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Exodus 5

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1 And afterwards have Moses and Aaron entered, and they say unto Pharaoh, `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, Send My people away, and they keep a feast to Me in the wilderness;'

2 and Pharaoh saith, `Who [is] Jehovah, that I hearken to His voice, to send Israel away? I have not known Jehovah, and Israel also I do not send away.'

3 And they say, `The God of the Hebrews hath met with us, let us go, we pray thee, a journey of three days into the wilderness, and we sacrifice to Jehovah our God, lest He meet us with pestilence or with sword.'

4 And the king of Egypt saith unto them, `Why, Moses and Aaron, do ye free the people from its works? go to your burdens.'

5 Pharaoh also saith, `Lo, numerous now [is] the people of the land, and ye have caused them to cease from their burdens!'

6 And Pharaoh commandeth, on that day, the exactors among the people and its authorities, saying,

7 `Ye do not add to give straw to the people for the making of the bricks, as heretofore -- they go and have gathered straw for themselves;

8 and the proper quantity of the bricks which they are making heretofore ye do put on them, ye do not diminish from it, for they are remiss, therefore they are crying, saying, Let us go, let us sacrifice to our God;

9 let the service be heavy on the men, and let them work at it, and not be dazzled by lying words.'

10 And the exactors of the people, and its authorities, go out, and speak unto the people, saying, `Thus said Pharaoh, I do not give you straw,

11 ye -- go ye, take for yourselves straw where ye find [it], for there is nothing of your service diminished.'

12 And the people is scattered over all the land of Egypt, to gather stubble for straw,

13 and the exactors are making haste, saying, `Complete your works, the matter of a day in its day, as when there is straw.'

14 And the authorities of the sons of Israel, whom the exactors of Pharaoh have placed over them, are beaten, saying, `Wherefore have ye not completed your portion in making brick as heretofore, both yesterday and to-day?'

15 And the authorities of the sons of Israel come in and cry unto Pharaoh, saying, `Why dost thou thus to thy servants?

16 Straw is not given to thy servants, and they are saying to us, Make bricks, and lo, thy servants are smitten -- and thy people hath sinned.'

17 And he saith, `Remiss -- ye are remiss, therefore ye are saying, Let us go, let us sacrifice to Jehovah;

18 and now, go, serve; and straw is not given to you, and the measure of bricks ye do give.'

19 And the authorities of the sons of Israel see them in affliction, saying, `Ye do not diminish from your bricks; the matter of a day in its day.'

20 And they meet Moses and Aaron standing to meet them, in their coming out from Pharaoh,

21 and say unto them, `Jehovah look upon you, and judge, because ye have caused our fragrance to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants -- to give a sword into their hand to slay us.'

22 And Moses turneth back unto Jehovah, and saith, `Lord, why hast Thou done evil to this people? why [is] this? -- Thou hast sent me!

23 and since I have come unto Pharaoh, to speak in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people, and Thou hast not at all delivered Thy people.'

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 6988

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6988. 'Or who has made the dumb' means lack of utterance. This is clear from the meaning of 'the dumb' as lack of utterance, for it is used as an antonym of 'mouth', which means utterance, dealt with immediately above in 6987. Utterance is not used here to mean utterance made by the voice, which is speech, for that kind of utterance is natural. Instead utterance is used to mean confession of the Lord and declaration of faith in Him, since this kind of utterance is spiritual. From this it is evident what 'the dumb' means in the internal sense, namely people who, owing to lack of knowledge, are unable to confess the Lord or for that reason declare faith in him. This is the state of gentiles outside the Church and also of the simple within the Church. The fact that these kinds of people are meant by 'the dumb' is evident in Isaiah,

Then will the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb will sing. For waters will break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the plain of the wilderness. Isaiah 35:5-6.

'The tongue of the dumb will sing' stands for the fact that they will confess the Lord and the things that belong to faith in Him. 'Waters will break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the plain of the wilderness' stands for the fact that cognitions of what is true and good will come to them, 'the wilderness' being a state in which cognitions of faith are lacking because they are unknown.

[2] The dumb who were healed by the Lord also mean gentiles who were delivered through His Coming into the world from falsities and consequent evils, such as the one who was 'dumb' in Matthew,

Behold, they brought to Him a dumb man (homo), possessed by a demon; but when the demon had been cast out the dumb [man] spoke. Matthew 9:32, 37.

And another who was 'dumb' in the same gospel,

One was brought to Jesus, possessed by a demon, blind and dumb; and He healed him, so that the blind and dumb [man] both spoke and saw. Matthew 12:22.

The 'dumb' [boy] also possessed by a demon in Mark 9:17-30 has the same meaning.

[3] It should be recognized that the miracles performed by the Lord were all signs indicating the state of the Church and of the human race saved through His Coming into the world; that is to say, when He came those people were delivered from hell who received the faith going with charity. These matters are incorporated in the Lord's miracles. In general all the miracles described in the Old Testament are signs indicating the state of the Church and the Lord's kingdom. There Divine miracles are distinguished from miracles that are devilish or the product of magic, however much the latter, such as the miracles of the magicians in Egypt, seem in outward appearance to be the same as Divine ones.

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