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Exodus 12

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1 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

2 This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

3 Speak ye to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house:

4 And if the household shall be too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it from the sheep or from the goats:

6 And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side-posts, and on the upper door-post of the houses, in which they shall eat it.

8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire; and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9 Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; its head with its legs, and with its entrails.

10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain till the morning: and that which remaineth of it till the morning ye shall burn with fire.

11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand: and ye shall eat it in haste; it is the LORD'S passover.

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

14 And this day shall be to you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations: ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eateth leavened bread, from the first day till the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

16 And in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you: no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.

17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.

18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, ye shall eat unleavened bread, till the one and twentieth day of the month at evening.

19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he shall be a stranger, or born in the land.

20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened: in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Draw out, and take you a lamb, according to your families, and kill the passover.

22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the basin: and none of you shall go out at the door of his house till the morning.

23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you.

24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.

25 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall have come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say to you, What mean you by this service?

27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshiped.

28 And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, to the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle.

30 And Pharaoh rose in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt: for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Arise, and depart from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel: and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said.

32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone: and bless me also.

33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We are all dead men.

34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.

35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses: and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment.

36 And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent to them such things as they requested: and they spoiled the Egyptians.

37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, besides children.

38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very many cattle.

39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought from Egypt, for it was not leavened: because they were driven from Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victuals.

40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

41 And it came to pass, at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD departed from the land of Egypt.

42 It is a night to be much observed to the LORD, for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed by all the children of Israel in their generations.

43 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: there shall no stranger eat of it.

44 But every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.

45 A foreigner, and a hired servant shall not eat of it.

46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry aught of the flesh abroad out of the house: neither shall ye break a bone of it.

47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.

49 One law shall be to him that is home-born, and to the stranger that sojourneth among you.

50 Thus did all the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

51 And it came to pass the same day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

   

Kommentar

 

Head

  
Photo by Joy Brown

The head is the part of us that is highest, which means in a representative sense that it is what is closest to the Lord. Because of this the head represents what is inmost in us, the thing at the center of our being. In most cases this means intelligence and wisdom, since most of us are in a state of life in which we are led by our thoughts and reason. In the case of the Lord, however, it often represents His perfect love. And in many cases the head is used to represent the whole person.

(Verweise: Apocalypse Explained 577; Apocalypse Revealed 538, 823; Arcana Coelestia 7859, 9656, 10011)

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Arcana Coelestia #2039

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2039. 'Every male [among you] is to be circumcised' means purity. This is clear from the representation and consequently the meaning of 'circumcising' in the internal sense. Circumcision or cutting off the foreskin meant nothing else than the removal and rejection of those elements which stand in the way of and defile heavenly love, namely evil desires, especially those of self-love, and falsities resulting from those desires. The reason why this is the meaning is that the genital organs of both sexes represent heavenly love. There are three kinds of love which constitute the heavenly things of the Lord's kingdom - conjugial love, the love of infants, and social or mutual love. Conjugial love is the chief love of all because it has within it the end of serving the greatest use, namely the propagating of the human race, and therefore of the Lord's kingdom for which it is the seminary. Next to conjugial love, and deriving from it, comes the love of infants, and after that social or mutual love. Whatever covers over, obstructs, and defiles those loves is meant by the foreskin, the cutting away of which, or circumcision, therefore became representative. Indeed to the extent evil desires and resulting falsities are removed, a person is purified and heavenly love can show itself. How contrary self-love is to heavenly love, and how filthy, has been stated and shown in 760, 1307, 1308, 1321, 1594, 2045, 2057. From these considerations it is plain that circumcision in the internal sense means purity.

[2] That circumcision is no more than the sign of a covenant or of conjunction becomes quite clear from the fact that circumcising the foreskin counts for absolutely nothing if unaccompanied by circumcision of the heart; and that purification from those filthy loves is what circumcision of the heart means is quite evident from the following places in the Word: In Moses,

Jehovah God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, so that you will love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Deuteronomy 30:6.

From these words it is clear that 'circumcising the heart' means being purified from filthy loves in order that Jehovah God or the Lord may be loved with all the heart and all the soul.

[3] In Jeremiah,

Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and remove the foreskin of your heart, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 4:3-4.

'Circumcising oneself to Jehovah and removing the foreskin of the heart' is nothing other than removing such things as stand in the way of heavenly love. From this it is also clear that circumcision of the heart is something more interior that is meant by circumcision of the foreskin. In Moses,

You shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and you shall be stiff-necked no longer. [Jehovah] executes judgement for the orphan and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and clothing. Deuteronomy 10:16, 18.

Here also it is plain that 'circumcising the foreskin of the heart' means being purified from the evils that accompany filthy loves and from resulting falsities. The heavenly things of love are described as charitable works, namely 'executing judgement for the orphan and widow', and 'loving the sojourner to give him bread and clothing'.

[4] In Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming in which I will visit every one circumcised in the foreskin - Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut and who dwell in the wilderness, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. Jeremiah 9:25-26.

This too shows that circumcision was a sign meaning purification. Although they are called 'circumcised in the foreskin', these nations - the Jews included along with the rest - are considered to be 'uncircumcised nations', and Israel to be 'uncircumcised in heart'. In Moses,

If at that time their uncircumcised heart is humbled. Leviticus 26:41.

Here the meaning is similar.

[5] That the foreskin and being uncircumcised means that which is unclean is clear in Isaiah,

Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion, put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for there will no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. Isaiah 52:1.

'Zion' is used to mean the celestial Church and 'Jerusalem' the spiritual Church into which the uncircumcised, which means the unclean, will not enter.

[6] That circumcision is 'a sign of the covenant' or token of conjunction is quite clear from the fact that the same was represented by the requirement to circumcise the fruits of trees also, spoken of in Moses as follows,

When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food you shall circumcise its foreskin, its fruit. For three years it shall be to you uncircumcised; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth all its fruit shall be holy. to the praises of Jehovah. Leviticus 19:23-24.

'Fruit' similarly represents and means charity, as becomes clear from many places in the Word. Their 'foreskin' accordingly means the uncleanness that obstructs and pollutes charity.

[7] Here is a marvel: When angels in heaven conceive the idea of purification from natural things that are filthy, something akin to circumcision is represented very speedily in the world of spirits, for in the world of spirits angelic ideas come over as representatives. In the Jewish Church there were some representative religious ceremonies which had those same origins and there were others which did not. The spirits with whom that swift circumcision was represented in the world of spirits were people who wished to be allowed into heaven, but before they were allowed in this representation took place. This explains why Joshua was commanded to circumcise the people after they had crossed the Jordan and were about to enter the land of Canaan. The people's entry into the land of Canaan represented nothing else than the admission into heaven of those who have had faith.

[8] This is why circumcision was commanded a second time, described in Joshua as follows,

Jehovah said to Joshua, Make swords of flint for yourself; circumcise the children of Israel a second time. And Joshua made swords of flint for himself, and circumcised the children of Israel on the hill of foreskins. And Jehovah said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. And he called the name of that place Gilgal (rolling away). Joshua 5:2-3, 9.

'Swords of flint' means the truths which they were to be provided with to enable them to correct and cut back filthy loves, for without cognitions of truth no purification is possible. That 'stone' or 'flirt' means truths has been shown already, in 643, 1298, and that 'a sword' has reference to truths by which evils may be corrected is clear from the Word.

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