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Numbers 25

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1 Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab:

2 for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods.

3 Israel joined himself to Baal Peor: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel.

4 Yahweh said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel."

5 Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor."

6 Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

7 When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand;

8 and he went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

9 Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

10 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

11 "Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn't consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.

12 Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace:

13 and it shall be to him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.'"

14 Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers' house among the Simeonites.

15 The name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a fathers' house in Midian.

16 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

17 "Harass the Midianites, and strike them;

18 for they harassed you with their wiles, with which they have deceived you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor."

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 10652

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10652. And his daughters commit whoredom after their gods, and make thy sons commit whoredom after their gods. That this signifies in this manner the profanation of good and of truth, is evident from the signification of “committing whoredom,” as being unlawful conjunction (of which above, n. 10648); from the signification of “his daughters,” or the daughters of the inhabitant of the land, as being the affections of evil; from the signification of “their gods,” as being the falsities of the affections of evil conjoined with truths, for by “their gods” are meant the gods of the daughters of the inhabitant of the land conjoined with sons of the Israelitish nation (see just above at n. 10651), which conjunction is the profanation of good; and from the signification of “making thy sons commit whoredom after their gods,” as being the conjunction of truth with falsities, which is the profanation of truth. (That “gods” denote falsities, see n. 4402, 4544, 7873, 8867; and that “sons” denote truths, n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 3373, 4257, 9807, 10490.)

[2] These things are so said because the first conjunction of the affections of evil with truths, which is signified by “taking the daughters of the inhabitant of the land for thy sons,” is not as yet profanation; but the second conjunction is profanation, because this takes place when evil is applied to truth, and truth to evil, which is done by means of a wrong interpretation of truth, and the application of it to evil, and thus by the insertion of the one into the other. From this, truth no longer remains truth; but is killed and profaned.

[3] This profanation is also signified by “the whoredom of the people with the daughters of Moab,” of which we read in Moses:

Israel settled in Shittim, where the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people did eat, and bowed themselves down to their gods. Therefore Jehovah said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up to Jehovah before the sun. And the people were smitten; and there died from this plague twenty-four thousand (Numbers 25:1-2, 4-5, 9).

By “Moab” are signified those who adulterate goods (n. 2468, 8315); and by his “daughters,” the affections of this evil; and by “whoredom with them,” profanation; consequently the penalty was the hanging of the heads of the people before the sun, and the death of twenty-four thousand. For the sun of the world denotes the love of self (n. 10584); “hanging before it” denotes the total extinction of heavenly good; and “twenty-four thousand” denotes all the truths and goods of truth in the complex, in like manner as “twelve thousand” (n. 2089, 3913, 7973); their death denotes the extinction of all truths. This takes place with those who profane.

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