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Exodus 7

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1 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `See, I have given thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother is thy prophet;

2 thou -- thou dost speak all that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother doth speak unto Pharaoh, and he hath sent the sons of Israel out of his land.

3 `And I harden the heart of Pharaoh, and have multiplied My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt,

4 and Pharaoh doth not hearken, and I have put My hand on Egypt, and have brought out My hosts, My people, the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments;

5 and the Egyptians have known that I [am] Jehovah, in My stretching out My hand against Egypt; and I have brought out the sons of Israel from their midst.'

6 And Moses doth -- Aaron also -- as Jehovah commanded them; so have they done;

7 and Moses [is] a son of eighty years, and Aaron [is] a son of eighty and three years, in their speaking unto Pharaoh.

8 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

9 `When Pharaoh speaketh unto you, saying, Give for yourselves a wonder; then thou hast said unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast before Pharaoh -- it becometh a monster.'

10 And Moses goeth in -- Aaron also -- unto Pharaoh, and they do so as Jehovah hath commanded; and Aaron casteth his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it becometh a monster.

11 And Pharaoh also calleth for wise men, and for sorcerers; and the scribes of Egypt, they also, with their flashings, do so,

12 and they cast down each his rod, and they become monsters, and the rod of Aaron swalloweth their rods;

13 and the heart of Pharaoh is strong, and he hath not hearkened unto them, as Jehovah hath spoken.

14 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `The heart of Pharaoh hath been hard, he hath refused to send the people away;

15 go unto Pharaoh in the morning, lo, he is going out to the water, and thou hast stood to meet him by the edge of the River, and the rod which was turned to a serpent thou dost take in thy hand,

16 and thou hast said unto him: Jehovah, God of the Hebrews, hath sent me unto thee, saying, Send My people away, and they serve Me in the wilderness; and lo, thou hast not hearkened hitherto.

17 `Thus said Jehovah: By this thou knowest that I [am] Jehovah; lo, I am smiting with the rod which [is] in my hand, on the waters which [are] in the River, and they have been turned to blood,

18 and the fish that [are] in the River die, and the River hath stank, and the Egyptians have been wearied of drinking waters from the River.'

19 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thy hand against the waters of Egypt, against their streams, against their rivers, and against their ponds, and against all their collections of waters; and they are blood -- and there hath been blood in all the land of Egypt, both in [vessels of] wood, and in [those of] stone.'

20 And Moses and Aaron do so, as Jehovah hath commanded, and he lifteth up [his hand] with the rod, and smiteth the waters which [are] in the River, before the eyes of Pharaoh, and before the eyes of his servants, and all the waters which [are] in the River are turned to blood,

21 and the fish which [is] in the River hath died, and the River stinketh, and the Egyptians have not been able to drink water from the River; and the blood is in all the land of Egypt.

22 And the scribes of Egypt do so with their flashings, and the heart of Pharaoh is strong, and he hath not hearkened unto them, as Jehovah hath spoken,

23 and Pharaoh turneth and goeth in unto his house, and hath not set his heart even to this;

24 and all the Egyptians seek water round about the river to drink, for they have not been able to drink of the waters of the River.

25 And seven days are completed after Jehovah's smiting the River,

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7297

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7297. 'And they also, the magicians of Egypt, did so with their enchantments' means that thus to outward appearances they did something similar, by perverting the ends that order has in view. This is clear from the meaning of 'they also did', when said in reference to the magicians of Egypt, as presenting something that to outward appearances is similar, for the effects that flow from order are not altered by its misuse but are similar in outward form though they are not similar in inward form since they are contrary to the ends that order has in view; and from the meaning of 'enchantments' as the actual tricks that are used to pervert order. Sorceries and enchantments where they are mentioned in the Word mean the art of presenting falsities to look like truths and of presenting truths to look like falsities, which is done especially by means of illusions.

[2] These things are meant by 'sorceries' and 'enchantments' in the following places: In Isaiah,

But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day - loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in their fullness on account of the multitude of your sorceries, because of the very great abundance of your enchantments. Persist in your enchantments, and in the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have laboured from your youth. Isaiah 47:9, 12.

This refers to Babel and the Chaldeans. In the same prophet,

Draw nearer, sons of the sorceress, seed of the adulterer, and [of her who] committed whoredom. Isaiah 57:3.

In Nahum,

Woe to the city of blood, 1 because of the multitude of the acts of whoredom of a harlot of goodly grace, 2 the mistress of sorceries, the seller of nations through her acts of whoredom, and of families through her sorceries. Nahum 3:1, 4.

'The city of blood' stands for the falsification of truth, 'the acts of whoredom' for falsified good of truth, and 'sorceries' for tricks used to present falsities as truths and truths as falsities.

[3] In Malachi,

I will draw near to you to judgement, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against adulterers, and against those who swear falsely. Malachi 3:5.

In John,

By your enchantment all nations were led astray. Revelation 18:13.

This refers to Babylon. In Micah,

I will cut off your horses from your midst and destroy your chariots, and I will cut off the cities of your land and pull down all your fortifications, and I will cut off sorceries from your hand. Micah 5:10-12.

From this quotation it is evident that 'sorceries' means tricks used to present truths as falsities and falsities as truths. For by 'the horses' which are to be cut off are meant things of the understanding, 2761, 2762, 7217, 5321, 6125, 6534; by 'the chariots' which are to be destroyed are meant matters of doctrine concerning truth, 2760, 5321; by 'the cities of the land' which are also going to be cut off are meant the Church's truths - 'cities' being truths, 2268, 2451, 2712, 2943, 4492, 4493, and 'the land' the Church, 662, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577; and by 'fortifications' are meant truths insofar as they protect forms of good. From all this one may now know what is meant by the 'sorceries which are to be cut off from their hand, namely tricks used to present truths as falsities and falsities as truths. These tricks also correspond to the delusions which the evil in the next life employ to make a visual presentation of beautiful things as loathsome ones and loathsome things as beautiful ones. These delusions as well are a type of sorceries, since they too are misuses and inversions of Divine order.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, bloods

2. The Latin means cause but the Hebrew means grace, which Swedenborg has in another place where he quotes this verse.

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