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Numbers 11

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1 The people were complaining in the ears of Yahweh. When Yahweh heard it, his anger was kindled; and Yahweh's fire burnt among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.

2 The people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to Yahweh, and the fire abated.

3 The name of that place was called Taberah, because Yahweh's fire burnt among them.

4 The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, "Who will give us flesh to eat?

5 We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic;

6 but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at."

7 The manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium.

8 The people went around, gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil.

9 When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.

10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and the anger of Yahweh was kindled greatly; and Moses was displeased.

11 Moses said to Yahweh, "Why have you treated with your servant so badly? Why haven't I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?

12 Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them forth, that you should tell me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers?'

13 Where could I get meat to give to all this people? For they weep to me, saying, 'give us meat, that we may eat.'

14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

15 If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don't let me see my wretchedness."

16 Yahweh said to Moses, "Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you.

17 I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you not bear it yourself alone.

18 "Say to the people, 'Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and you will eat flesh; for you have wept in the ears of Yahweh, saying, "Who will give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt." Therefore Yahweh will give you flesh, and you will eat.

19 You will not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days,

20 but a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you; because that you have rejected Yahweh who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, "Why did we come out of Egypt?"'"

21 Moses said, "The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, 'I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.'

22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?"

23 Yahweh said to Moses, "Has Yahweh's hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not."

24 Moses went out, and told the people the words of Yahweh; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them around the Tent.

25 Yahweh came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders: and it happened that when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more.

26 But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the Spirit rested on them; and they were of those who were written, but had not gone out to the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp.

27 A young man ran, and told Moses, and said, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!"

28 Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, "My lord Moses, forbid them!"

29 Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all Yahweh's people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!"

30 Moses went into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

31 A wind from Yahweh went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side, and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth.

32 The people rose up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails. He who gathered least gathered ten homers; and they spread them all abroad for themselves around the camp.

33 While the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against the people, and Yahweh struck the people with a very great plague.

34 The name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who lusted.

35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth; and they stayed at Hazeroth.

   

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Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) # 23

  
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23. PROPOSITION THE SECOND

The Adamic, or Most Ancient Church of this Earth

The world has hitherto believed that by "the creation of heaven and earth," in the first chapter of Genesis, is meant the creation of the universe, according to the letter; and by Adam, the first man of this globe. Seeing that the spiritual or internal sense of the Word has not been disclosed till now, the world could not believe otherwise; nor, consequently, that by "creating heaven and earth" is meant to collect and found an angelic heaven from those who have finished with life in the world, and by this means to derive and produce a Church on earth (as above, n. 18-20); and that by the names of persons, nations, territories and cities, are meant such things as are of heaven, and at the same time of the Church: in like manner, therefore, by "Adam." That by "Adam," and by all those things which are related of him and his posterity in the first chapters of Genesis, are described the successive states of the Most Ancient Church-which are: its rise, or morning, its progression into light, or day; its decline, or evening; its end, or night; and after this the Last Judgment upon those composing it, and thereafter a new angelic heaven from the faithful, and a new hell from the unfaithful, according to the series of the progressions laid down in the preceding Proposition-has been explained, unfolded and demonstrated in detail in the ARCANA CAELESTIA on Genesis and Exodus, the labour of eight years, published in London; which work being extant in the world, nothing further is necessary than to recapitulate therefrom the universals respecting this Most Ancient Church, which will be cited in the present volume. At the outset, however, some passages shall be adduced from the Word, by which it is proved that by "creating" is there signified to produce and form anew, and, properly, to regenerate; on which account it is that regeneration is called a "new creation," by which the universal heaven of angels and the universal Church of men, exist, consist and subsist. That "creating" signifies this, is plainly manifest from these passages in the Word:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit in the midst of me (Psalm 51:10).

Thou openest the hand, they are filled with good; Thou sendest forth the Spirit, they are created (Psalm 104:28, 30).

The people that shall be created shall praise Jah (Psalm 102:18).

Thus said Jehovah, thy creator, O Jacob; thy former, O Israel: Every one that is called by My Name, I have created for My glory (Isa. 43:1, 7).

That they may see, know, consider and understand, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it (Isa. 41:20).

In the day that thou wast created, they were prepared; thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, until perversity was found in thee (Ezek. 28:13, 15):

these things are concerning the king of Tyre.

Jehovah that createth the heavens, that spreadeth abroad the earth, that giveth breath unto the people upon it (Isa. 42:5; 45:12, 18).

Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; be ye glad to eternity in that which I create: behold I will create Jerusalem a rejoicing (Isa. 65:17-18).

As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall stand before Me (Isa. 66:22).

I saw a new heaven and a new earth: the former heaven and the former earth are passed away (Rev. 21:1).

We, according to promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness (2 Peter 3:13).

From these passages it is now manifest what is spiritually meant in the first chapter of Genesis, by the verses,

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was waste and empty (Gen. 1:1-2).

The earth's being said to be "waste and empty," signifies that there was no longer any good of life or truth of doctrine with its inhabitants. That "wasteness" and "emptiness" signify the lack of those two essentials of the Church, will be established in Proposition IV of this volume, respecting the Israelitish Church, by a thousand passages from the Word: at present let the following in Jeremiah serve for some illustration:

I saw the earth, when, behold, it was vacant and empty; and [I looked] towards the heavens, when their light was not. Thus said Jehovah, The whole earth shall be wasteness; for this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above shall be made black (Jer. 4:23, 27-28).

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

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Ezekiel 28

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1 The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,

2 Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of god, in the midst of the seas; yet you are man, and not god, though you did set your heart as the heart of god--

3 behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from you;

4 by your wisdom and by your understanding you have gotten yourself riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures;

5 by your great wisdom [and] by your traffic you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches--

6 therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God,

7 therefore, behold, I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness.

8 They shall bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the death of those who are slain, in the heart of the seas.

9 Will you yet say before him who kills you, I am God? but you are man, and not God, in the hand of him who wounds you.

10 You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.

11 Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

12 Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared.

14 You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, [so that] you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.

16 By the abundance of your traffic they filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you.

18 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you.

19 All those who know you among the peoples shall be astonished at you: you have become a terror, and you shall nevermore have any being.

20 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

21 Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it,

22 and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Sidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of you; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

23 For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall fall in the midst of her, with the sword on her on every side; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

24 There shall be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them, that did despite to them; and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.

25 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob.

26 They shall dwell securely therein; yes, they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and shall dwell securely, when I have executed judgments on all those who do them despite all around them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh their God.