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Leviticus 1

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1 And the voice of the Lord came to Moses out of the Tent of meeting, saying,

2 Give these orders to the children of Israel: When anyone of you makes an offering to the Lord, you are to take it from the cattle, from the herd or from the flock.

3 If the offering is a burned offering of the herd, let him give a male without a mark: he is to give it at the door of the Tent of meeting so that he may be pleasing to the Lord.

4 And he is to put his hand on the head of the burned offering and it will be taken for him, to take away his sin.

5 And the ox is to be put to death before the Lord: then Aaron's sons, the priests, are to take the blood and put some of it on and round the altar which is at the door of the Tent of meeting.

6 And the burned offering is to be skinned and cut up into its parts.

7 And Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put fire on the altar and put the wood in order on the fire:

8 And Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put the parts, the head and the fat, in order on the wood which is on the fire on the altar:

9 But its inside parts and its legs are to be washed with water, and it will all be burned on the altar by the priest for a burned offering, an offering made by fire, for a sweet smell to the Lord.

10 And if his offering is of the flock, a burned offering of sheep or goats, let him give a male without a mark.

11 And he is to put it to death on the north side of the altar before the Lord: and Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put some of the blood on and round the altar.

12 And the offering is to be cut into its parts, with its head and its fat; and the priest is to put them in order on the wood which is on the fire on the altar:

13 But the inside parts and the legs are to be washed with water; and the priest will make an offering of all of it, burning it on the altar: it is a burned offering, an offering made by fire, for a sweet smell to the Lord.

14 And if his offering to the Lord is a burned offering of birds, then he is to make his offering of doves or of young pigeons.

15 And the priest is to take it to the altar, and after its head has been twisted off, it is to be burned on the altar, and its blood drained out on the side of the altar:

16 And he is to take away its stomach, with its feathers, and put it down by the east side of the altar, where the burned waste is put:

17 And let it be broken open at the wings, but not cut in two; and let it be burned on the altar by the priest on the wood which is on the fire; it is a burned offering; an offering made by fire for a sweet smell to the Lord.

Aus Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #870

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870. That 'a dove' means the truths and goods of faith residing with a person who is to be regenerated is clear from the meaning of 'a dove' in the Word, especially from the dove that alighted on Jesus when He was baptized, as mentioned in Matthew,

When Jesus was baptized He went up immediately out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Himself. Matthew 3:16-17; and in John 1:32, Luke 3:21-22; Mark 1:10-11.

Here 'a dove' meant nothing else than the holiness of faith, and the 'baptism' itself meant regeneration. It also meant therefore the truth and good of faith residing with the new Church that was to arise, which truth and good people receive through being regenerated by the Lord.

[2] Similar things were represented and embodied in the young doves or the turtle doves - mentioned in Leviticus 1:14-end; 5:7-10; 12:6; 14:21-22; 15:14-15, 29-30; Numbers 6:10-11; Luke 2:22-24 - which they used to offer as sacrifices and as burnt offerings in the Jewish Church, as becomes clear from each of the references just given. Anyone may grasp that they had such a meaning merely from the fact that they could not have been anything else than things of a representative nature. Otherwise they would be pointless, and in no sense Divine, for the external side of the Church is lifeless, but is made alive by the internal, as is the internal by the Lord.

[3] That 'a dove' in general means the intellectual concepts of faith is also clear in the Prophets, as in Hosea,

Ephraim will be like a stupid dove with no heart; they called Egypt, they went away to Assyria. Hosea 7:11.

In the same prophet, speaking of Ephraim,

They will tremble like a bird out of Egypt and a dove from the land of Assyria. Hosea 11:11.

Here 'Ephraim' stands for one who has intelligence, 'Egypt' for him who has knowledge, 'Assyria' for him who is rational, and 'a dove' stands for what belongs to the intellectual concepts of faith, the subject there being the regeneration of the spiritual Church. In David,

O Jehovah, deliver not the soul of [Your] turtle dove to the wild animal. Psalms 74:19.

'Wild animal' stands for people without any charity, 'the soul of a turtle dove' for the life of faith. See what has been stated and shown already in 40, 776, about birds meaning intellectual things. Harmless, beautiful, clean, and useful birds in particular mean intellectual truths and goods; but harmful, ugly, unclean, and useless ones, such as the raven, which is here used as the opposite of the dove, mean their opposites, namely falsities.

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