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Exodus 1

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1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.

2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.

7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:

10 Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:

14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:

16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

17 But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?

19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.

20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.

21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

Comentario

 

Loins

  

The loins, as in Ezekiel 29:7, signify the marriage of truth and good. In general, loins signify love, and when referring to the Lord, divine love. They can also signify the interiors of conjugial love. In Isaiah 11:5, they signify people in the divine good of love, and reins signify people in love towards their neighbor.

(Referencias: Apocalypse Revealed 830)


De obras de Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #6692

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6692. 'And Pharaoh commanded all his people' means a general influx into factual knowledge opposed to the Church's truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'commanding' as an influx, dealt with in 5486, 5732, here a general influx since the command came from Pharaoh, who represents factual knowledge in general, 6015; and from the meaning of 'his people' as factual knowledge opposed to the Church's truths. The meaning of the Egyptians, to whom 'people' refers here, as factual knowledge has been demonstrated often, see 6638. The reason why factual knowledge opposed to the Church's truths is meant by 'the Egyptians' is that the representative forms and meaningful signs of the Ancient Church, a Church which had existed also among them, had been turned there into magic. For through the Church's representative forms and meaningful signs there was contact at that time with heaven. This contact existed among those who led lives filled with the good of charity, and among many it was open contact. Among those however who did not lead a good charitable life but acted in ways contrary to it, open contact sometimes existed with evil spirits who perverted all the Church's truths, and along with them destroyed all that was good, from which magic arose. This may also be recognized from the hieroglyphics among the Egyptians, who also used them in their sacred rituals. They used them as signs of spiritual things, and they used them to pervert Divine order.

[2] Magic is nothing else than the perversion of order; in particular it is the misuse of correspondences. If true order is to exist, goodness and truth as they emanate from the Lord must find acceptance in a person. When they do, true order is present in every particular aspect of the person's intentions and thoughts. But when they do not find acceptance in him as true order originating in the Lord requires and he instead believes that everything is a purposeless stream of events, or if anything does have purpose, that it is attributable to his own prudence, he perverts true order. For he makes use of what belongs to order solely for his own interests and not those of his neighbour, except insofar as his neighbour is favourably disposed towards him. This accounts for the astonishing fact that all who have become firmly convinced that everything is attributable to their own prudence and nothing at all to Divine providence are very much inclined towards magic in the next life, and also involve themselves in it as much as they can. This is especially so with those who, trusting in themselves and ascribing everything to their own prudence, have worked out many sly and cunning ways of gaining superiority over others. Once people like this have undergone judgement in the next life they are sent off to the hells of those who work magic. These hells are on the right on a level with the soles of the feet, a little way out in front and extending to a considerable distance; and the Egyptians are in the deepest ones. Here then is why 'Pharaoh', 'the Egyptians', and 'Egypt' mean factual knowledge opposed to the Church's truths.

[3] To prevent therefore any further perversion of the Church's representative forms and meaningful signs into forms of magic, the Israelite people were selected, and among them the Church's representative forms and meaningful signs were to be re-established. The nature of this people was such that it could not create magic out of them, for they were interested solely in external things and had no belief in anything internal, let alone anything spiritual. Among people like this no magic can arise such as existed among the Egyptians.

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