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Exodus 2

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1 And there goeth a man of the house of Levi, and he taketh the daughter of Levi,

2 and the woman conceiveth, and beareth a son, and she seeth him that he [is] fair, and she hideth him three months,

3 and she hath not been able any more to hide him, and she taketh for him an ark of rushes, and daubeth it with bitumen and with pitch, and putteth the lad in it, and putteth [it] in the weeds by the edge of the River;

4 and his sister stationeth herself afar off, to know what is done to him.

5 And a daughter of Pharaoh cometh down to bathe at the River, and her damsels are walking by the side of the River, and she seeth the ark in the midst of the weeds, and sendeth her handmaid, and she taketh it,

6 and openeth, and seeth him -- the lad, and lo, a child weeping! and she hath pity on him, and saith, `This is [one] of the Hebrews' children.'

7 And his sister saith unto the daughter of Pharaoh, `Do I go? when I have called for thee a suckling woman of the Hebrews, then she doth suckle the lad for thee;'

8 and the daughter of Pharaoh saith to her, `Go;' and the virgin goeth, and calleth the mother of the lad,

9 and the daughter of Pharaoh saith to her, `Take this lad away, and suckle him for me, and I -- I give thy hire;' and the woman taketh the lad, and suckleth him.

10 And the lad groweth, and she bringeth him in to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he is to her for a son, and she calleth his name Moses, and saith, `Because -- from the water I have drawn him.'

11 And it cometh to pass, in those days, that Moses is grown, and he goeth out unto his brethren, and looketh on their burdens, and seeth a man, an Egyptian, smiting a man, a Hebrew, [one] of his brethren,

12 and he turneth hither and thither, and seeth that there is no man, and smiteth the Egyptian, and hideth him in the sand.

13 And he goeth out on the second day, and lo, two men, Hebrews, striving! and he saith to the wrong-doer, `Why dost thou smite thy neighbour?'

14 and he saith, `Who set thee for a head and a judge over us? to slay me art thou saying [it], as thou hast slain the Egyptian?' and Moses feareth, and saith, `Surely the thing hath been known.'

15 And Pharaoh heareth of this thing, and seeketh to slay Moses, and Moses fleeth from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelleth in the land of Midian, and dwelleth by the well.

16 And to a priest of Midian [are] seven daughters, and they come and draw, and fill the troughs, to water the flock of their father,

17 and the shepherds come and drive them away, and Moses ariseth, and saveth them, and watereth their flock.

18 And they come in to Reuel their father, and he saith, `Wherefore have ye hastened to come in to-day?'

19 and they say, `A man, an Egyptian, hath delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also hath diligently drawn for us, and watereth the flock;'

20 and he saith unto his daughters, `And where [is] he? why [is] this? -- ye left the man! call for him, and he doth eat bread.'

21 And Moses is willing to dwell with the man, and he giveth Zipporah his daughter to Moses,

22 and she beareth a son, and he calleth his name Gershom, for he said, `A sojourner I have been in a strange land.'

23 And it cometh to pass during these many days, that the king of Egypt dieth, and the sons of Israel sigh because of the service, and cry, and their cry goeth up unto God, because of the service;

24 and God heareth their groaning, and God remembereth His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob;

25 and God seeth the sons of Israel, and God knoweth.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 6723

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6723. 'And she took [for him] a box made of rush' means a container which, though crude, was nevertheless derived from truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a box' or little ark as that which is a container or in which something is enclosed, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'rush' as that which is crude but nevertheless is derived from truth. The fact that 'rush' refers to something crude is self-evident; and the reason why it refers to something derived from truth is that 'rush' has that meaning, as is plain in Isaiah,

Woe to the land overshadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends ambassadors to the sea, and in vessels made of rush on the face of the waters! Isaiah 18:1-2.

'The land overshadowing with wings' stands for the Church which brings darkness to itself through the use of reasonings based on factual knowledge. 'Beyond the rivers of Cush' stands for turning to cognitions that are used to confirm false assumptions, 1164. 'Sending ambassadors to the sea' stands for resorting to factual knowledge, 28. 'In vessels made of rush over the face of the waters' stands for very crude receptacles of truth.

[2] The expression is used in the contrary sense in the same prophet,

The dry place will become a pond and the thirsty ground wellsprings of water; [there will be] grass instead of reed and rush. Isaiah 35:7.

'Grass instead of reed and rush' stands for the fact that there will be factual knowledge containing truth instead of such things as hold no truth within them. The meaning of 'grass' as factual knowledge containing truth is evident from places in the Word in which the expression appears.

[3] Since it had been preordained that Moses should represent the Lord in respect of the law of God or the Word, in particular the historical part of the Word, the incident therefore took place in which, when he was an infant, he was put in a box or little ark, though a crude one because that law was in its very earliest beginnings and because there was merely a representative of it lying there in the ark. But later on the real law of God, after it had flashed from Mount Sinai, was put in an ark, called the Ark of the Testimony. For the fact that the law of God was put inside the ark, see Exodus 40:20; 1 Kings 8:9, also the Books of Moses [placed to the side of it], Deuteronomy 31:24-26.

[4] The ark was therefore most holy because it represented the Lord's Divine Human in respect of the Divine Law; for from the Lord's Divine Human radiates the Divine Law or Divine Truth, which is the same as the Word spoken of in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father. John 1:1, 14.

And since the ark represented something so very holy, the mercy seat with the cherubim was placed over the ark, and next to the veil concealing it there was the lampstand with lamps and the table of gold with loaves, both of which were signs of the Divine Love. This then is the reason why Moses, because he represented the law of God, was put in a little ark when he was an infant.

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