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Exodus 8

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1 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Go in unto Pharaoh: and thou hast said unto him, Thus said Jehovah, Send My people away, and they serve Me;

2 and if thou art refusing to send away, lo, I am smiting all thy border with frogs;

3 and the River hath teemed [with] frogs, and they have gone up and gone into thy house, and into the inner-chamber of thy bed, and on thy couch, and into the house of thy servants, and among thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs;

4 yea, on thee, and on thy people, and on all thy servants do the frogs go up.'

5 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy hand, with thy rod, against the streams, against the rivers, and against the ponds, and cause the frogs to come up against the land of Egypt.'

6 And Aaron stretcheth out his hand against the waters of Egypt, and the frog cometh up, and covereth the land of Egypt;

7 and the scribes do so with their flashings, and cause the frogs to come up against the land of Egypt.

8 And Pharaoh calleth for Moses and for Aaron, and saith, `Make supplication unto Jehovah, that he turn aside the frogs from me, and from my people, and I send the people away, and they sacrifice to Jehovah.'

9 And Moses saith to Pharaoh, `Beautify thyself over me; when do I make supplication for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to cut off the frogs from thee and from thy houses -- only in the River they do remain?'

10 and he saith, `To-morrow.' And he saith, According to thy word [it is], so that thou knowest that there is none like Jehovah our God,

11 and the frogs have turned aside from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; only in the River they do remain.'

12 And Moses -- Aaron also -- goeth out from Pharaoh, and Moses crieth unto Jehovah, concerning the matter of the frogs which He hath set on Pharaoh;

13 and Jehovah doth according to the word of Moses, and the frogs die out of the houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields,

14 and they heap them up together, and the land stinketh.

15 And Pharaoh seeth that there hath been a respite, and he hath hardened his heart, and hath not hearkened unto them, as Jehovah hath spoken.

16 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, and it hath become gnats in all the land of Egypt.'

17 And they do so, and Aaron stretcheth out his hand with his rod, and smiteth the dust of the land, and the gnats are on man and on beast; all the dust of the land hath been gnats in all the land of Egypt.

18 And the scribes do so with their flashings, to bring out the gnats, and they have not been able, and the gnats are on man and on beast;

19 and the scribes say unto Pharaoh, `It [is] the finger of God;' and the heart of Pharaoh is strong, and he hath not hearkened unto them, as Jehovah hath spoken.

20 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Rise early in the morning, and station thyself before Pharaoh, lo, he is going out to the waters, and thou hast said unto him, Thus said Jehovah, Send My people away, and they serve Me;

21 for, if thou art not sending My people away, lo, I am sending against thee, and against thy servants, and against thy people, and against thy houses, the beetle, and the houses of the Egyptians have been full of the beetle, and also the ground on which they are.

22 `And I have separated in that day the land of Goshen, in which My people are staying, that the beetle is not there, so that thou knowest that I [am] Jehovah in the midst of the land,

23 and I have put a division between My people and thy people: to-morrow is this sign.'

24 And Jehovah doth so, and the grievous beetle entereth the house of Pharaoh, and the house of his servants, and in all the land of Egypt the land is corrupted from the presence of the beetle.

25 And Pharaoh calleth unto Moses and to Aaron, and saith, `Go, sacrifice to your God in the land;'

26 and Moses saith, `Not right to do so, for the abomination of the Egyptians we do sacrifice to Jehovah our God; lo, we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes -- and they do not stone us!

27 A journey of three days we go into the wilderness, and have sacrificed to Jehovah our God, as He saith unto us.'

28 And Pharaoh saith, `I send you away, and ye have sacrificed to Jehovah your God in the wilderness, only go not very far off; make ye supplication for me;'

29 and Moses saith, `Lo, I am going out from thee, and have made supplication unto Jehovah, and the beetle hath turned aside from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people -- to-morrow, only let not Pharaoh add to deceive -- in not sending the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah.'

30 And Moses goeth out from Pharaoh, and maketh supplication unto Jehovah,

31 and Jehovah doth according to the word of Moses, and turneth aside the beetle from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people -- there hath not been left one;

32 and Pharaoh hardeneth his heart also at this time, and hath not sent the people away.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7456

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7456. 'Will they not stone us?' means that they would thereby demolish the truths of faith that related to worship. This is clear from the meaning of 'stoning' as demolishing and wiping out falsities, but in the contrary sense, when done by the evil, as demolishing and wiping out the truths of faith. If the vile, foul, and hellish things referred to above in 7454 were to enter in among people whose worship is holy its holiness would be destroyed. The reason for this is that when a person's worship is holy he is withheld from such things, and people who are governed by good in faith and life are raised above the level of the senses on which such things reside. But when such objects do enter in the foul things present on the sensory level are stirred up - that is, the things which a person is withheld from when his worship is holy, as has been stated, and which people governed by good are raised above - and the holiness of the worship is destroyed. Experience too demonstrates this plainly, for if, when a person offers worship to God, some foul object appears and is not removed, worship ceases and is destroyed. This is what is meant when it is said that if those steeped in falsities arising from evils were nearby they would demolish the truths of faith that relate to worship.

[2] As for the meaning of 'stoning', it should be recognized that the Jews and Israelites, among whom a representative of the Church had been established, had two kinds of capital punishment, one being stoning, the other hanging on wood. Stoning was used if anyone sought to destroy the truths relating to worship which were commanded, while hanging was used if anyone sought to destroy goodness of life. The reason why those who sought to destroy truths relating to worship were stoned was that a stone was a sign of truth and in the contrary sense of falsity, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426. And the reason why those who sought to destroy goodness of life were hanged on wood was that wood was a sign of good and in the contrary sense of the evil belonging to evil desires, 643, 2784, 2812, 3720.

[3] The fact that punishment by stoning would be used if anyone should destroy truths relating to worship is evident from the following places: In Ezekiel,

Finally they will cause an assembly to come up upon you, and they will stone you with stones and cut you up with their swords. Ezekiel 16:40.

This refers to the perverse Jerusalem and the destruction of the truth of faith by means of falsities. This is why it says that 'they will stone with stones' and also 'cut up with swords', for 'a sword' means truth engaged in conflict with falsity and destroying it, and in the contrary sense falsity engaged in conflict with truth and destroying it, 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102.

[4] A similar statement occurs elsewhere in the same prophet,

Cause an assembly to come up against them, in order that the assembly may stone them with stones and tear them apart with their swords. Ezekiel 23:46-47.

This refers to Jerusalem and Samaria, by which the Church is meant. Jerusalem means the celestial-spiritual Church, Samaria the spiritual Church, and this chapter describes how forms of the good and truth of faith were destroyed in them.

[5] In Moses,

If an ox strikes a man or woman with its horn so that the person dies, the ox shall surely be stoned. Exodus 21:28.

'Striking a man or woman with the horn' means falsity engaged in conflict with truth and goodness and destroying them. For 'the horn' is falsity engaged in conflict, and also the power of falsity, 2832, while 'man and woman' in the Word means truth and goodness; and this makes plain what the internal sense of that command is and why it was that the ox had to be stoned.

[6] In the same author,

Anyone blaspheming the name of Jehovah shall surely be killed; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. Leviticus 24:16.

'Blaspheming the name of Jehovah' means using malevolent falsities to do violence to truths and forms of good that relate to worship. 'The name of Jehovah' means everything in one embrace that is used to worship Jehovah, see 2724, 3006, thus every aspect of faith and charity, 6674. This also explains why the Israelite woman s son who blasphemed the name of Jehovah was led outside the camp and stoned, Leviticus 24:11, 14, 23. Furthermore it had been commanded that those who served other gods should be stoned, Deuteronomy 17:3, 5, and also those who enticed anyone to serve other gods, Deuteronomy 13:6-10. 'Serving other gods' means profane worship by means of which true worship is destroyed.

[7] If no evidence of virginity were found with a young woman when she married she was to be stoned because she had played the fool in Israel by committing whoredom in her father's house, Deuteronomy 22:20-21. The reason for this was that 'whoredom' meant the falsification of truth, thus the destruction of it, 2466, 4865. If a man lay in the city with a young woman, a virgin, who was betrothed to a man, both were to be stoned, Deuteronomy 22:23-24, and for the same reason, namely whoredom; for spiritual whoredom is the falsification of truth. In Luke 20:5-6, [one reads about the chief priests, scribes, and elders] coming to the conclusion among themselves that if they said John's baptism was from heaven [the Lord] would say, 'Why did you not believe him?' But if they said 'From men', all the people would stone them. Here also 'stoning' is spoken of because of opposition to the truth.

The reason why the Jews sought to stone Jesus because He said, Before Abraham was, I am, John 8:58-59, was that that nation believed this to be false. In a similar way they sought to stone Jesus because He said He and His Father were one, John 10:30-33; for they thought, as these verses also state, that this was blasphemy.

From all this one may now see what stoning was and why it was commanded, and also that punishment by stoning, administered since ancient times as its use in Egypt proves, was derived from the representatives of the Ancient Church.

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