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Exodus 8

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1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people Go, that they may serve me.

2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:

3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:

4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.

5 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.

6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.

7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.

8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD.

9 And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?

10 And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God.

11 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only.

12 And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh: and Moses cried unto the LORD because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh.

13 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.

14 And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

18 And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.

19 Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

20 And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

21 Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

22 And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.

23 And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.

24 And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.

25 And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.

26 And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

27 We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.

28 And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: intreat for me.

29 And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will intreat the LORD that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to morrow: but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.

30 And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.

31 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one.

32 And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 5702

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5702. Because this is an abomination to the Egyptians. That this signifies that they are in opposition, is evident from the representation of the Egyptians, as being those who are in inverted order (see n. 5700); and from the representation of the Hebrews, to eat with whom was an abomination to the Egyptians, as being those who are in genuine order (n. 5701); thus they are in opposition to each other, whence comes aversion, and at last abomination. In regard to this abomination be it known that those who are in inverted order, that is, in evil and the derivative falsity, become at last so averse to the good and truth of the church that when they hear them, and especially when they hear the interior things of them, they so greatly abominate them that they feel as it were a nausea and vomiting. This has been told and shown me, when I have wondered why the Christian world does not receive these interior things of the Word. There appeared spirits from the Christian world who, on being compelled to hear the interiors of the Word, were seized with so great a nausea that they said they felt as if they were going to vomit; and I was told that such is the Christian world at this day almost everywhere. The reason of its being so is that they are in no affection of truth for truth’s sake, still less in the affection of good from good. Their thinking and speaking anything from the Word or from their doctrine is from habit acquired from early childhood, and from the established form; thus it is an external without an internal.

[2] That all things of the Hebrew Church that was afterward instituted among Jacob’s descendants were an abomination to the Egyptians, is plain not only from their being unwilling even to eat with them, but also from the sacrifices which the Hebrew Church regarded as the chief part of its worship being an abomination to them, as is evident in Moses:

Pharaoh said, Go ye, sacrifice in the land; but Moses said, It is not meet so to do; because we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God; lo if we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes will they not stone us? (Exodus 8:25-26).

The pasturing of flocks, and a shepherd also, were an abomination to them, as is plain in Moses:

Every shepherd of a flock is an abomination unto the Egyptians (Genesis 46:34).

Thus the Egyptians abominated everything that belonged to that church. The reason was that at first the Egyptians had been among those who constituted the Ancient representative Church (n. 1238, 2385); but in course of time they rejected the God of the Ancient Church, that is, Jehovah or the Lord, and served idols, especially calves; and they also turned into magic the very representatives and significatives of the celestial and spiritual things of the Ancient Church, which they had learned when they belonged to that church. Hence order was inverted with them, and consequently all things of the church were an abomination to them.

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