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Exodus 23

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1 `Thou dost not lift up a vain report; thou dost not put thy hand with a wicked man to be a violent witness.

2 `Thou art not after many to evil, nor dost thou testify concerning a strife, to turn aside after many to cause [others] to turn aside;

3 and a poor man thou dost not honour in his strife.

4 `When thou meetest thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou dost certainly turn it back to him;

5 when thou seest the ass of him who is hating thee crouching under its burden, then thou hast ceased from leaving [it] to it -- thou dost certainly leave [it] with him.

6 `Thou dost not turn aside the judgment of thy needy one in his strife;

7 from a false matter thou dost keep far off, and an innocent and righteous man thou dost not slay; for I do not justify a wicked man.

8 `And a bribe thou dost not take; for the bribe bindeth the open-[eyed], and perverteth the words of the righteous.

9 `And a sojourner thou dost not oppress, and ye -- ye have known the soul of the sojourner, for sojourners ye have been in the land of Egypt.

10 `And six years thou dost sow thy land, and hast gathered its increase;

11 and the seventh thou dost release it, and hast left it, and the needy of thy people have eaten, and their leaving doth the beast of the field eat; so dost thou to thy vineyard -- to thine olive-yard.

12 `Six days thou dost do thy work, and on the seventh day thou dost rest, so that thine ox and thine ass doth rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the sojourner is refreshed;

13 and in all that which I have said unto you ye do take heed; and the name of other gods ye do not mention; it is not heard on thy mouth.

14 `Three times thou dost keep a feast to Me in a year;

15 the Feast of Unleavened things thou dost keep; seven days thou dost eat Unleavened things, as I have commanded thee, at the time appointed [in] the month of Abib; for in it thou hast come forth out of Egypt, and ye do not appear [in] My presence empty;

16 and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of thy works which thou sowest in the field; and the Feast of the In-Gathering, in the outgoing of the year, in thy gathering thy works out of the field.

17 `Three times in a year do all thy males appear before the face of the Lord Jehovah.

18 `Thou dost not sacrifice on a fermented thing the blood of My sacrifice, and the fat of My festival doth not remain till morning;

19 the beginning of the first-fruits of thy ground thou dost bring into the house of Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

20 `Lo, I am sending a messenger before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee in unto the place which I have prepared;

21 be watchful because of his presence, and hearken to his voice, rebel not against him, for he beareth not with your transgression, for My name [is] in his heart;

22 for, if thou diligently hearken to his voice, and hast done all that which I speak, then I have been at enmity with thine enemies, and have distressed those distressing thee.

23 `For My messenger goeth before thee, and hath brought thee in unto the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I have cut them off.

24 `Thou dost not bow thyself to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their doings, but dost utterly devote them, and thoroughly break their standing pillars.

25 `And ye have served Jehovah your God, and He hath blessed thy bread and thy water, and I have turned aside sickness from thine heart;

26 there is not a miscarrying and barren one in thy land; the number of thy days I fulfil:

27 My terror I send before thee, and I have put to death all the people among whom thou comest, and I have given the neck of all thine enemies unto thee.

28 `And I have sent the hornet before thee, and it hath cast out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee;

29 I cast them not out from before thee in one year, lest the land be a desolation, and the beast of the field hath multiplied against thee;

30 little [by] little I cast them out from before thee, till thou art fruitful, and hast inherited the land.

31 `And I have set thy border from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and thou hast cast them out from before thee;

32 thou dost not make a covenant with them, and with their gods;

33 they do not dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to sin against Me when thou servest their gods, when it becometh a snare to thee.'

   

Komentář

 

Barren

  

In Genesis 11:30, this signifies that the evil and falsity of idolatrous worship reproduced itself no further. (Arcana Coelestia 1371-1372)

In 1 Samuel 2:5, this signifies the church from the gentiles, who did not have the Word. (Apocalypse Revealed 103)

In Isaiah 54:1, this signifies people who are not in good because they are not in truths, but yet long for truths, as do upright nations outside the church. (Arcana Coelestia 9325[7])

In Deuteronomy 21:4, this signifies the natural mind not cultivated by truths and goods of faith because of ignorance. (Arcana Coelestia 9262)

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 1371)

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Arcana Coelestia # 10393

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10393. Exodus 32

1. And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain. And the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Rise, make us gods to go before us; for this Moses, that man who caused us to come up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

2. And Aaron said to them, Pull away the ear-jewels of gold which are on the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.

3. And all the people pulled away the ear-jewels of gold which were on their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

4. And he received [the gold] from their hands, and fashioned it with a chisel, and made out of it a calf of molded [metal]; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who caused you to come up out of the land of Egypt.

5. And Aaron saw it and built an altar in front of it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow there will be a feast to Jehovah 1 .

6. And they rose up in the morning of the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

7. And Jehovah spoke to Moses, Go! go down; for your people have corrupted themselves, whom you caused to come up out of the land of Egypt.

8. They have suddenly departed from the way which I have commanded them; they have made for themselves a calf of molded [metal], and worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who caused you to come up out of the land of Egypt.

9. And Jehovah said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

10. And you, let Me alone, and let My anger grow hot against them, and let Me consume them; and let Me make you into a great nation.

11. And Moses entreated the face of 2 Jehovah his God, and said, Why, O Jehovah, does Your anger grow hot against Your people, whom You have led out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?

12. Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, For evil He led them out, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from upon the face of the earth? Turn back from the heat of Your anger, and repent 3 of the evil against Your people.

13. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself, and spoke to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens; and all this land which I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they will inherit it into the age 4 .

14. And Jehovah repented 3 of the evil which He said He would do to His people.

15. And Moses looked back and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand; the tablets were written on across them both, from the edge of one and from the edge of the other they were written on 5 .

16. And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

17. And Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted 6 , and he said to Moses, There is the noise of war in the camp.

18. And he said, It is not the noise of the cry in victory, and it is not the noise of the cry in defeat; the noise of a wretched cry I hear.

19. And it happened, as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dances; and Moses grew hot with anger, and threw the tablets out of his hand and broke them beneath the mountain.

20. And he took the calf which they had made, and burned it in the fire, and ground it up till it was powder, and sprinkled it on the face of the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.

21. And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?

22. And Aaron said, Do not let your anger grow hot, O my lord; you know the people, that they [are set] on evil.

23. And they said to me, Make us gods to go before us; for this Moses, that man who caused us to come up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

24. And I said to them, Whoever has gold, pull it away; and they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.

25. And Moses saw that the people had become undisciplined; for Aaron had caused them to become so undisciplined that those rising up against them would annihilate them 7 .

26. And Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Whoever is for Jehovah, [come] to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves to him.

27. And he said to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Put everyone his sword on his thigh; go to and fro 8 from gate to gate in the camp, and kill [every] man his brother, and [every] man his companion, and [every] man his neighbour.

28. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people on that day up to three thousand men.

29. And Moses said, Fill your hand 9 today to Jehovah (for [every] man has been against his son and against his brother), so that He may bestow a blessing on you today.

30. And it happened on the next day, that Moses said to the people, You have committed a great sin. And now I shall go up to Jehovah; perhaps I shall make expiation for your sin.

31. And Moses returned to Jehovah and said, I implore You; this people has committed a great sin, and they have made gods of gold for themselves.

32. And now, if You forgive their sin - and if not, blot me out, I beg You, from Your book which You have written.

33. And Jehovah said to Moses, The one who has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.

34. And now, go! lead the people to what I have spoken of to you. Behold, My angel will go before you; and on the day of My visitation I will visit their sin upon them 10 .

35. And Jehovah struck the people because they made the calf which Aaron made.

CONTENTS

The internal sense in this chapter shows that no Church could be established among the Israelite people because their whole interest lay in external things and not in anything internal; and to prevent them from profaning the holy things of heaven and the Church their interiors were completely closed off. The fact that this people's whole interest lay in external things and not in anything internal is meant by the golden calf which they worshipped instead of Jehovah. And the complete closing off of their interiors to prevent them from profaning the holy things of heaven and the Church is meant by Moses' breaking the tablets containing the law, by his grinding up the golden calf, sprinkling the powder on the water, and giving it to them to drink, and also by the killing in the camp by the sons of Levi of up to three thousand men.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. in this chapter Swedenborg does not use a capital letter for the Divine name in this particular expression; i.e. he writes jehovah, not Jehovah.

2. i.e. Moses pleaded with

3. repent is not used here in the sense of being penitent or contrite over personal wrong-doing but in the sense of sorrow or regret over any past decision or course of action.

4. i.e. forever

5. literally, the tablets were written on the two goings across; from here and from here they were written i.e. the writing ran from the edge of one tablet right across, and then continued from the edge of the second tablet right across

6. The word rendered noise (vox) in verses 17-18 means more literally voice; and the word rendered shouting (vociferatio) means more literally raising the voice.

7. literally, And Moses saw the people, that they had been unloosed, because Aaron had made them unloosed, to annihilation by their insurgents

8. literally, go across (or through) and come back

9. i.e. Consecrate yourselves

10. i.e. on the day when I come to punish I will punish them for their sin

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