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Exodus 12

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1 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

2 This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

3 Speak ye to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house:

4 And if the household shall be too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it from the sheep or from the goats:

6 And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side-posts, and on the upper door-post of the houses, in which they shall eat it.

8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire; and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9 Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; its head with its legs, and with its entrails.

10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain till the morning: and that which remaineth of it till the morning ye shall burn with fire.

11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand: and ye shall eat it in haste; it is the LORD'S passover.

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

14 And this day shall be to you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations: ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eateth leavened bread, from the first day till the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

16 And in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you: no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.

17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.

18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, ye shall eat unleavened bread, till the one and twentieth day of the month at evening.

19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he shall be a stranger, or born in the land.

20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened: in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Draw out, and take you a lamb, according to your families, and kill the passover.

22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the basin: and none of you shall go out at the door of his house till the morning.

23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you.

24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.

25 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall have come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say to you, What mean you by this service?

27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshiped.

28 And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, to the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle.

30 And Pharaoh rose in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt: for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Arise, and depart from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel: and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said.

32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone: and bless me also.

33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We are all dead men.

34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.

35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses: and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment.

36 And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent to them such things as they requested: and they spoiled the Egyptians.

37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, besides children.

38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very many cattle.

39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought from Egypt, for it was not leavened: because they were driven from Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victuals.

40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

41 And it came to pass, at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD departed from the land of Egypt.

42 It is a night to be much observed to the LORD, for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed by all the children of Israel in their generations.

43 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: there shall no stranger eat of it.

44 But every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.

45 A foreigner, and a hired servant shall not eat of it.

46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry aught of the flesh abroad out of the house: neither shall ye break a bone of it.

47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.

49 One law shall be to him that is home-born, and to the stranger that sojourneth among you.

50 Thus did all the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

51 And it came to pass the same day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

   

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Head

  
Photo by Joy Brown

The head is the part of us that is highest, which means in a representative sense that it is what is closest to the Lord. Because of this the head represents what is inmost in us, the thing at the center of our being. In most cases this means intelligence and wisdom, since most of us are in a state of life in which we are led by our thoughts and reason. In the case of the Lord, however, it often represents His perfect love. And in many cases the head is used to represent the whole person.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 577; Apocalypse Revealed 538, 823; Arcana Coelestia 7859, 9656, 10011)

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 716

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716. 'Sevens of each' means that they are holy. This is clear from what has been stated already in 84-87 about the seventh day or sabbath. That is to say, the Lord is the Seventh Day and from Him derives every celestial Church or man, and indeed, the celestial itself which, because it is the Lord's alone, is most holy. Consequently seven in the Word means holy; indeed in the internal sense, as here, absolutely nothing is obtained from the number itself. For people who possess the internal sense, as angels and angelic spirits do, have no concept at all of what a number is, and so do not know what seven is. Therefore the idea that they were to take seven pairs of all the clean beasts, or that the ratio of the good to the evil was to be seven to two, is not at all the meaning here. Rather it is this: Things of the will with which this member of the Church was supplied were the goods which are holy, through which, as stated already, he was capable of being regenerated.

[2] That 'seven' means that which is holy, or things that are holy, becomes clear from the rituals in the representative Church, where the number seven occurs time and again, for example, being sprinkled seven times with blood and oil, as in Leviticus,

Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the Tabernacle and everything that was in it and made them holy. And he sprinkled some of it over the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels to make them holy. Leviticus 8:10-11.

Here 'seven times' would be utterly devoid of meaning if that which is holy was not being represented in this way. 'Oil' there means the holiness of love. And elsewhere in Leviticus, when Aaron entered the Holy Place,

He shall take some of the blood of the young bull, and shall sprinkle it with his finger over the face 1 of the mercy-seat towards the east, and he shall sprinkle the face 1 of the mercy-seat seven times with some of the blood with his finger.

Similarly with the altar,

He shall sprinkle over it some of the blood with his finger seven times, and shall cleanse it, and make it holy. Leviticus 16:14, 19.

Here every single detail means the Lord Himself, and therefore the holiness of love - that is to say, 'the blood' and also 'the mercy-seat', 'the altar' too, 'the east in which direction the blood was to be sprinkled', and so 'seven' as well, all mean the Lord.

[3] In sacrifices it is similar, about which the following is said in Leviticus,

If a soul has sinned inadvertently, and if the anointed priest has sinned, thus making the people guilty, he shall slaughter the young bull in Jehovah's presence. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle some of the blood seven times in Jehovah's presence towards the veil of the Holy Place. Leviticus 4:2-4, 6.

Here similarly 'seven' means that which is holy, for the subject is atonement, and therefore the Lord, since atonement is the Lord's alone. Similar instructions were also given concerning the cleansing of leprosy, about which the following is said in Leviticus,

[Taking some] of the bird's blood, the cedar-wood, the double-dyed scarlet, and the hyssop, the priest shall sprinkle over the one who is to be cleansed from leprosy seven times, and shall cleanse him. In a similar way some of the oil which is in his left palm, seven times in Jehovah's presence. In a similar way in a house where there is leprosy, [he shall take some] of the cedar-wood, and the hyssop, and the double-dyed scarlet, and shall sprinkle some of the bird's blood seven times. Leviticus 14:6-7, 27, 51.

Anyone may see that here cedar-wood, double-dyed scarlet, hyssop, oil, and blood of a bird, and so the number seven, would be utterly meaningless if things that are holy were not being represented by them. If you take away from them holy things, what is left is something dead, or something unholy and idolatrous. When however they do mean holy things the worship they contain in that case is a Divine worship which is internal and simply represented by things that are external. The Jews however were incapable of knowing what these meant; and neither does anyone today know what cedar-wood, hyssop, double-dyed scarlet, and the bird all mean. Yet if only they had been willing to think that these did embody holy things which they did not actually know, and so had worshipped the Lord - who was the Messiah to come who would heal them from their leprosy, that is, from profaning what is holy - they could have been saved. For people who do think and believe in this manner straightaway receive instruction in the next life, if they desire it, as to what every single detail represented.

[4] Similarly where 'the red heifer' is the subject it is said that the priest was to take some of its blood on his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood towards the face 1 of the tent of meeting seven times, Numbers 19:4. Because 'the seventh day' or sabbath meant the Lord, and from Him meant the celestial man and the celestial itself, the seventh day in the Jewish Church was the holiest of all its religious observances. For this reason there was a sabbath year 2 every seventh year, Leviticus 25:4. Also a jubilee was to be proclaimed after seven sabbaths of years, that is, after seven times seven years, Leviticus 25:8-9. In the highest sense the number seven means the Lord, and from this the holiness of love. This becomes clear also from the golden lampstand with its seven lamps, mentioned in Exodus 25:31-33, 37; 37:17-19, 23; Numbers 8:2-3; Zechariah 4:2. And in John it is spoken of as follows,

Seven golden lampstands; in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man. Revelation 1:12-13.

Here it is absolutely clear that 'a lampstand with seven lamps' means the Lord, and that 'the lamps' are the holy things of love, which comprise celestial things, which also is why there were seven of them.

[5] In the same author,

From the throne there were coming forth seven fiery torches burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Revelation 4:5.

Here 'the seven torches which came forth from the Lord's throne' are seven lamps. The same applies to the number seven when it occurs in the Prophets, as in Isaiah,

The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, on the day when Jehovah will bind up the hurt of His people. Isaiah 30:26.

Here 'sevenfold light as the light of seven days' does not at all mean sevenfold but the holiness of love meant by the sun. See also what has been stated and shown already at Genesis 4:15 concerning the number seven. From these quotations it is also quite clear that all numbers used in the Word never have a numerical value [in the internal sense], as has also been shown already at Genesis 6:3.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, the faces

2. literally, sabbath of a sabbath

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