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Exodus 8

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1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, Go to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people Go that they may serve me.

2 And if thou shalt refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:

3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thy house, and into thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy ovens, and into thy kneading troughs:

4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.

5 And the LORD spoke to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch forth thy hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.

6 And Aaron stretched his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.

7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.

8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Entreat the LORD that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people: and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice to the LORD.

9 And Moses said to Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I entreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee, and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?

10 And he said, To-morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word; that thou mayest know that there is none like the LORD our God.

11 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only.

12 And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh: and Moses cried to the LORD, because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh.

13 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses: and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.

14 And they gathered them into heaps: and the land was offensive in smell.

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respit, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not to them, as the LORD had said.

16 And the LORD said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

17 And they did so: for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

18 And the magicians did so with their inchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man and upon beast.

19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not to them; as the LORD had said.

20 And the LORD said to Moses, Rise early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; (lo, he cometh forth to the water) and say to him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

21 Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they are.

22 And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.

23 And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to-morrow shall this sign be.

24 And the LORD did so: and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.

25 And Pharaoh called for Moses, and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.

26 And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

27 We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God as he shall command us.

28 And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: entreat for me.

29 And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat the LORD that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to-morrow: but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more, in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.

30 And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and entreated the LORD:

31 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one.

32 And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

   

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Dust

  

Dust, in Ezekiel 26:12, signifies the lowest things which are of the sensual principle of man. They can be either good or bad, depending on the context.

In Isaiah 40:12, the dust signifies exterior or natural truths and goods of heaven and the church.

In Genesis 2:7, the dust is good, and we see some interesting nuances:

First, there's this: 'To form the man, dust from the ground' is to form his external man, which had not previously been man... (Arcana Coelestia 94)

Here, this formation of our external body and mind is a precursor, setting the stage for God to "breathe into our nostrils".

In Arcana Coelestia 1610, we find this passage, where again, dust has a good signification:

'Dust of the earth' has regard to those things that are celestial, for, as shown already, 'the earth' means the celestial aspect of love; 'dust of the sea' has regard to those things that are spiritual, for 'the sea', as has also been shown, means the spiritual aspect of love; while 'as the stars of heaven' means both but in a higher degree. And because these things cannot be numbered they therefore became common expressions to describe growth and multiplication beyond measure.

Then, in Arcana Coelestia 3707, these ideas get pulled together:

The reason the dust of the earth symbolizes goodness is that the earth, [or land,] symbolizes the Lord’s kingdom and therefore goodness, as shown just above in §3705. The dust of that land, then, means goodness, but earthly goodness, since the land symbolizes what is lowest in the Lord’s kingdom....

But there are bad connotations, too. In Micah 7:14-17, licking dust symbolizes being only sensual - bodily and external, worldly, and selfish. It's much the same in Psalms 72:9, where "Barbarians will bow down before God, and His enemies lick the dust...". See Arcana Coelestia 249, 3413 for interesting explanations of this.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 1145)