that they were seen by the prophets, such as by Zechariah (1:8-10; 6:1-7) and by others, but also by Elisha's servant, of whom the following is said in the Book of Kings,

Jehovah opened the eyes of Elisha's servant, and he saw; and behold the mountain was full of horses, and there were fiery chariots surrounding Elisha. 2 Kings 6:17.

Furthermore, where the intelligent and wise dwell in the world of spirits, chariots and horses are constantly making their appearance, the reason being, as has been stated, that chariots and horses represent the things that belong to wisdom and intelligence. People who have been awakened after death and are entering the next life see represented to them a young man seated on a horse, who then dismounts. The meaning of this is that before they can enter heaven they have to be furnished with cognitions of good and truth - see Volume One, in 187, 188. The fact that chariots and horses meant those things was fully known in the Ancient Church, as becomes clear also from the Book of Job, a book of the Ancient Church, where these words occur,

God has made him forget wisdom and given him no share in intelligence. After raising himself on high he laughs at the horse and its rider. Job 39:17-19.

[4] The meaning of 'a horse' as the understanding spread from the Ancient Church to the wise in surrounding regions, and even into Greece. As a consequence of this, when describing the sun, which meant love, 2441, 2495, they placed the god of their wisdom and intelligence there in the sun, and gave him a chariot and four fiery horses. And when they described the god of the sea - the sea meaning knowledge in general, 28, 2120 - they gave horses to him also. And when they described the upsurge of knowledge from the understanding they portrayed it as a flying horse which with its hoof broke open a fountain where the virgins who were the branches of knowledge dwelt. And by the Trojan horse nothing else was meant than a device of their understanding for destroying city walls. Even today, when the understanding is being described, it is quite usual, drawing on the custom received from those people of old, to portray the understanding as a flying horse or Pegasus, and to portray learning as a fountain. Yet scarcely anyone knows that 'a horse' in the mystical sense means the understanding, and 'a fountain' truth, let alone that those images with a spiritual meaning spread to the gentiles from the Ancient Church.

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