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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.'

   

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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 # 8311

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8311. 'The peoples heard' means all everywhere who were ruled by falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'the peoples' as those governed by truths springing from good, and in the contrary sense as those ruled by falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, 4619. The expression 'falsities arising from evil' is used in order to distinguish such people from those who are subject to falsities and yet are governed by good. Those who are subject to falsities yet at the same time are governed by good include, within the Church, those who are subject to heretical ideas but lead a good life, and outside the Church all who are governed by good. Falsities with these people are not damning, unless they are the kind of falsities that are opposed to good and destructive of an actual life of good. Falsities however which are not opposed to good are, it is true, essentially falsities; but so far as goodness of life is concerned, when they are not opposed to it, they virtually shed the character of falsity. Their application to good causes them to do so; for such falsities can be applied to good or they can be applied to evil. If applied to good they become mild, but if applied to evil they become harsh; for falsities can be applied to good, just as much as truths can be to evil. All truths without exception are falsified when they are applied to evil. Take as an example the idea that faith alone saves. Essentially this is a falsity, in particular among evil people who rule out the good of charity because, they say, it contributes nothing whatever to salvation. But this falsity is mellowed among those who lead a life of good since they apply it to good, saying that faith alone saves, but that it is not faith unless it exists together with its fruit, consequently unless it exists where good does so. It is like this with all other falsities.

[2] The statements immediately following in these verses refer to all those who were steeped in falsities arising from evil, and in evil resulting from falsities, and who were cast into hell when the Lord came into the world. There are very many kinds of evil and therefore also of falsity; for every kind of evil has its own falsity attached to it. Falsity is a product of evil and exists as the outward form of it, in exactly the same way as a person's understanding is the outward form of his will. For the will brings itself to light through the understanding, giving shape and form to itself there; it presents itself by means of mental pictures, those mental pictures by means of ideas, and these ideas by means of spoken words. These matters have been stated in order that people may know that very many kinds of evil and therefore of falsity exist. First they have been described by 'the Egyptians'. Now, that is, in the verses at this point, they are described by 'the inhabitants of Philistia', 'the chiefs of Edom', 'the powerful ones of Moab', and 'the inhabitants of Canaan', of whom it says that dismay and terror seized them because of what they heard. That is, they heard that those who upheld faith separated from charity and led a life of evil, those meant by 'the Egyptians', had been cast into hell, and that they likewise were to be thrown into hell, in order that those governed by truth and good might pass over in safety and unharmed and be led through to heaven. This last event is meant by these words contained in verses 16 and 17 following,

Alarm and dread fell on them; by the greatness of Your arm they are cut away like a stone, till Your people pass over, O Jehovah, till this people pass over [whom] You have possessed. You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place for You to dwell.

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