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Êxodo 30

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1 Farás um altar para queimar o incenso; de madeira de acácia o farás.

2 O seu comprimento será de um côvado, e a sua largura de um côvado; será quadrado; e de dois côvados será a sua altura; as suas pontas formarão uma só peça com ele.

3 De ouro puro o cobrirás, tanto a face superior como as suas paredes ao redor, e as suas pontas; e lhe farás uma moldura de ouro ao redor.

4 Também lhe farás duas argolas de ouro debaixo da sua moldura; nos dois cantos de ambos os lados as farás; e elas servirão de lugares para os varais com que o altar será levado.

5 Farás também os varais de madeira de acácia e os cobrirás de ouro.

6 E porás o altar diante do véu que está junto à arca do testemunho, diante do propiciatório, que se acha sobre o testemunho, onde eu virei a ti.

7 E Arão queimará sobre ele o incenso das especiarias; cada manhã, quando puser em ordem as lâmpadas, o queimará.

8 Também quando acender as lâmpadas à tardinha, o queimará; este será incenso perpétuo perante o Senhor pelas vossas gerações.

9 Não oferecereis sobre ele incenso estranho, nem holocausto, nem oferta de cereais; nem tampouco derramareis sobre ele ofertas de libação.

10 E uma vez no ano Arão fará expiação sobre as pontas do altar; com o sangue do sacrifício de expiação de pecado, fará expiação sobre ele uma vez no ano pelas vossas gerações; santíssimo é ao Senhor.

11 Disse mais o Senhor a Moisés:

12 Quando fizeres o alistamento dos filhos de Israel para sua enumeração, cada um deles dará ao Senhor o resgate da sua alma, quando os alistares; para que não haja entre eles praga alguma por ocasião do alistamento.

13 Dará cada um, ao ser alistado, meio siclo, segundo o siclo do santuário (este siclo é de vinte jeiras); meio siclo é a oferta ao Senhor.

14 Todo aquele que for alistado, de vinte anos para cima, dará a oferta do Senhor.

15 O rico não dará mais, nem o pobre dará menos do que o meio siclo, quando derem a oferta do Senhor, para fazerdes expiação por vossas almas.

16 E tomarás o dinheiro da expiação dos filhos de Israel, e o designarás para o serviço da tenda da revelação, para que sirva de memorial a favor dos filhos de Israel diante do Senhor, para fazerdes expiação por vossas almas.

17 Disse mais o Senhor a Moisés:

18 Farás também uma pia de bronze com a sua base de bronze, para lavatório; e a porás entre a tenda da revelação e o altar, e nela deitarás água,

19 com a qual Arão e seus filhos lavarão as mãos e os pés;

20 quando entrarem na tenda da revelação lavar-se-ão com água, para que não morram, ou quando se chegarem ao altar para ministrar, para fazer oferta queimada ao Senhor.

21 Lavarão, pois, as mãos e os pés, para que não morram; e isto lhes será por estatuto perpétuo a ele e à sua descendência pelas suas gerações.

22 Disse mais o Senhor a Moisés:

23 Também toma das principais especiarias, da mais pura mirra quinhentos siclos, de canela aromática a metade, a saber, duzentos e cinqüenta siclos, de cálamo aromático duzentos e cinqüenta siclos,

24 de cássia quinhentos siclos, segundo o siclo do santuário, e de azeite de oliveiras um him.

25 Disto farás um óleo sagrado para as unções, um perfume composto segundo a arte do perfumista; este será o óleo sagrado para as unções.

26 Com ele ungirás a tenda da revelação, a arca do testemunho,

27 a mesa com todos os seus utensílios, o candelabro com os seus utensílios, o altar de incenso,

28 a altar do holocausto com todos os seus utensílios, o altar de incenso,

29 Assim santificarás estas coisas, para que sejam santíssimas; tudo o que as tocar será santo.

30 Também ungirás a Arão e seus filhos, e os santificarás para me administrarem o sacerdócio.

31 E falarás aos filhos de Israel, dizendo: Este me será o óleo sagrado para as unções por todas as vossas gerações.

32 Não se ungirá com ele carne de homem; nem fareis outro de semelhante composição; sagrado é, e para vós será sagrado.

33 O homem que compuser um perfume como este, ou que com ele ungir a um estranho, será extirpado do seu povo.

34 Disse mais o Senhor a Moisés: Toma especiarias aromáticas: estoraque, e ônica, e gálbano, especiarias aromáticas com incenso puro; de cada uma delas tomarás peso igual;

35 e disto farás incenso, um perfume segundo a arte do perfumista, temperado com sal, puro e santo;

36 e uma parte dele reduzirás a pó e o porás diante do testemunho, na tenda da revelação onde eu virei a ti; coisa santíssimá vos será.

37 Ora, o incenso que fareis conforme essa composição, não o fareis para vós mesmos; santo vos será para o Senhor.

38 O homem que fizer tal como este para o cheirar, será extirpado do seu povo.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 2959

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2959. 'The land [is worth] four hundred shekels of silver' means the price of redemption by means of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'four hundred shekels', dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2048, 2937. The reason 'four hundred shekels' means the price of redemption is that 'four hundred' means vastation and 'a shekel' price. What vastation is, see 2455 (end), 2682, 2694, 2699, 2702, 2704, where it is shown that there are two types of vastation. The first takes place when the Church altogether ceases to exist, that is, when there is no longer any charity or faith. At that point the Church is said to be vastated or laid waste. The second takes place when those who belong to the Church are reduced to a state of ignorance and also of temptation, for the reason that the evils and falsities residing with them are to be set apart and so to speak dissipated. Those who emerge from this vastation are those who are specifically called the redeemed, for at that point they are taught the goods and truths of faith, and are reformed and regenerated by the Lord, as shown in the paragraphs quoted. Now since the number four hundred, when used to specify a period of time - such as four hundred years - means the duration and also the state of vastation, so that same number, when used to specify the number of shekels, means the price of redemption; and when the word 'silver' is mentioned together with this number, the price of redemption by means of truth is meant.

[2] That 'four hundred years' means the duration and the state of vastation becomes clear also from what Abraham was told,

Jehovah said to Abraham, 1 Know for sure that your seed will be strangers in a land not theirs. And they will serve them, and these will afflict them for four hundred years. Genesis 15:13.

There it may be seen that 'four hundred years' is used to mean the duration of the stay of the children of Israel in Egypt. Yet it is not the duration of their stay in Egypt that is meant but something that is not evident to anyone except from the internal sense. This becomes clear from the fact that the duration of the stay of the children of Israel in Egypt was no more than half the stated period, as becomes quite clear from the descendants of Jacob down to Moses. For the facts are that Levi was descended from Jacob, Kohath from Levi, Amram from Kohath, and Aaron and Moses from Amram, Exodus 6:16-20; Levi and his son Kohath went down to Egypt together with Jacob, Genesis 46:11; and Moses came two generations later, and was eighty years old when he spoke to Pharaoh, Exodus 7:7. These facts show that the period of time from Jacob's entry into Egypt until his sons' departure from that land was approximately two hundred and fifteen years.

[3] That 'four hundred' is used in the Word to mean something other than its numerical value in the historical sense is clearer still from its being said that

The length of time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years, and at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it happened on that same day, that all the armies of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:40-41.

The duration of the stay of the children of Israel in that land was in fact only half that number of years; but it was from Abraham's entry into Egypt that the four hundred and thirty years were measured. Consequently what is said at this point in Exodus is for the sake of the internal sense Lying within those words. In the internal sense the sojourn of the sons of Jacob in Egypt represents and means the vastation of the Church, the state and duration of which are described by the number four hundred and thirty years. Thirty describes the state of vastation of the sons of Jacob as being no vastation at all, for they were such as could not be reformed through any state of vastation (for the meaning of the number thirty, see 2276); and 'four hundred years' represents the general state of vastation of those who belonged to the Church.

[4] Those therefore who come out of that vastation are referred to as the redeemed, as is also evident from the words addressed to Moses,

Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from beneath the burdens of Egypt, and I will rescue you from their slavery, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgements. Exodus 6:6.

And elsewhere,

Jehovah has brought you out by means of a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:8; 13:5.

And elsewhere,

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, but Jehovah your God redeemed you. Deuteronomy 15:15; 24:18.

In Samuel,

Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt. 2 Samuel 7:23.

Since those who emerge from the state of vastation are referred to as the redeemed, 'four hundred shekels' therefore means the price of redemption.

[5] As regards 'a shekel' meaning the price or valuation, this is clear from the following places in the Word: In Moses,

All your valuations shall be according to the shekel of holiness. Leviticus 27:25.

And elsewhere,

If a soul commits a trespass and has sinned inadvertently in the holy things of Jehovah, he shall bring his guilt offering to Jehovah, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to your valuation in silver shekels, according to the shekel of holiness. Leviticus 5:15.

From this it is evident that 'a shekel' means the price or valuation. It is called 'the shekel of holiness' because the price or valuation has regard to truth and good from the Lord - truth and good from the Lord being, within the Church, holiness itself. Consequently it is called 'the shekel of holiness' many times elsewhere, as in Exodus 30:24; Leviticus 27:3; Numbers 3:47, 50; 7:13, 19, 25, 31, 37, 43, 49, 55, 61, 67, 73; 18:16.

[6] That 'a shekel' is the price of what is holy is quite evident in Ezekiel when the holy land and the holy city are the subject. There the shekel is referred to as follows,

The shekel there shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh (pound). Ezekiel 45:12.

Anyone may see that here 'shekel', 'pound', and the numbers mentioned mean holy things, that is, good and truth, for the holy land and the holy city or new Jerusalem, which are the subject there, mean nothing else than the Lord's kingdom where neither shekel, nor gerahs, nor pound, nor the numbering of them occurs. But the number itself, from the meaning it has in the internal sense, determines the valuation or price of good and truth.

[7] In Moses it is said that every man (vir) should give a ransom for his soul, so that there would be no plague. He had to give half a shekel, according to the shekel of holiness, a shekel being twenty gerahs. Half a shekel was to be the thruma (offering) to Jehovah, Exodus 30:12-13. Here ten gerahs, which make half a shekel, are remnants which are received from the Lord. Remnants are goods and truths stored away with a person - such remnants, being meant by 'ten', see 576, 1738, 1906, 2284. That remnants are goods and truths from the Lord that are stored away with a person, see 1906, 2284. Consequently they are also called 'the thruma (or offering) to Jehovah', and it is said that by means of this a soul will be redeemed. The reason it is stated several times that a shekel was twenty gerahs, as in these verses from Exodus, and also in Leviticus 27:25; Numbers 3:47; 18:16; and elsewhere, is that the shekel of twenty gerahs means the valuation of the good preserved in remnants - twenty meaning the good preserved in remnants, see 2280. Also therefore a shekel was a weight according to which the price of both gold and silver was determined, Genesis 24:22; Exodus 38:24; Ezekiel 4:10; 45:12 - the price of gold because 'gold' means good, 113, 1551, 1552, and the price of silver because 'silver' means truth, 1551, 2048. From this it is now evident that 'the land [is worth] four hundred shekels of silver' means the price of redemption by means of truth. The reason it is called 'the land' is that the spiritual Church is the subject, which is reformed and regenerated by means of truth received from the Lord, 2954. That 'the land' means the Church, see 662, 1066, 1068, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end).

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. In Genesis 15 the patriarch's name is still Abram.

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