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Deuteronomio 29

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1 Estas son las palabras del pacto que el SEÑOR mandó a Moisés, para que concertase con los hijos de Israel en la tierra de Moab, además del pacto que concertó con ellos en Horeb.

2 Moisés, pues, llamó a todo Israel, y les dijo: Vosotros habéis visto todo lo que el SEÑOR ha hecho delante de vuestros ojos en la tierra de Egipto a Faraón y a todos sus siervos, y a toda su tierra;

3 las pruebas grandes que vieron tus ojos, las señales, y las grandes maravillas.

4 Pero el SEÑOR no os dio corazón para entender, ni ojos para ver, ni oídos para oír, hasta el día de hoy.

5 Y yo os he traído cuarenta años por el desierto; vuestros vestidos no se han envejecido sobre vosotros, ni tu zapato se ha envejecido sobre tu pie.

6 Nunca comisteis pan, ni bebisteis vino ni sidra; para que supieseis que yo soy el SEÑOR vuestro Dios.

7 Y llegasteis a este lugar, y salió Sehón rey de Hesbón, y Og rey de Basán, delante de nosotros para pelear, y los herimos;

8 y tomamos su tierra, y la dimos por heredad a Rubén y a Gad, y a la media tribu de Manasés.

9 Guardaréis, pues, las palabras de este pacto, y las pondréis por obra, para que entendáis todo lo que hiciereis.

10 Vosotros todos estáis hoy delante del SEÑOR vuestro Dios; vuestros príncipes de vuestras tribus, vuestros ancianos, y vuestros alcaldes, todos los varones de Israel,

11 vuestros niños, vuestras mujeres, y tus extranjeros que habitan en medio de tu campamento, desde el que corta tu leña hasta el que saca tu agua;

12 para que entres en el pacto del SEÑOR tu Dios, y en su juramento, que el SEÑOR tu Dios concierta hoy contigo;

13 para confirmarte hoy por su pueblo, y que él te sea a ti por Dios, de la manera que él te ha dicho, y de la manera que él juró a tus padres Abraham, Isaac, y Jacob.

14 Y no con vosotros solos concierto yo este pacto y este juramento,

15 sino con los que están aquí presentes hoy con nosotros delante del SEÑOR nuestro Dios, y con los que no están aquí hoy con nosotros.

16 Porque vosotros sabéis cómo habitamos en la tierra de Egipto, y cómo hemos pasado por en medio de los gentiles que habéis pasado;

17 y habéis visto sus abominaciones y sus ídolos de madera y piedra, plata y oro, que tienen consigo.

18 Por ventura habrá entre vosotros varón, o mujer, o familia, o tribu, cuyo corazón se vuelva hoy de con el SEÑOR nuestro Dios, por andar a servir a los dioses de aquellos gentiles; por ventura habrá en vosotros raíz que eche veneno y ajenjo;

19 y sea que , cuando el tal oyere las palabras de esta maldición, él se bendiga en su corazón, diciendo: Tendré paz, aunque ande según el pensamiento de mi corazón, para añadir la embriaguez a la sed.

20 El SEÑOR no querrá perdonar al tal; antes humeará luego el furor del SEÑOR y su celo sobre el tal hombre, y se asentará sobre él toda maldición escrita en este libro, y el SEÑOR raerá su nombre de debajo del cielo.

21 Y lo apartará el SEÑOR de todas las tribus de Israel para mal, conforme a todas las maldiciones del pacto escrito en este libro de la ley.

22 Y dirá la generación venidera, vuestros hijos que vendrán después de vosotros, y el extranjero que vendrá de lejanas tierras, cuando vieren las plagas de esta tierra, y sus enfermedades de que el SEÑOR la hizo enfermar,

23 (azufre y sal, abrasada toda su tierra; no será sembrada, ni producirá, ni crecerá en ella hierba ninguna, como en la subversión de Sodoma y de Gomorra, de Adma y de Zeboim, que el SEÑOR subvirtió en su furor y en su ira);

24 dirán, pues, todos los gentiles: ¿Por qué hizo el SEÑOR así a esta tierra? ¿Qué ira es ésta de tan gran furor?

25 Y responderán: Por cuanto dejaron el pacto del SEÑOR el Dios de sus padres, que él concertó con ellos cuando los sacó de la tierra de Egipto,

26 y fueron y sirvieron a dioses ajenos, y se inclinaron a ellos, dioses que no conocían, y que ninguna cosa les habían dado.

27 Se encendió por tanto , el furor del SEÑOR contra esta tierra, para traer sobre ella todas las maldiciones escritas en este libro.

28 Y el SEÑOR los desarraigó de su tierra con enojo, y con saña, y con furor grande, y los echó a otra tierra, como parece hoy.

29 Lo encubierto del SEÑOR nuestro Dios es descubierto a nosotros y a nuestros hijos para siempre, para que hagamos todas las palabras de esta ley.

   

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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.