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Exodus 17

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1 All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh's commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.

2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?"

3 The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"

4 Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, "What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."

5 Yahweh said to Moses, "Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go.

6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

7 He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, "Is Yahweh among us, or not?"

8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

9 Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God's rod in my hand."

10 So Joshua did as Moses had told him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

11 It happened, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

12 But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.

13 Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

14 Yahweh said to Moses, "Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky."

15 Moses built an altar, and called its name Yahweh our Banner.

16 He said, "Yah has sworn: 'Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.'"

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 8559

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8559. 'According to their travels' means according to the order of life for receiving the life of heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'travels' as further development of spiritual life, dealt with just above in 8557, thus the order of that life, 1293. The reason why it is for the purpose of receiving the life of heaven is that temptations, which the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness depict, are the means by which the Lord imparts that life to a person. The life of heaven consists in being led by the Lord through good; and if a person is to attain that life, good must be implanted through truth, that is, charity through faith. As long as this is being done a person is on the road to heaven, but is not as yet in heaven. In order that the truths of faith may be corroborated and also linked to good, a person is pitched into temptations, for these serve as the means by which goodness and truth are joined together. When therefore a person is governed by good, that is, by an affection for doing good for its own sake, and so for his neighbour's sake, he is raised into heaven, since the order of heaven governs him and he is being led by the Lord through good. All this makes clear what one should understand by the life of heaven.

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