พระธรรม 19:24
Many thanks to Philip Pope for the permission to use his 2003 translation of the English King James Version Bible into Thai. Here's a link to the mission's website: www.thaipope.org
Arcana Coelestia # 8753
8753. 'They came to the wilderness of Sinai' means, they entered a state of good in which the truths of faith were to be implanted. This is clear from the meaning of 'the wilderness of Sinai' as a state of good in which the truths of faith are to be implanted. Here 'wilderness' is good in which truths have not as yet been implanted, and 'Sinai' is actual truths. For 'wilderness' has a number of meanings, 3900, in general what is uninhabited and uncultivated, 2708, so that in the spiritual sense it means good which as yet has no truths in it; for good without truths is spiritually uncultivated. Consequently 'wilderness' means a new will which has not as yet been formed by means of the truths of faith, 8457.
[2] As regards 'Mount Sinai', in the highest sense it means Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, Divine Good being meant by 'mountain' and Divine Truth by 'Sinai'. In the internal sense it means the truth of faith springing from good, in this instance the truth of faith that is to be implanted in good since the Law had not as yet been declared from there. The reason why 'Mount Sinai' has these meanings is that the Law was declared from there by the Lord, and the Law is Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, and also is the truth of faith springing from good, 6752, 7463, 8695. This explains why the children of Israel encamped in the wilderness beside this mountain; for not only the Ten Commandments, which are the Law in a restricted sense, were declared from there, but also all the statutes of the Church, which, being representative, held within themselves the spiritual and celestial truths and forms of good of the Lord's kingdom. The fact that the Law was declared from that mountain is clear from Chapter Exodus 20 below; and the fact that the statutes of the Church were as well is clear from Exodus 21 and following chapters; and Leviticus 7:37-38; 27:34. 'Sinai' has the same meaning in David,
O God, when You went out before Your people, when You marched in the wilderness, the earth trembled; the heavens also dropped [rain] before God. This Sinai [trembled] before God. the God of Israel. You cause a rain of blessings to drop down, O God. Psalms 68:7-9.
Here 'Sinai' stands for truth which springs from good, for these are meant by 'the heavens dropped [rain] before God' and by 'God dropped a rain of blessings'.
[3] In the Book of Judges,
O Jehovah, when You went forth from Seir, when You set out from the field of the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, the clouds indeed dropped water, the mountains flowed down before Jehovah, Sinai itself before Jehovah God of Israel. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the roads ceased to be, and those who went along by pathways kept to twisting roads; the streets in Israel ceased to be. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose a mother in Israel. Judges 5:4-7.
Here also 'Sinai' stands for the Law or Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, from which the truths of faith were implanted in the good of faith, those truths also being meant by 'the heavens dropped, and the clouds dropped water'. A lack of the truths of faith and the perversion of them is meant by 'the roads ceased to be, and those who went along by pathways kept to twisting roads', truths being meant by 'roads' or 'ways', 'pathways', and 'streets', see 627, 2333, 3123, 3477. For the theme of this prophetic song, which is the Song of Deborah and Barak, is the perversion of the Church's truth and the renewal of it.
[4] In Moses,
Jehovah came from Sinai, He dawned from Seir upon them; He shone from Mount Paran, and came out of myriads of holiness. From His right hand came a fiery law for them. Deuteronomy 33:2.
Here the children of Jacob are blessed by Moses before his death. He begins the prophetic utterance in his blessing with Jehovah came from Sinai, and in this instance 'Sinai' means the truths of faith in their entirety. The reason why he begins with these words is that all the truths and forms of the good of faith are meant by 'the children of Jacob', 3858, 3862, 3926, 3939, 6335, and in a similar way by 'the children of Israel', 5414, 5951, 5879.
Exodus 21
1
"Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
2
"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
3
If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4
If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
5
But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;'
6
then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
7
"If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do.
8
If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her.
9
If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her as a daughter.
10
If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.
11
If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.
12
"One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,
13
but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.
14
If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
15
"Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.
16
"Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17
"Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18
"If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed;
19
if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him shall be cleared: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed.
20
"If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
21
Notwithstanding, if he gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property.
22
"If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow.
23
But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,
24
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25
burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
26
"If a man strikes his servant's eye, or his maid's eye, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
27
If he strikes out his male servant's tooth, or his female servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
28
"If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.
29
But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.
30
If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him.
31
Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.
32
If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.
33
"If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it,
34
the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.
35
"If one man's bull injures another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead animal.
36
Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely pay bull for bull, and the dead animal shall be his own.
