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Exodus 23:5

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5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.

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Arcana Coelestia # 9255

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9255. 'When you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going astray' means unauthentic good and unauthentic truth with those who are outside the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'enemy' as those outside the Church, who are the subject below; from the meaning of 'ox' as the external man's good, and from the meaning of 'ass' as the external man's truth, both dealt with in 2781, 9135 - but unauthentic good and truth, such as exists with those outside the Church, who are meant by 'enemy'. The reason why those outside the Church are meant by 'enemy' is that they have a different idea of what the good and truth of faith are, because they do not possess the Word and therefore do not know anything about the Lord or about Christian faith and charity that come from the Lord alone. Consequently their truth of faith is not authentic, neither is their good of charity. Therefore also they do not live together in the next life with those who belong to the Church but are separated from them. All in the next life are formed into communities according to their good and the truth flowing from it, for these are what compose spiritual life and link people together.

[2] However, those in heaven do not regard people outside the Church as enemies; rather they teach them and bring them to Christian good, which is also welcomed by those of them who in the world have led dutiful and obedient lives, in some kind of charity towards one another that is prescribed by their religion. But the sense of the letter of the Word calls them 'enemies' on account of their lack of spiritual agreement, which is, as has been stated, their different idea of what the truth of faith and the good of charity are. See what has been shown from experience regarding the state and condition in the next life of nations outside the Church, in 2589-2604, 2861, 2863, 4190, 4197. The requirement to regard these very people as friends, and to teach and correct them, is the meaning in the internal sense of the words you shall surely bring it back, which the next paragraph deals with.

[3] Only this needs to be added here, that in the Word various kinds of beasts mean affections and inclinations such as the human being shares in common with beasts, and in the spiritual sense affections for goodness and truth, internal and external, see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 776, 2179, 2180, 2781, 3218, 3519, 5198, 9090; and that beasts were therefore used in sacrifices in accordance with their spiritual meaning, 1823, 2180, 2805, 2807, 2830, 3519. Consequently this law of personal conduct stating that an enemy's oxen and asses going astray should be brought back to him means in the spiritual sense such things as are characteristic of the Church, thus such as are feelings of mutual love or charity towards those whose ideas are different from the Church's truths.

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

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Exodus 23

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1 "You shall not spread a false report. Don't join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.

2 "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; neither shall you testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice;

3 neither shall you favor a poor man in his cause.

4 "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.

5 If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don't leave him, you shall surely help him with it.

6 "You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.

7 "Keep far from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.

8 "You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.

9 "You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

10 "For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase,

11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In the same way, you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.

12 "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your handmaid, and the alien may be refreshed.

13 "Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don't invoke the name of other gods, neither let them be heard out of your mouth.

14 "You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.

15 You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out from Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty.

16 And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field: and the feast of harvest, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.

17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.

18 "You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning.

19 The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your God. "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

20 "Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

21 Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don't provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.

22 But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.

23 For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.

24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.

25 You shall serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from your midst.

26 No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

27 I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

28 I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.

29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.

30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.

31 I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

32 You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."