Numbers 14
1
And all the company lifteth up and give forth their voice, and the people weep during that night;
2
and all the sons of Israel murmur against Moses, and against Aaron, and all the company say unto them, `O that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, O that we had died!
3
and why is Jehovah bringing us in unto this land to fall by the sword? our wives and our infants are become a prey; is it not good for us to turn back to Egypt?'
4
And they say one unto another, `Let us appoint a head, and turn back to Egypt.'
5
And Moses falleth -- Aaron also -- on their faces, before all the assembly of the company of the sons of Israel.
6
And Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of those spying the land, have rent their garments,
7
and they speak unto all the company of the sons of Israel, saying, `The land into which we have passed over to spy it, [is] a very very good land;
8
if Jehovah hath delighted in us, then He hath brought us in unto this land, and hath given it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey;
9
only, against Jehovah rebel not ye: and ye, fear not ye the people of the land, for our bread they [are]; their defence hath turned aside from off them, and Jehovah [is] with us; fear them not.'
10
And all the company say to stone them with stones, and the honour of Jehovah hath appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the sons of Israel.
11
And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Until when doth this people despise Me? and until when do they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have done in its midst?
12
I smite it with pestilence, and dispossess it, and make thee become a nation greater and mightier than it.'
13
And Moses saith unto Jehovah, `Then have the Egyptians heard! for Thou hast brought up with Thy power this people out of their midst,
14
and they have said [it] unto the inhabitant of this land, they have heard that Thou, Jehovah, [art] in the midst of this people, that eye to eye Thou art seen -- O Jehovah, and Thy cloud is standing over them, -- and in a pillar of cloud Thou art going before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15
`And Thou hast put to death this people as one man, and the nations who have heard Thy fame have spoken, saying,
16
From Jehovah's want of ability to bring in this people unto the land which He hath sworn to them -- He doth slaughter them in the wilderness.
17
`And now, let, I pray Thee, the power of my Lord be great, as Thou hast spoken, saying:
18
Jehovah [is] slow to anger, and of great kindness; bearing away iniquity and transgression, and not entirely acquitting, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on a third [generation], and on a fourth; --
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forgive, I pray Thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Thy kindness, and as Thou hast borne with this people from Egypt, even until now.'
20
And Jehovah saith, `I have forgiven, according to thy word;
21
and yet, I live -- and it is filled -- the whole earth -- [with] the honour of Jehovah;
22
for all the men who are seeing My honour, and My signs, which I have done in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and try Me these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice --
23
they see not the land which I have sworn to their fathers, yea, none of those despising Me see it;
24
and My servant Caleb, because there hath been another spirit with him, and he is fully after Me -- I have brought him in unto the land whither he hath entered, and his seed doth possess it.
25
`And the Amalekite and the Canaanite are dwelling in the valley; to-morrow turn ye and journey for yourselves into the wilderness -- the way of the Red Sea.'
26
And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying,
27
`Until when hath this evil company that which they are murmuring against Me? the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they are murmuring against Me, I have heard;
28
say unto them, I live -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- if, as ye have spoken in Mine ears -- so I do not to you;
29
in this wilderness do your carcases fall, even all your numbered ones, to all your number, from a son of twenty years and upward, who have murmured against Me;
30
ye -- ye come not in unto the land which I have lifted up My hand to cause you to tabernacle in it, except Caleb son of Jephunneh, and Joshua son of Nun.
31
`As to your infants -- of whom ye have said, A spoil they are become -- I have even brought them in, and they have known the land which ye have kicked against;
32
as to you -- your carcases do fall in this wilderness,
33
and your sons are evil in the wilderness forty years, and have borne your whoredoms till your carcases are consumed in the wilderness;
34
by the number of the days [in] which ye spied the land, forty days, -- a day for a year, a day for a year -- ye do bear your iniquities, forty years, and ye have known my breaking off;
35
I [am] Jehovah, I have spoken; if I do not this to all this evil company who are meeting against me; -- in this wilderness they are consumed, and there they die.'
36
And the men whom Moses hath sent to spy the land, and they turn back and cause all the company to murmur against him, by bringing out an evil account concerning the land,
37
even the men bringing out an evil account of the land die by the plague before Jehovah;
38
and Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, have lived of those men who go to spy out the land.
39
And Moses speaketh these words unto all the sons of Israel, and the people mourn exceedingly,
40
and they rise early in the morning, and go up unto the top of the mountain, saying, `Here we [are], and we have come up unto the place which Jehovah hath spoken of, for we have sinned.'
41
And Moses saith, `Why [is] this? -- ye are transgressing the command of Jehovah, and it doth not prosper;
42
go not up, for Jehovah is not in your midst, and ye are not smitten before your enemies;
43
for the Amalekite and the Canaanite [are] there before you, and ye have fallen by the sword, because that ye have turned back from after Jehovah, and Jehovah is not with you.'
44
And they presume to go up unto the top of the mountain, and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and Moses have not departed out of the midst of the camp.
45
And the Amalekite and the Canaanite who are dwelling in that mountain come down and smite them, and beat them down -- unto Hormah.
Arcana Coelestia # 3849
3849. 'And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, Bilhah his servant-girl - to her to be a servant-girl' means exterior affections which are subservient bonds or means. This is clear from what has been stated above in 3835. The reason 'Bilhah the servant-girl' means exterior affections, and 'Zilpah, Leah's servant-girl' external affections, is that 'Rachel' represents the affection for internal truth and 'Leah' the affection for external truth. Exterior affections are natural affections subservient to internal. The reason these exterior affections are means that serve in the joining of truth to good is that no matter of doctrine, nor indeed any item of knowledge, can enter anyone except by means of affections. For affections hold life within themselves, but truths which belong to doctrine and knowledge do not without those affections hold it within themselves. The truth of this is quite evident, for without affection no one can even think, or indeed utter a single word. Anyone who gives this matter any consideration will perceive that a voice devoid of affection is the voice of an automaton and so simply a sound with no life to it; but that when it does have affections present in it the amount and the nature of that affection determines the amount and the nature of the life present in it. This shows what truths are without good, and that the affection present in truths springs from good.
[2] Anyone who gives the matter any consideration may also be aware of the same point from the fact that the human understanding is no understanding unless the will is present in it, for the life of the understanding is received from the will. This consideration too shows what truths are without good, namely that they are not truths at all, and that good is the source from which they draw their life; for truths belong to the understanding part of the mind and good to the will part. From this anyone is able to judge for himself what faith, which essentially is truth, is when devoid of charity, which essentially is good, and to judge that the truths of faith when devoid of the good of charity are dead, for as has been stated, the amount of affection present in truths, and the nature of it, determine the amount and nature of the life present there. But what give truths the appearance of still possessing life even when the good of charity is absent are the affections that go with self-love and love of the world, which possess no other life than that which in the spiritual sense is called death and is the life of hell. The word affection is used, and by that is meant that which is an extension from some love.
[3] From these considerations it may now be seen that affections are meant that serve in the joining of truth and good, and that affections are the means by which truths are introduced and also by which these are arranged into order. Genuine affections which go with love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour bring them into a heavenly order, but evil affections which go with self-love and love of the world bring them into a hellish order, that is, into that which is the contrary of heavenly order.
[4] The most external affections of all are those which belong to the body and are called appetites and desires. Those immediately interior to these belong to the lower mind (animus) and are called natural affections. But internal affections belong to the rational mind find are called spiritual affections. To the latter, that is to say, to spiritual affections which belong to the higher mind (mens), truths expressed in matters of doctrine are introduced by means of the more external and the most external affections, that is, by natural and bodily ones. These are consequently subservient means and are meant by the servant-girls given by Laban to Rachel and to Leah. When they are called Laban's servant-girls the meaning is that those affections had their origin in the good represented by Laban, a good dealt with already. For the truths that are learned first cannot at first be instilled by means of any other affections. Genuine affections arrive in the process of time, but not until a person is acting from good.
