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Exodus 10:7

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7 And the servants of Pharaoh say unto him, `Until when doth this [one] become a snare to us? send the men away, and they serve Jehovah their God; knowest thou not yet that Egypt hath perished?'

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Arcana Coelestia # 7708

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7708. Verses 21-23 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and there will be thick darkness over the land of Egypt; and one will grope in the thick darkness. And Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven, and there was intensely thick darkness in the whole land of Egypt three days. No man could see his brother, and they did not rise up from their places for three days. 1 And all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

'And Jehovah said to Moses' means instruction. 'Stretch out your hand towards heaven' means exercising the power of God's truth in heaven. 'And there will be thick darkness over the land of Egypt' means total deprivation of truth and good. 'And one will grope in the thick darkness' means the density of the falsity arising from evil. 'And Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven' means the power of God's truth exercised in heaven. 'And there was intensely thick darkness in the whole land of Egypt' means total deprivation of truth and good. 'Three days' means a state made complete. 'No man could see his brother' means that they could not perceive the truth of any good. 'And they did not rise up from their places' means that there was no raising of the mind. 'For three days' means a complete state. 'And all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings' means that those belonging to the spiritual Church had enlightenment throughout their mind.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, They did not see, a man his brother, and they did not rise up, anyone from under himself for three days.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 4859

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4859. 'And covered herself with a veil' means the truth was rendered obscure. This is clear from the meaning of 'covering oneself (that is, covering one's face) with a veil' as concealing and so rendering obscure truth which pretended to spring from good, as immediately above in 4858. Tamar did this so that she might become joined to Judah. For when brides first approached their bridegrooms they used to cover themselves with a veil, as one reads of Rebekah doing when she came to Isaac, Genesis 24:65, by which appearances of truth were meant, see 3207. 'A wife' means truth and 'a husband' good; but because truth as it really is does not show itself before it is joined to its good, therefore - to represent this reality - brides used to cover themselves with a veil when seen for the first time by their husbands. Here Tamar acted in a similar way, for she supposed that Shelah, Judah's son, should be her husband. But because she had not been given to him she then supposed that his father should perform the duty of a husband's brother instead. Therefore she covered herself with a veil as a bride would do. She did not cover herself as a whore would have done, though Judah supposed that this was what she was because in those times whores were likewise accustomed to cover their faces, as is evident from verse 15. The reason Judah supposed she was that kind of woman was that the Jewish nation, which is there meant by 'Judah', rated the internal truths of the representative Church as low as a whore. Therefore Judah was joined to her as though she were a whore; but Tamar's joining to him was not like that. Because internal truths could not be seen by that nation in any other way than this, the words used here 'she covered herself with a veil' therefore mean that truth was rendered obscure. The fact that the truth of the Church has been rendered obscure to members of that nation is also represented at the present day in their synagogues when they cover themselves with shawls or veils.

[2] Something similar was also represented by the skin on Moses' face shining when he came down from Mount Sinai, so that he covered himself with a veil every time he spoke to the people, Exodus 34:28-end. Moses represented the Word that is called the Law, see Preface to Chapter 18; and that is why sometimes the expression 'the Law and the Prophets' is used, as in Matthew 5:17; 11:13; 22:36, 40, and sometimes 'Moses and the Prophets', as in Luke 16:29, 31; 24:27, 44. The skin shining on his face represented the inner reality of the Word, for 'the face' means that which is internal, 358, 1999, 2434, 3527, 4066, 4796, 4797; for being spiritual, that inner reality dwells in the light of heaven. The veiling of his face every time he spoke to the people represented the fact that for members of that nation internal truth was covered and thus was rendered obscure so that they would not be exposed to any light at all from it.

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