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Numbers 14

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1 And all the congregation lifted up and put forth their voice, and the people wept in that night.

2 And all the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and all the congregation said to them, Would·​·that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would·​·that we had died in this wilderness!

3 And why has Jehovah brought us to this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our infants should be for plunder? Were it not better for us to return to Egypt?

4 And they said, a man to his brother, Let us put someone as head, and let us return to Egypt.

5 And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.

6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who explored the land, rent their garments;

7 and they said to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed·​·through to explore it, is a very, very good land.

8 If Jehovah delight in us, then He will bring us to this land, and give it to us, it is a land which flows with milk and honey.

9 Only revolt not against Jehovah, and fear you not the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their shadow is removed from upon them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not.

10 But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the Tabernacle of the congregation to all the sons of Israel.

11 And Jehovah said to Moses, Until what occasion will this people disdain Me? And until what occasion will they not believe in Me, in all the signs which I have done among them?

12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and dispossess them, and will make thee into a greater nation and more numerous than they.

13 And Moses said to Jehovah, And the Egyptians shall hear of it, for Thou broughtest·​·up this people with Thy power from among them,

14 and they will say it to those who dwell in this land; for they have heard that Thou, Jehovah art among this people, that Thou, Jehovah art seen eye to eye, and that Thy cloud stands over them, and that Thou goest before them, in a pillar of a cloud by·​·day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 And if Thou shalt·​·put·​·to·​·death this people as one man, then the nations that have heard the fame of Thee will say, saying,

16 Because Jehovah was· not ·able to bring this people to the land which He promised to them, therefore He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.

17 And now, I pray Thee, let the power of my Lord be·​·great, as Thou hast spoken, saying,

18 Jehovah is slow to anger, and of much mercy, bearing iniquity and transgression; but in not rendering·​·innocent, He does not render·​·innocent, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and on the fourth generation*.

19 Pardon, I pray Thee, the iniquity of this people according·​·to the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast borne for this people from Egypt until now.

20 And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according·​·to thy word;

21 nevertheless, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah;

22 for all the men who have seen My glory, and My signs, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me these ten times, and have not obeyed My voice,

23 they shall not see the land which I promised to their fathers, neither shall any of them that disdained Me see it;

24 but My servant Caleb, because there was another spirit with him, and he has·​·filled after Me*, then him will I bring into the land into which he came; and his seed shall possess it.

25 (And the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn yourselves, and journey into the wilderness by the way of the Suph sea*.

26 And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

27 How long will I be for this evil congregation, they who murmur against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they murmur against Me.

28 Say to them, As I live, says Jehovah, as you have spoken in My ears, Will I not do so to you?

29 Your corpses shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according·​·to all your number, from a son of twenty years and upward, who have murmured against Me,

30 you shall not come into the land, concerning which I lifted my hand to cause you to inhabit her, but Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

31 But your infants, whom you said should be a plunder, them will I bring·​·in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.

32 But you, your corpses, shall fall in this wilderness.

33 And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and bear your harlotries, until your corpses be entirely consumed in the wilderness.

34 By the number of the days that you explored the land, forty days, a day to a year, a day to a year, you shall bear your iniquities, forty years, and you shall know My disallowing.

35 I, Jehovah, have spoken; Surely I will do this to all this evil congregation who have congregated against Me; in this wilderness they shall be entirely consumed, and there they shall die.

36 And the men whom Moses sent to explore the land, and who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against Him by bringing·​·out an evil·​·report against the land,

37 even the men who brought·​·out the evil report of the land, died in being·​·struck before Jehovah.

38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, they who were of the men who went to explore the land, lived.

39 And Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel; and the people mourned exceedingly.

40 And they got·​·up·​·early in the morning, and went·​·up to the head of the mountain, saying, Behold, we be here, and will go·​·up to the place which Jehovah has said; for we have sinned.

41 And Moses said, Why this, that you transgress the mouth of Jehovah? But it shall not prosper.

42 Go· not ·up, for Jehovah is not among you; and you will not be struck down before your enemies.

43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; for you have turned·​·back from following after Jehovah, and Jehovah will not be with you.

44 But they sought·​·the·​·summit to go·​·up to the head of the mountain; but the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and Moses, departed not from among the camp.

45 And the Amalekite came·​·down and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain and smote them and beat· them ·down, even·​·to Hormah.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 4290

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4290. In the internal historical sense 'he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me' means that they insisted on being representative, for being insistent is meant by 'I will not let you' and the representative of the Church by 'being blessed'. This particular matter - the insistence of Jacob's descendants that they should be representative of the Church, though they were no more the elect than any other nation - is not very clear, it is true, from the historical narratives of the Word contained in the sense of the letter. It is not clear because those narratives hold the arcana of heaven within them, which accordingly follow one another in a connected sequence, and also because the actual names there are used to mean spiritual realities, many of which names indeed are used in the highest sense to mean the Lord. Examples of these are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who mean in the highest sense the Lord, as has been shown many times in what has gone before; see also 1965, 1989, 2011, 3245, 3305 (end), 3439.

[2] The fact that Jacob's descendants were not the elect, yet they insisted that the Church should have its existence among themselves, may be seen from the internal historical sense in many places in the Word, openly so in the following statements in Moses,

Jehovah said to Moses, Go up from here, you and the people which you made to go up out of the land of Egypt, into the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your seed I will give it. I will not go up in your midst, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way. When the people heard this bad news, 1 they mourned and took off every one his ornament from upon him. And Moses took a tent and pitched it for himself outside the camp, far away from the camp. Moses said to Jehovah, See, You say to me, Make this people go up, when You have not made known to me whom You will send with me. Now therefore, if, I pray, I have found favour in Your eyes, make known to me, I pray, Your ways, so that I may know of You, that I have found favour in Your eyes. See also that this nation is Your people. He said therefore, My presence will go [with you], until I give you rest. Exodus 33:1, 3-4, 7, 12-14.

In this chapter of Exodus it is said that Moses made the people go up out of Egypt and then that they took off their ornaments and mourned, and that Moses pitched the tent outside the camp and that Jehovah gave His assent. This shows plainly that they themselves were insistent.

[3] In the same author,

Jehovah said to Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? And how long will they not believe, for all the signs which I have performed in their midst? I will strike them down with pestilence and annihilate them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are. But Moses entreated Jehovah, who being appeased said, I will be gracious according to your word. But yet, I am the living One, and all the earth will be filled with the glory of Jehovah; for as for all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the desert, and despite this have tempted Me these ten times and have not obeyed My voice, they will not see the land which I swore to their fathers; all who provoke Me will not see it. In this desert will your bodies fall, but I will bring in your children. Numbers 14[11-13, 20-23, 29, 31].

From these verses also it is evident that Jehovah was willing to annihilate them and therefore not to establish the Church among them, but that they insisted it should be established among them, and therefore it was done. And there were many other occasions besides this when Jehovah would have wiped out that repeatedly rebellious nation but repeatedly He allowed Himself to be appeased by their entreaties.

[4] The same is also implied by the fact that Balaam was not allowed to curse that people, in 22 Chapters, 24 of Numbers; in addition to other places where it is said that Jehovah repented of having brought that people in; also that Jehovah was appeased, as well as that He repeatedly made a new covenant with them. These are the kinds of things that are meant in the internal historical sense by the words 'I will not let you go unless you bless me'. Something similar is also meant by Jacob's taking the birthright from Esau as well as taking the blessing by deceit from him, in Chapters 25, 27 of Genesis.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, evil word

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