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Numbers 25

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1 And Israel dwelt in Shittim, and the people began to commit·​·harlotry with the daughters of Moab.

2 And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed·​·down to their gods.

3 And Israel knotted· himself ·together to Baal-peor; and the anger of Jehovah was·​·fierce against Israel.

4 And Jehovah said to Moses, Take all the head men of the people, and hang· them ·up before Jehovah in·​·front·​·of the sun, that the fierce anger of Jehovah may be turned·​·back from Israel.

5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Kill ye each·​·man his men who were knotted·​·together to Baal-peor.

6 And, behold, a man of the sons of Israel came and offered to his brothers a Midianitish woman in the eyes of Moses, and in the eyes of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and they were weeping before the entrance of the Tabernacle of the congregation.

7 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, and he rose·​·up from the midst of the congregation, and took a lance in his hand;

8 and he came after the man of Israel into the place·​·of·​·scortation, and thrust· the two of them ·through, the man of Israel, and the woman for her scortation. And the striking* was restrained from on the sons of Israel.

9 And those who died in the striking were four and twenty thousand.

10 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned·​·back My fury from upon the sons of Israel, when he was zealous in My zeal in the midst of them, and I consumed· not ·all of the sons of Israel in My zeal.

12 Therefore say, Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace;

13 and it shall be for him, and for his seed after him, even the covenant of an eternal priesthood; that he was·​·zealous for his God, and made·​·atonement for the sons of Israel.

14 And the name of the man of Israel smitten, who was smitten with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a chief of a house of a father of the Simeonites.

15 And the name of the Midianitish woman who was smitten was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, the house of a father in Midian.

16 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

17 Be·​·an·​·adversary against the Midianite, and smite them;

18 for they were adversaries to you with their plots, with which they plotted against you over the matter of Peor, and over the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a chief of Midian, their sister, who was smitten in the day of the striking on·​·account·​·of the matter of Peor.

   


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

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Smite

  

'To smite' signifies condemnation.

'To smite the earth with every plague as often as they will,' as in Revelation 11:6, signifies the destruction of the church by all kinds of evils and falsities.

Among the ancients, who lived in an age of representatives and meaningful signs, 'to smite the mother with the children' was a proverbial expression meaning the destruction of the Church and of everything that belonged to the Church either in general, or in particular with anyone who in himself is a Church. 'Mother' was used to mean the Church, and 'children' or 'sons,' truths which belonged to the Church. So 'to smite the mother with the children' means to perish completely, as a person also perishes completely when the Church and what belongs to the Church perishes in him, or when the affection for truth, which is the meaning of 'mother' and constitutes the Church in a person, is destroyed. 

'To smite,' as in Genesis 32:8, signifies destruction.

In Genesis 14:15, this signifies vindication.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 7871)