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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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Arcana Coelestia # 6674

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6674. Of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah. That this signifies the quality and state of the natural where memory-knowledges are, is evident from the signification of “name,” as being quality (see n. 144, 145, 1896, 2009), and also state (n. 1946, 2643, 3422, 4298); for all names in the Word signify things, and comprise in sum total all things that belong to the subject that is being treated of, thus its quality and state; here therefore the names “Shiphrah and Puah” signify the quality and state of the natural where true memory-knowledges are, because this is the subject treated of, as is plain from what precedes (n. 6673).

[2] He who does not know that a name denotes the quality and state of the subject being treated of, can believe that where a name is mentioned, the name merely is meant; thus when the Lord speaks of His “name,” that it is merely the name, when yet it is the quality of the worship, that is, everything of faith and charity by which He is to be worshiped, as in these passages:

Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20);

here the “name” is not meant, but worship from faith and charity.

As many as received, to them gave He power to be the sons of God, to them that believe in His name (John 1:12);

here also by “name” is meant faith and charity, whereby the Lord is worshiped.

These things have been written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life in His name (John 20:31); where the sense is the same.

[3] Again:

If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:13-14);

Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you (John 15:16; 16:23-24).

Here it is not meant that they should ask the Father in the Lord’s name, but that they should ask the Lord Himself; for there is no way open to the Divine Good which is the “Father” (see n. 3704), except through the Lord’s Divine Human, as is also known in the churches; and therefore to ask the Lord Himself is to ask according to the truths of faith, and whatever is asked in accordance with these truths is granted, as the Lord Himself says in the previous passage from John:

If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:14).

This can be seen further from the fact that the Lord is the “name” of Jehovah, of which thus in Moses:

I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way; beware of His faces, and hear His voice, and do not provoke Him, because My name is in the midst of Him (Exodus 23:20-21).

[4] In John:

Father, glorify Thy name: there came forth a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again (John 12:28).

I have manifested Thy name to the men whom thou hast given Me out of the world. I have made known unto them Thy name, and I will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:6, 26).

From these passages it is plain that the Lord as to the Divine Human is the “name” of Jehovah, or His whole quality; hence all Divine worship is from the Divine Human, and it is this which is to be worshiped; for thus is worshiped the Divine Itself, to which no thought reaches in any other way, and if no thought, no conjunction.

[5] That the “name” of the Lord is everything of faith and love by which the Lord is to be worshiped is still more plain from the following passages, in Matthew:

Ye shall be hated of all for My name’s sake (Matthew 10:22).

Whoso shall receive one such little child in My name receiveth me (Matthew 18:5).

Everyone that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields, for My name’s sake; shall receive a hundredfold (Matthew 19:29).

They cried, Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Matthew 21:9).

Verily I say to you, For ye shall not see Me until the time shall come when ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Luke 13:35).

Whosoever shall give you to drink a cup of water in My name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward (Mark 9:41).

The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons obey us in Thy name. Jesus said to them, In this rejoice not, that the spirits obey you, but rather rejoice that your names have been written in heaven (Luke 10:17, 20);

“names written in heaven” are not names, but the quality of their faith and charity.

[6] So it is with “names written in the book of life” in the Apocalypse:

Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments. He that overcometh shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before the Father and before His angels (Revelation 3:4-5).

He that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. He calleth His own sheep by name (John 10:2-3).

Jehovah said unto Moses, I know thee by name (Exodus 33:12, 17).

Many believed in His name, when they saw His signs which He did (John 2:23).

He that believeth in Him is not judged, but he that believeth not is judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God (John 3:18).

They shall fear the name of Jehovah from the west (Isaiah 59:19).

All people walk everyone in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God (Micah 4:5).

[7] In Moses:

They were to worship Jehovah God in the place which He should choose, and should put His name (Deuteronomy 21:5, 11, 14).

Also in Isaiah 18:7; Jeremiah 7:12; and in many other passages; as Isaiah 26:8, 13; 41:25; 43:7; 49:1; 50:10; 5 2:5; 62:2; Jeremiah 23:27; 26:16; Ezekiel 20:14, 44; 36:21-23; Micah 5:4; Malachi 1:11; Deuteronomy 10:8; Revelation 2:17; 3:12 13:8 14:11; 15:2; 17:8; 19:12-13, 16; 22:3-4.

[8] That the “name of Jehovah” denotes everything by which He is worshiped, thus in the supreme sense everything that proceeds from the Lord, is evident from the benediction:

Jehovah bless thee and keep thee, Jehovah make His faces to shine upon thee, and have mercy on thee; Jehovah lift up His faces upon thee, and give thee peace. So shall they put My name upon the sons of Israel (Numbers 6:23-27).

From all this it is now clear what is meant by this commandment of the Decalogue:

Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him innocent that taketh His name in vain (Exodus 20:7);

also by Hallowed be Thy name, in the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:9).

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