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Deuteronomy 24

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1 When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

2 When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's [wife].

3 If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife;

4 her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.

5 When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business: he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.

6 No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he takes [a man's] life to pledge.

7 If a man be found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him; then that thief shall die: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

8 Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.

9 Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came forth out of Egypt.

10 When you do lend your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.

11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring forth the pledge outside to you.

12 If he be a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge;

13 you shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God.

14 You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates:

15 in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.

16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

17 You shall not wrest the justice [due] to the foreigner, [or] to the fatherless, nor take the widow's clothing to pledge;

18 but you shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there: therefore I command you to do this thing.

19 When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

20 When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

21 When you gather [the grapes of] your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

22 You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.

   

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Priests

  

'Priests' represent the Lord regarding His divine good. When they do not acknowledge the Lord, they do not signify the Lord.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Revealed 854; Arcana Coelestia 3670)

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Apocalypse Revealed # 854

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854. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ. This symbolically means, because the people described are kept by the Lord in the goodness of love and so in truths of wisdom.

Priests in the Word mean people who possess the goodness of love, and kings people who possess truths of wisdom. So we are told above, "Jesus Christ makes us kings and priests" (Revelation 1:6), and also that the Lamb has "made us kings and priests" that we may "reign on the earth" (Revelation 5:10). And it can clearly be seen that the Lord will not make people kings and priests, but that He will make angels of those who possess truths of wisdom and the goodness of love from Him.

That kings mean people who possess truths of wisdom from the Lord, and that the Lord is called a king by virtue of His Divine truth, may be seen in nos. 20, 483, 664, 830 above. And priests mean people who possess the goodness of love from the Lord, because the Lord embodies Divine love and Divine wisdom, or to say the same thing, Divine goodness and Divine truth. Owing to His Divine love or Divine goodness, then, the Lord is called a priest, and owing to His Divine wisdom or Divine truth He is called a king.

That is why the heavens have been divided into two kingdoms, celestial and spiritual, and why the celestial kingdom is called the Lord's priestly kingdom, inasmuch as the angels in that kingdom are recipient vessels of Divine love or Divine goodness from the Lord; and why the spiritual kingdom is called the Lord's royal kingdom, inasmuch as the angels in it are recipient vessels of Divine wisdom or Divine truth from the Lord. But more on these two kingdoms may be seen in nos. 647, 725 above.

[2] We say that angels are recipient vessels of Divine goodness and Divine truth from the Lord, but it should be known that they are recipients perpetually, for no angel or mortal can so assimilate Divine goodness or Divine truth as to make it his own, but only to have them appear as though they were his own, because they are Divine. Consequently no angel or mortal can produce any good or truth that is good or true in itself. It is apparent, then, from this that they are kept in goodness and truth by the Lord, and are continually kept in them. If someone comes into heaven, therefore, and thinks that goodness or truth is so assimilated by him as to be his own, he is immediately sent down from heaven and instructed.

It can now be seen from this that the people's being priests of God and of Christ symbolically means, because they are kept by the Lord in the goodness of love and so in truths of wisdom.

[3] That priests in the Word mean people who possess the goodness of love from the Lord can be seen from many passages in it; but because I cited them in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), published in London, I wish only to present from there the following:

That priests represented the Lord with respect to Divine good (nos. 2015 6148).

That the priesthood was representative of the Lord with respect to His work of salvation, because it proceeded from the Divine goodness of His Divine love (no. 9809).

That the priesthood of Aaron and his sons and of the Levites was representative of the Lord's work of salvation in a sequential progression (no. 10017).

That priests and the priesthood therefore symbolize the goodness of love from the Lord (nos. 9806 9809).

That the two names, Jesus and Christ, symbolize both the Lord's priestliness and His royalty (nos. 3004, 3005, 3009).

That priests are responsible for matters having to do with the church, and kings for ones having to do with the civil state (no. 10793).

That priests are to teach truths and lead by them to goodness and so to the Lord (no. 10794).

That they are not to claim for themselves any authority over people's souls (no. 10795).

That priests are due respect because of their sacred functions, but that they are not to attribute the respect to themselves, but to the Lord from whom alone those sacred functions emanate. For the priesthood does not lie in the person, but is attached to the person (nos. 10796, 10797).

That priests in the Word who do not acknowledge the Lord symbolize the opposite (no. 3670).

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.