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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 # 9334

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9334. Lest perchance the land be desolate. That this signifies a deficiency in that case, and but little spiritual life-namely, if the removal should be hasty-is evident from the signification of “the land,” as being the church in general and also in particular. The church in particular is the man who becomes a church; for the church is in man, and is the regenerated man. (That “the land” denotes the church in general, see n. 9325; and that it denotes the church in particular, or the regenerated man, n. 82, 620, 636, 913, 1411, 1733, 2117, 2118 at the end, 2571, 3368, 3379.) A regenerate man is called “a land” also in Malachi:

All nations shall proclaim you blessed, for ye shall be a well-pleasing land (Malachi 3:12).

And from the signification of “desolate,” as being a deficiency and but little of spiritual life; for by “desolate,” when said of the church in man, is signified a lack of truth and of good, thus also a lack of spiritual life; for spiritual life is thence derived.

[2] In regard to there being a deficiency and but little of spiritual life if falsities and evils were hastily removed, the case is this. When a man is being regenerated, which is effected by the implanting of spiritual truth and good, and by the removal at the same time of falsity and evil, he is not regenerated hastily, but slowly. The reason is that all things the man, from his infancy, has thought, intended, and done, have added themselves to his life, and have made it, and likewise have formed such a connection among themselves that no one thing can be taken away unless all are taken away at the same time. For an evil man is an image of hell, and a good man is an image of heaven; and the evils and falsities with an evil man have such a connection among themselves as there is among the infernal societies, of which he is a part; and the goods and truths with a good man have such a connection among themselves as there is among the heavenly societies, of which he is a part. From this it is evident that the evils and falsities with an evil man cannot be removed from their place suddenly; but only in proportion as goods and truths are implanted in their order, and interiorly; for heaven in a man removes hell from him. If this were done suddenly, the man would fail; for each and all things that are in connection and form would be disturbed, and would take away his life.

[3] (That regeneration, or the implanting of the life of heaven in man, begins from his infancy and continues even to the last of his life in the world, and that after his life in the world it is perfected to eternity, see n. 2679, 3203, 3584, 3665, 3690, 3701, 4377, 4551, 4552, 5126, 6751, 9103, 9296, 9297; especially n. 5122, 5398, 5912, 9258.) Moreover-and this is a secret-man’s regeneration in the world is only a plane for the perfecting of his life to eternity. (That a man who has lived in good is perfected in the other life, may be seen from what has been shown concerning infants, n. 2289-2309; and concerning the state and lot of the Gentiles in that life, n. 2589-2604)

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 9258

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9258. And wouldest forbear to remove it for him. That this signifies no reception of truth, is evident from the signification of “to forbear from removing,” as being not to instruct and amend, here not to be capable of receiving instruction, thus not to receive truth, because it is said of the falsity which does not agree with the good of the church, and this falsity is of this nature. That in the spiritual sense “to remove” denotes this, is evident from the fact that words apply themselves to the subject; thus in the sense of the letter “to remove” applies to the burden under which the ass is lying; and in the internal sense to the falsity which does not agree with the good of the church; and therefore in this sense there is signified no removal from falsity by means of amendment, thus also no reception of truth whereby there may be amendment or removal. There are falsities which agree with the good of the church, and there are falsities which do not agree with it. The falsities which agree are those in which good lies hidden, and which, therefore, by means of good, can be bent toward truths. But the falsities which do not agree with the good of the church are those in which evil lies hidden, and which therefore cannot be bent toward truths.

[2] The good which lies hidden within genuine truths, or within truths not genuine, which just above were called falsities, and the evil which lies hidden in falsities, and also in truths, are like the prolific germ in the seed of fruit. When the fruit is being formed, all its fibers look toward the prolific germ of the seed, and by means of the permeating sap they nourish it and form it; but when it has been formed, the fibers retire, and convey the sap away from the seed, thus causing the pulp of the fruit to shrivel and decay, and afterward serve the prolific germ as soil. The case is the same with the seed itself, when its prolific germ begins to put itself forth anew in the earth. The prolific germ in plants corresponds to the good in man. The seed itself corresponds to internal things, and the pulp of the fruit encompassing the seed corresponds to external things. When the internal of man is being formed anew, or is being regenerated, the memory-knowledges and truths of the external man are like the fibers of fruit, through which the sap is carried over to the internal; and afterward, when the man has been regenerated, the memory-knowledges and truths of the external man are also separated, and serve as soil. The case is the same with the internal of man, to which the seed corresponds. In this case the good which has been formed in this manner produces a new man, just as the prolific germ in the seed produces a new tree, or a new plant. Thus all things are made new, and afterward multiply and bear fruit to eternity; consequently the new man becomes like a garden and a paradise, to which he is also compared in the Word.

[3] This is meant by the Lord’s words in Matthew:

The kingdom of the heavens is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; which is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and make their nests in its branches (Matthew 13:31-32).

From all this it can be seen how the case is with truths, both genuine and not genuine, that have good within them, namely, that after good has been formed, it produces such truths as agree with the good; and even if these are not genuine truths, they are nevertheless accepted as genuine, because they savor of good, for from this they derive their essence and life. For good prolificates and brings itself forth by means of truths, and in this bringing of itself forth it is in the continual endeavor to produce a new good, in which there shall be a like prolific germ; just as the prolific germ of a seed acts in the case of a plant or tree, when it pushes itself forth from the earth for the sake of new fruits, and new seeds. But the varieties are endless, and are according to the goods that are formed by a life of charity in accordance with the precepts of faith.

[4] From the opposite it can be seen how the case is with falsities in which is evil, namely, that they are like trees which bear evil fruits, and which are to be rooted up and cast into the fire, according to the Lord’s words in Matthew:

Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them (Matthew 7:17-20; 12:33).

Jesus said, As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither; and they gather him, and cast him into the fire, and he is burned (John 15:4-6).

From this it is evident that all good which shall bear any fruit is from the Lord, and that unless it is from Him it is not good.

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