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Leviticus 17

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1 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

2 `Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the sons of Israel; and thou hast said unto them, This [is] the thing which Jehovah hath commanded, saying,

3 Any man of the house of Israel who slaughtereth ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or who slaughtereth at the outside of the camp,

4 and unto the opening of the tent of meeting hath not brought it in to bring near an offering to Jehovah before the tabernacle of Jehovah, blood is reckoned to that man -- blood he hath shed -- and that man hath been cut off from the midst of his people;

5 so that the sons of Israel do bring in their sacrifices which they are sacrificing on the face of the field, yea, they have brought them in to Jehovah, unto the opening of the tent of meeting, unto the priest, and they have sacrificed sacrifices of peace-offerings to Jehovah with them.

6 `And the priest hath sprinkled the blood upon the altar of Jehovah, at the opening of the tent of meeting, and hath made perfume with the fat for sweet fragrance to Jehovah;

7 and they sacrifice not any more their sacrifices to goats after which they are going a-whoring; a statute age-during is this to them, to their generations.

8 `And unto them thou sayest: Any man of the house of Israel, or of the sojourners, who sojourneth in your midst, who causeth burnt-offering or sacrifice to ascend,

9 and unto the opening of the tent of meeting doth not bring it in to make it to Jehovah -- that man hath been cut off from his people.

10 `And any man of the house of Israel, or of the sojourners, who is sojourning in your midst, who eateth any blood, I have even set My face against the person who is eating the blood, and have cut him off from the midst of his people;

11 for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar, to make atonement for your souls; for it [is] the blood which maketh atonement for the soul.

12 `Therefore I have said to the sons of Israel, No person among you doth eat blood, and the sojourner who is sojourning in your midst doth not eat blood;

13 and any man of the sons of Israel, or of the sojourners, who is sojourning in your midst, who hunteth venison, beast or fowl, which is eaten -- hath even poured out its blood, and hath covered it with dust;

14 for [it is] the life of all flesh, its blood is for its life; and I say to the sons of Israel, blood of any flesh ye do not eat, for the life of all flesh is its blood; any one eating it is cut off.

15 `And any person who eateth a carcase or torn thing, among natives or among sojourners -- hath both washed his garments, and hath bathed with water, and hath been unclean until the evening -- then he hath been clean;

16 and if he wash not, and his flesh bathe not -- then he hath borne his iniquity.'

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 10033

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10033. Since the present chapter deals with the sacrifice and the burnt offering through which Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the priestly office a little more will be stated regarding the blood and the fat. All the blood of a sacrifice or of a burnt offering had to be poured out at the altar and all the fat had to be burned on the altar, as the statutes and laws in Leviticus relating to burnt offerings and sacrifices make clear. The reason why this was done to the blood and fat was that the blood meant Divine Truth and the fat Divine Good. The fact that the blood meant Divine Truth is clear from what has been shown regarding 'blood' in 4735, 6378, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7850, 9127, 9393, and that the fat meant Divine Good is clear from what has been shown in 5943.

[2] That 'blood' means Divine Truth is perfectly clear in Ezekiel,

Gather yourselves from all around to My sacrifice which I am sacrificing for you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, so that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth. You will eat fat till you are glutted, and drink blood till you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I will sacrifice for you. You will be glutted at My table with horse, chariot, the mighty, and every man of war. Thus will I set My glory among the nations. Ezekiel 39:17-22.

Anyone can see that 'blood' is not used to mean blood here, for it states that they were going to drink the blood of the princes of the earth, doing so till they were drunk, and also that they were going to eat fat till they were glutted, and then that they would be glutted with horse and chariot. From these statements it is evident that 'blood' is used to mean something other than blood, 'the princes of the earth' to mean something other than princes of the earth, and also 'fat' as well as 'horse and chariot' something other than fat, or horse and chariot. What is meant however none can know except through the internal sense. This shows that 'blood' means Divine Truth, 'the princes of the earth' the Church's primary or leading truths, 'fat' Divine Good, 'horse' the internal sense of the Word, and 'chariot' actual doctrinal teachings derived from there.

'Blood' means Divine Truth; this is clear from the places referred to above.

'The princes of the earth' means primary truths, 5044.

'The earth' means the Church, 9325.

'Horse' means the internal sense of the Word, 2760-2762.

'Chariot' means doctrinal teachings, 5321, 8215.

[3] From all this it is now evident what the meaning is of the Lord's words in John,

Jesus said, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you will have no life in yourselves. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. John 6:53-56.

'Flesh' means Divine Good, see 3813, 7850, 9127; and 'the Son of Man' whose flesh they were to eat and blood they were to drink means the Lord in respect of Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, 9807.

[4] But the fact that 'fat' means Divine Good is clear in Isaiah,

Jehovah will make for all peoples on this mountain a feast of fat things. Isaiah 25:6.

In the same prophet,

Attend [diligently] to Me and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:2.

And in Jeremiah,

I will fill the soul of the priests with fat, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness. Jeremiah 31:14.

From these quotations it becomes clear why all the fat of a sacrifice was burned on the altar and why all the blood was poured out at the side of it.

[5] Because blood and fat were signs of those Divine Entities the Israelite people were totally forbidden to eat fat or blood, as is clear in Moses,

[This shall be] a perpetual statute throughout your generations: You shall eat no fat and no blood. Leviticus 3:17.

In the same author,

You shall eat no fat, neither of ox, nor sheep, nor she-goat. Everyone who eats fat from a beast, from one that is offered as a fire-offering to Jehovah, that soul eating it will be cut off from his peoples. Leviticus 7:23, 25.

And again in the same author,

Whoever eats any blood, I will set My face against the soul eating blood and will cut him off from among his people. Leviticus 17:10-14; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23-25.

[6] The reason why eating blood and fat was so strictly forbidden was that eating them represented the profanation of Divine Truth and Divine Good. For the Israelite and Jewish nation was interested in outward forms but not their inner substance, so that in their faith and love there was no Divine Truth nor any Divine Good; and their worship was external devoid of these. This was because they were ruled by self-love and love of the world more than other nations; consequently they were steeped in evils gushing out of those loves, these evils being contempt for others, enmity, hatred, vengeance, brutality, and cruelty. This also was the reason why internal truths were not revealed to them, for if these had been revealed that nation would have inevitably profaned them. Such was the character of that nation, as may be seen in the places referred to in 9320(end), 9380. Therefore they would have represented profanation if they had eaten blood and fat; for whatever was established among them was representative of the interior things of the Church and heaven.

[7] From these considerations it is even more evident what the meaning is of the words in Ezekiel 39:17-22, dealt with above, stating that they would eat fat till they were glutted and drink blood, the blood of the princes of the earth, till they were drunk. That is to say, the meaning is that when inner virtues were opened up, those with whom these virtues existed, that is, faith in and love to the Lord, would have Divine Truth and Divine Good imparted to them as their own, as happened among gentile nations when the Lord came into the world. Therefore also those words go on to say, Thus will I set My glory among the nations, 'glory' meaning Divine Truth emanating from the Lord as it exists in heaven, 9429, and 'the nations' meaning all who are governed by good, 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849, 4574, 6005, 8771, 9256.

[8] This the Lord Himself corroborates, in His declaration that His flesh was truly food and His blood was truly drink, and whoever ate His flesh and drank His blood would abide in Him, and He in that person, John 6:55-56, and also in His institution of the Holy Supper, in which they were to eat His flesh and to drink His blood, Matthew 26:26-29, by which receiving Divine Good and Divine Truth from Him and making them their own was meant. Receiving Divine Good and Divine Truth from the Lord and making them their own is possible only with those who acknowledge the Lord's Divinity, for this is the first and most essential of all matters of belief within the Church. To no others can the way to heaven be opened, because the whole of heaven assents to that belief, and therefore Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, meant here by 'blood', cannot be imparted to them. Therefore let anyone who is within the Church beware of refusing to believe in the Lord and also His Divinity; for heaven is closed and hell opened to that refusal. For those people are separated from the Lord, and so are separated from heaven, where the Lord's Divinity is the All in all since it composes heaven. And when heaven has been closed, knowledge of the truths of faith derived from the Word and from the teachings of the Church indeed exists, but not a particle of faith that is real faith because real faith comes from above, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven.

[9] The Lord spoke in this manner, that is to say, He called the Divine Good emanating from Himself His flesh, and the Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Good His blood, because the Word, which sprang from Him, was His Divinity filling the whole of heaven. Such a Word must manifest itself through the use of correspondences, as a result of which it is representative and carries a spiritual meaning in every single part; for in this and no other way could it link members of the Church to angels in heaven. For when people in the world understand the Word according to its literal meaning angels understand it according to its inner meaning. Thus instead of the Lord's flesh they understand Divine Good, and instead of His blood they understand Divine Truth, both emanating from the Lord. As a consequence that which is holy flows in by way of the Word.

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

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