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Deuteronomy 31

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1 Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.

2 He said to them, "I am one hundred twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: and Yahweh has said to me, 'You shall not go over this Jordan.'

3 Yahweh your God, he will go over before you; he will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them: [and] Joshua, he shall go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken.

4 Yahweh will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land; whom he destroyed.

5 Yahweh will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.

6 Be strong and courageous, don't be afraid, nor be scared of them: for Yahweh your God, he it is who does go with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you."

7 Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and courageous: for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it.

8 Yahweh, he it is who does go before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you, neither forsake you: don't be afraid, neither be dismayed."

9 Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and to all the elders of Israel.

10 Moses commanded them, saying, "At the end of [every] seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tents,

11 when all Israel is come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he shall choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

12 Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;

13 and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it."

14 Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may commission him." Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.

15 Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud: and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent.

16 Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them; so that they will say in that day, 'Haven't these evils come on us because our God is not among us?'

18 I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they shall have worked, in that they are turned to other gods.

19 "Now therefore write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.

20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat; then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.

21 It shall happen, when many evils and troubles are come on them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I swore."

22 So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.

23 He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, "Be strong and courageous; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them: and I will be with you."

24 It happened, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,

25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, saying,

26 "Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.

27 For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against Yahweh; and how much more after my death?

28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

29 For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days; because you will do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands."

30 Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 2446

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2446. 'Brimstone' means the hell of the evils of self-love, and 'fire' the hell of falsities deriving from these. This is clear from the meaning in the Word of 'brimstone' and of 'fire' produced by it as self-love together with its evil desires and derivative falsities, and so as hell, for hell consists of such. That 'brimstone' and 'fire' have these meanings is clear in David,

Jehovah will rain on the wicked, snares, fire and brimstone. Psalms 11:6.

The fact that it is not fire or brimstone but something else that is meant here by 'fire and brimstone' becomes clear also from its being said that 'Jehovah will rain snares'. In Ezekiel,

I will dispute with him with pestilence and blood; and deluging rain and hailstones, fire and brimstone will I rain on him and on his hordes, and on the many peoples that are with him. Ezekiel 38:22.

This refers to Gog who lays waste the land of Israel, that is, the Church. What Gog is, see 1151. 'Fire' stands for falsities, 'brimstone' for derivative evils, and at the same time for the hells of those who lay waste. In John,

Those who worshipped the beast were thrown into the lake burning with brimstone. Revelation 19:20.

Here they stand for hell. In the same book,

The devil was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Revelation 20:10.

Here they plainly stand for hell. In the same book,

As for abominable people, and murderers, and adulterers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their lot will be in the lake burning with fire and brimstone. Revelation 21:8.

Here also 'fire and brimstone' plainly stands for hell.

[2] That these two stand for the evils of self-love and for falsities deriving from these, in which the hells have their origin, is seen in Isaiah,

The day of Jehovah's vengeance - the year of retributions in the controversy of Zion - and her streams will be turned into pitch, and her dust into brimstone, and her land will become burning pitch. Isaiah 34:8-9.

Here 'burning pitch', mentioned instead of fire, stands for dense and dreadful falsities, 'brimstone' for evils which are the product of self-love. In the same prophet,

Its pyre is fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah is like a stream of burning brimstone in it. Isaiah 30:33.

In this reference to Tophet, 'a stream of burning brimstone' stands for falsities which are the product of the evils of self-love. In Luke,

On the day Lot went out of Sodom fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all - so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Luke 17:29-30.

[3] Anyone may see that it is not fire and brimstone that will rain down at that time but that the falsities and desires of self-love, which are meant by 'fire and brimstone' and which make up hell, will be predominant. 'Fire' in the Word means evil desires and at the same time the hells, in which case the smoke from the fire means falsity which arises from and exists in those hells, see 1861. And in John,

I saw horses in the vision, and those seated on them had breastplates of fire and of brimstone. And the heads of the horses were like lions' heads, and out of their mouths there went forth fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three a third part of mankind was killed - by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone. Revelation 9:17-18.

'Fire, smoke, and brimstone' stands for evils and falsities of every kind, in which, as stated, the hells have their origin.

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

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Genesis 19

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1 The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,

2 and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."

3 He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

5 They called to Lot, and said to him, "Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them."

6 Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.

7 He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.

8 See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don't do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."

9 They said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!" They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.

10 But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

11 They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

12 The men said to Lot, "Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:

13 for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it."

14 Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, "Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

15 When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, "Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city."

16 But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

17 It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Don't look behind you, and don't stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!"

18 Lot said to them, "Oh, not so, my lord.

19 See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.

20 See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."

21 He said to him, "Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

22 Hurry, escape there, for I can't do anything until you get there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.

25 He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.

28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

29 It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

30 Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.

31 The firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.

32 Come, let's make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

33 They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she arose.

34 It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

35 They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she got up.

36 Thus both of Lot's daughters were with child by their father.

37 The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.