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5 Mosebok 29

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1 Dette er den pakts ord som Herren bød Moses å gjøre med Israels barn i Moabs land, foruten den pakt han hadde gjort med dem på Horeb.

2 Moses kalte hele Israel til sig og sa til dem: I har sett alt det Herren gjorde for eders øine i Egyptens land med Farao og alle hans tjenere og hele hans land,

3 de store plager som du så for dine øine, de store tegn og under;

4 men like til denne dag har Herren ikke gitt eder hjerte til å forstå eller øine til å se eller ører til å høre med.

5 Jeg lot eder vandre firti år i ørkenen; eders klær blev ikke utslitt, og skoen blev ikke utslitt på din fot.

6 Brød fikk I ikke å ete, og vin eller sterk drikk fikk I ikke å drikke, forat I skulde kjenne at jeg, Herren, er eders Gud.

7 Og da I kom til dette sted, drog Sihon, kongen i Hesbon, og Og, kongen i Basan, ut imot oss til strid, og vi slo dem,

8 og vi tok deres land og lot rubenittene og gadittene og den halve Manasse stamme få det til arv.

9 Så ta da vare på denne pakts ord og hold dem, så I farer viselig frem i alt det I gjør!

10 I står idag alle for Herrens, eders Guds åsyn, eders høvdinger, eders stammer, eders eldste og eders tilsynsmenn, hver mann i Israel,

11 eders barn, eders hustruer og den fremmede som er i din leir, både din vedhugger og din vannbærer,

12 forat du skal gå inn i pakten med Herren din Gud og i eds-sambåndet med ham, det som Herren din Gud gjør med dig idag;

13 for han vil idag gjøre dig til sitt folk, og selv vil han være din Gud, som han har tilsagt dig, og som han har tilsvoret dine fedre Abraham, Isak og Jakob.

14 Og ikke bare med eder gjør jeg denne pakt og dette eds-sambånd,

15 men både med dem som idag står her sammen med oss for Herrens, vår Guds åsyn, og med dem som ikke er her sammen med oss idag.

16 For I vet selv hvorledes vi bodde i Egyptens land, og hvorledes vi drog midt igjennem de folk som I har draget igjennem,

17 Og I så deres vederstyggelige og motbydelige avguder, de guder av tre og sten, av sølv og gull som de hadde.

18 La det ikke være hos eder nogen mann eller kvinne eller ætt eller stamme hvis hjerte idag vender sig fra Herren vår Gud, så han går bort og dyrker disse folks guder! La det ikke være hos eder nogen rot som bærer trollbær og malurt,

19 nogen som når han hører dette eds-sambånds ord, priser sig lykkelig og tenker at det skal ham vel om han enn følger sitt eget hårde hjerte. For da kommer det vannrike land til å til grunne sammen med det tørstige*. / {* d.e. alle, både de som har overflod, og de som trenger.}

20 Herren vil ikke tilgi ham; nei, da skal Herrens vrede og nidkjærhet ryke mot den mann, og alle de forbannelser som er skrevet i denne bok, skal hvile på ham, og Herren skal utslette hans navn under himmelen.

21 Herren skal skille ham ut fra alle Israels stammer til fordervelse, efter alle forbannelsene i den pakt som er skrevet i denne lovens bok.

22 Og når den kommende slekt, eders barn som vokser op efter eder, og den fremmede som kommer fra et fjernt land, ser de plager som har rammet dette land, og de sykdommer som Herren har hjemsøkt det med

23 - svovel og salt, hele dets jord opbrent, så den ikke kan tilsåes og ikke gi grøde, og ingen urt kan vokse der, en ødeleggelse som Sodomas og Gomorras, Admas og Sebo'ims, dengang Herren ødela dem i sin vrede og harme - da skal de si,

24 ja, alle folkene skal si: Hvorfor har Herren gjort således mot dette land? Hvad er dette for en svær vredes-ild?

25 Og de skal få til svar: Fordi de forlot den pakt som Herren, deres fedres Gud, gjorde med dem da han førte dem ut av Egyptens land,

26 og de gikk bort og dyrket andre guder og tilbad dem, guder som de ikke kjente, og som han ikke hadde gitt dem lov til å dyrke,

27 derfor blev Herrens vrede optendt mot dette land, så han førte over det alle de forbannelser som er skrevet i denne bok;

28 Herren rykket dem op av deres land i vrede og harme og stor forbitrelse og kastet dem bort til et fremmed land, som det kan sees på denne dag.

29 Det skjulte hører Herren vår Gud til, men det åpenbarte er for oss og for våre barn til evig tid, forat vi skal holde alle ordene i denne lov.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 10300

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10300. 'Salted' means the desire which truth has for good. This is clear from the meaning of 'salt' as desire belonging to the love which truth has for good, dealt with below, so that 'salted' means something in which that desire is present. The reason why the desire which truth has for good needs to be present is that this desire causes the two to be joined together; for to the extent that truth desires good it becomes joined to it. Truth and good joined together is what is called the heavenly marriage, which constitutes heaven itself with a person. Therefore when the desire for them to be joined together exists within the worship of God, within every single part of it, heaven - and accordingly the Lord - is present there within every single part. This is meant by the requirement for the incense to be salted. 'Salt' receives this meaning from its conjunctive properties; for it makes ingredients all combine and consequently brings out their flavour. Indeed it causes water and oil to combine, which otherwise do not combine.

[2] When it is known that 'salt' means the desire for truth and good to be joined together it may be seen what the Lord's words in Mark mean,

Everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes tasteless, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves. Mark 9:49-50.

'Everyone will be salted with fire' means that each person must have a desire that is present as a result of true love. 'Every sacrifice will be salted with salt' means that the desire present as a result of true love must exist within all worship. 'Tasteless salt' means a desire present as a result of a love other than that true love. 'Having salt in themselves' means possessing truth that has a desire for good.

Love is meant by 'fire', see 4906, 5071(end), 5215, 6314, 6832, 10055.

Worship in general is meant by 'sacrifice', 922, 6905, 8680, 8936.

Can anyone without knowledge of what 'fire' means, or what 'salt' and 'being salted' mean, know what 'being salted with fire' means, why a sacrifice had to be salted, or what the command to have salt in themselves means?

[3] Something similar occurs in Luke,

Any of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be My disciple. Salt is good; but if the salt is made tasteless, by what will it be seasoned? It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill; people will throw it outdoors. Luke 14:33-35.

'Renouncing all their possessions' means loving the Lord above all things, 'possessions' being what is a person's own. 'Tasteless salt' means desire that springs from the proprium or self, thus from self-love and love of the world. This kind of desire is meant by salt that is tasteless, fit for nothing, as also in Matthew,

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt is tasteless, by what will it be made salty? It no longer has any use, except to be thrown outdoors and trodden down by people. Matthew 5:13-14.

[4] The need for all worship to contain truth that has a desire for good is also meant by the requirement that every offering of a minchah should be salted, and that the salt of Jehovah's covenant should be on every offering, Leviticus 2:13. By 'the minchah and offering' which compose the sacrifice worship is meant, as above; and the salt is called in that verse 'the salt of Jehovah's covenant' because 'covenant' means a joining together, see 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804, 8767, 8778, 9396, 9416. Also desire is the actual ardour that flames from and so is an extension of love, and love is spiritual togetherness.

[5] Just as truth's desire for good has the capacity to link things together, so falsity's desire for evil has the capacity to separate them; and that which has the capacity to separate them also has the capacity to destroy them. For this reason 'salt' in the contrary sense means the destruction and laying waste of truth and good, as in Jeremiah,

Cursed is the man (vir) who makes flesh his arm. He will not see when good comes; but he will inhabit very hot places, a salt land which is not inhabited. Jeremiah 17:5-6.

'Making flesh his arm' means trusting in himself, in his proprium, and not in the Divine, 10283; and since the proprium consists in loving self more than God and the neighbour, self-love is what those words describe. This is why it says that he will not see when good comes, and that he will inhabit very hot places and a salt land, that is, will lead a life ruled by foul kinds of love and their desires, which have destroyed the Church's goodness and truth.

[6] In Zephaniah,

It will be like Gomorrah, a place abandoned to the nettle, and a saltpit, and a waste forever. Zephaniah 2:9.

'A place abandoned to the nettle' stands for the ardour and passion in a person's life that spring from self-love. 'A saltpit' stands for the desire falsity possesses; and because this is destructive of truth and good, the expression 'a waste forever' is used. The reason for its being said that 'it will be like Gomorrah' is that Gomorrah and Sodom mean self-love, 2220.

[7] Where it said at Genesis 19:26 that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt because she turned her face towards those cities, the meaning was the laying waste of truth and good; for in the internal sense 'turning the face' towards something means loving it, 10189. This explains why the Lord says,

Let him not return to the things behind him. Remember Lot's wife. Luke 17:31-32.

And in Moses,

Its whole land will be brimstone and salt, and a burning, as at the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. Deuteronomy 29:23.

Here, as also elsewhere in the Word, 'land' is used to mean the Church, see in the places referred to in 9325.

[8] So it was that cities which were not to be inhabited any longer were sown with salt after they had been destroyed, Judges 9:45.

From all this it is evident that in the genuine sense 'salt' means the desire that truth has for good, thus its conjunctive power, and in the contrary sense the desire that falsity has for evil, thus its destructive power.

[9] Anyone therefore who knows that 'salt' means truth's desire for good and the force that joins the two together is also able to know what is meant where it says that the water of Jericho was healed by Elisha, by his throwing salt into its source, 2 Kings 2:19-22. For Elisha, like Elijah, represented the Lord in respect of the Word, 2762, 8029; 'water' means the truths of the Word, 'the water of Jericho', and in like manner 'the source' of that water, meaning the truths of the Word in the literal sense; and 'salt' means the desire truth has for good, the joining together of the two, and consequent healing.

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