Leviticus 25
1
And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
2
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
3
Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and Six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4
But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
5
That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6
And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,
7
And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
9
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
10
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
11
A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.
12
For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13
In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.
14
And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
15
According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:
16
According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.
17
Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.
18
Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
19
And the land shall yield her fruit, and he shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
21
Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22
And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
23
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
24
And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
25
If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
26
And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;
27
Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.
28
But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.
29
And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it.
30
And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.
31
But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile.
32
Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
33
And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34
But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
35
And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.
36
Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.
37
Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.
38
I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39
And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
40
But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:
41
And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
42
For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.
43
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.
44
Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
45
Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
46
And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.
47
And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family:
48
After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:
49
Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.
50
And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.
51
If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
52
And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
53
And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.
54
And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him.
55
For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Arcana Coelestia # 2973
2973. 'Which was in all its borders round about' means exterior cognitions. This is clear from the meaning of 'borders' and of 'round about' as things that are exterior, dealt with in 2936. Thus here '[every] tree which was in the borders round about' means exterior cognitions. Exterior cognitions have to do with the religious observances and matters of doctrine which constitute the external things of the Church, whereas interior cognitions have to do with matters of doctrine which constitute the internal things of the Church. What the external things of the Church are, and what the internal, has been stated several times already.
[2] Furthermore in various places in the Word mention is made of the middle or the midst and of the regions encircling it, as when the land of Canaan is referred to, 'the middle' is used to describe where Zion and Jerusalem are, while the areas encircling describe where the nations are who are round about. 'The land of Canaan' represented the Lord's kingdom, 'Zion' the celestial part of it and 'Jerusalem' the spiritual, and there Jehovah or the Lord had His dwelling-place. The things that were round about, even to the borders, represented celestial and spiritual things spread out and derived in order from there. Where the furthest boundaries lay, there the representatives of celestial and spiritual things ended. Those representatives had their origin in the things that existed in the Lord's kingdom in heaven, where the Lord as the Sun is in the middle, from where all celestial flame and spiritual light radiate. Those nearest to Him dwell in the brightest light, while those who are more remote dwell in less light, and those who are the most remote in the least bright. At this point lie the borders where hell, which is outside heaven, begins.
[3] With celestial flame and spiritual light the position is that the existence of celestial things which are forms of innocence and love, and spiritual things which are forms of charity and faith, is proportional to the heat and light that is received, for those things are the source of all heat and light in heaven. This then is why 'the middle' means that which is inmost, and the encircling regions that which is outermost; and the spacing of the things that radiate in order from the inmost to the outermost is determined by their degree of innocence, love and charity. It is similar with each individual community of heaven. Those members in the middle are the best of its kind, and the love and charity of that kind becomes correspondingly less as these become more remote, that is, as such love and charity exist with members away from the middle.
[4] It is also similar with man. The inmost part of him is where the Lord resides with him, and from there governs the outlying parts. When a person permits the Lord to bring order to the outlying parts so that these correspond to the inmost parts, his state is such that he can be received into heaven, and the inmost, the interior, and the external parts of him act as one. But if the person does not permit the Lord to bring order to those outlying parts so that they correspond, he moves away from heaven, as far away as he is from permitting the Lord to bring that order to them. The fact that man's soul resides in the middle or inmost part of his being and the body in the outlying region or outermost parts is well known, for the body is that which surrounds and clothes his soul or spirit.
[5] With those in whom celestial and spiritual love reigns, good from the Lord flows in by way of the soul into the body, as a consequence of which the body becomes full of light, but with those in whom bodily and worldly love reigns, good from the Lord cannot flow in by way of the soul into the body. Instead their interiors are engulfed in darkness, as a consequence of which the body too becomes full of darkness, according to the Lord's own teaching in Matthew,
The lamp of the body is the eye. If the eye is sound, the whole body is full of light. If the eye is evil, the whole body is full of darkness. If therefore the light is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:22-23.
'The eye' means the understanding part, which belongs in the soul, 2701.
[6] But matters are worse still with people whose interiors are 'darkness' while their exteriors seem to be 'full of light'. They are such as outwardly pretend to be angels of light but inwardly they are devils. They are referred to as 'Babel'. These people, when the things that are round about are destroyed, are carried headfirst into hell. This was represented by the city of Jericho whose walls fell down, and the city was given to destruction, after the priests had gone round it seven times with the ark, and had sounded their trumpets, Joshua 6:1-17. The same is meant in Jeremiah,
Set yourselves against Babel round about, all you who bend the bow. Raise a shout over her round about, she has given her hand, her foundations have fallen, her walls have been destroyed. Jeremiah 50:14-15.
From this it is now evident what 'round about' means. Reference is also made several times in the Word to 'the encircling regions', as in Jeremiah 21:14; 46:14; 49:5; Ezekiel 36:3-4, 7; 37:21; Amos 3:11; and elsewhere. By 'the encircling regions' is meant the things that are exterior, concerning which, in the Lord's Divine mercy, more will be said elsewhere.
