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Exodus 7

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1 And Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have given thee as a god to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

2 Thou shalt speak all that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak to Pharaoh, and let him send the sons of Israel out of his land.

3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My miracles in the land of Egypt.

4 And Pharaoh will not hear you; and I will put My hand upon the Egyptians, and lead out My armies, My people, the sons of Israel, out of the land of Egypt, with great judgments.

5 And the Egyptians shall·​·know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth My hand upon Egypt, and lead out the sons of Israel from the midst of them.

6 And Moses and Aaron did so; as Jehovah commanded them, so they did.

7 And Moses was a son of eighty years, and Aaron a son of three and eighty years, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

8 And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

9 And Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Give for yourselves a miracle, and thou shalt say to Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, it shall become a sea·​·serpent*.

10 And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a sea·​·serpent.

11 And Pharaoh also called the wise and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did so with their enchantments.

12 And they cast every man his rod, and they became sea·​·serpents; and Aaron’s rod swallowed·​·up their rods.

13 And the heart of Pharaoh was made·​·firm, and he hearkened not to them; as Jehovah had spoken.

14 And Jehovah said to Moses, The heart of Pharaoh is made·​·heavy, he refuses to send· the people ·away.

15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning; behold, he goes·​·out to the waters; and thou shalt stand on the lip of the river to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent take in thy hand.

16 And thou shalt say to him, Jehovah the God of the Hebrews has sent me to thee, saying, Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness; and behold hitherto thou hast not heard.

17 Thus says Jehovah, In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah; behold I smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

18 And the fish that is in the river shall·​·die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall be·​·weary to drink waters from the river.

19 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch·​·out thy hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over the branches of their Nile, and over their ponds, and over every reservoir of their waters, and they shall be blood; and there shall be blood in all the land of Egypt, and in the trees and in the stones.

20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah commanded; and he lifted·​·high the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, to the eyes of Pharaoh, and to the eyes of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood.

21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink water from the river; and there was blood in all the land of Egypt.

22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments; and the heart of Pharaoh was made·​·firm, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had spoken.

23 And Pharaoh turned· his ·face back, and came to his house, and did not set his heart even to this.

24 And all the Egyptians dug all around the river for waters to drink; for they could not drink of the waters of the river.

25 And seven days were·​·fulfilled after that Jehovah had smitten the river.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Arcana Coelestia #2534

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2534. 'For he is a prophet' means that thus it was to be taught. This is clear from the meaning of 'a prophet'. One reads the word 'prophet' many times in the Word, and in the sense of the letter it means those to whom revelation is given, and also - abstractedly from persons - revelation itself. But in the internal sense that word means one who teaches, and also - abstractedly - doctrine itself. And because, as has been stated, the Lord is doctrine itself, or the Word which teaches, He is called 'a Prophet', as also in Moses,

Jehovah your God will raise up a Prophet like me from the midst of you, from your brothers; Him shall you obey. Deuteronomy 18:15, 18.

The words 'like me' are used because the Lord was represented by Moses, as He also was by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and many more. And because people awaited Him it is therefore said in John,

When the people saw the sign which Jesus had done, they said, This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world. John 6:14.

[2] Since the Lord in the highest sense is 'the Prophet' and 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy', Revelation 19:10, 'a prophet' therefore means in the internal sense of the Word a person who teaches, and also - abstractedly - doctrine, as becomes quite clear from the following places: In Luke,

You, child, will be called prophet of the Most High. Luke 1:76.

Zechariah said this in reference to his son, John the Baptist, who was not the prophet but one preparing the way by teaching and preaching the good news about the Lord's Coming, as he himself says,

They asked him, What are you? Are you Elijah? But he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? He answered, No. Therefore they said to him. Who are you? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. John 1:21-23.

[3] In Matthew,

Many will say on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Matthew 7:22.

Here it is evident that 'prophesying' means teaching. In John,

You must again prophesy over many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. Revelation 10:11.

'Prophesying' stands for teaching. What 'peoples', 'nations', 'tongues', and 'kings' mean has been stated and shown in various places. In the same book,

The nations will trample the holy city for forty-two months, but I will grant My two witnesses to prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. Revelation 11:2-3.

Here also 'prophesying' stands for teaching. In Moses,

Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet. Exodus 7:1.

Here 'prophet' stands for one teaching or saying what Moses would have to say. In Joel,

I will pour out My spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Joel 2:28.

'They will prophesy' stands for they will teach.

[4] In Isaiah,

Jehovah has poured out over you a spirit of sleep, and has closed your eyes; the prophets and your heads, the seers, He has covered; and the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a sealed book which men give to one who is able to read, saying, Read this, now; and he will say, I cannot, for it is sealed. Isaiah 29:10-11.

Here 'the prophets' is used to mean those who teach truth, and 'the seers' those who see truth. Their heads are said to be 'covered' when they know no truth at all and see none at all. Because in ancient times those who taught were called prophets, they were also called 'seers', for 'seeing' meant understanding, 2150, 2325. The fact that they were called 'seers', see 1 Samuel 9:9; 2 Samuel 24:11. They were also called 'men (vir) of God' because of the meaning 'man' carried, dealt with in 158, 265, 749, 915, 1007, 2517. The fact that they were called 'men of God', see 2 Kings 1:9-16; 4:7, 9, 16, 21-22, 25, 27, 40, 42; 5:8, 14, 20; 13:19; 23:16-17.

[5] That 'prophets' means in the internal sense those who teach is clear in the whole of Jeremiah 23 and the whole of Ezekiel 13, where prophets are referred to specifically, and also in many other places where they are mentioned. This also explains why 'pseudoprophets' means those who teach falsities, as in Matthew,

At the close of the age many pseudoprophets will arise and lead many astray. False Christs and false prophets 1 will arise and will show great signs, and will lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Matthew 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22.

No others are meant here by 'pseudoprophets' and 'false prophets', nor likewise by the pseudoprophet in Revelation 16:13; 19:20; 20:10.

[6] How much the internal sense of the Word is obscured by ideas that have been conceived from the representatives of the Jewish Church becomes clear from the fact that every time a prophet is mentioned in the Word the idea of prophets like those who lived in those times immediately springs to mind, an idea which impedes greatly any discernment of what is meant by them. But the wiser anyone is, the more easily is an idea conceived from such representatives banished. For example, when the temple is mentioned, people who are more wise in their thinking do not envisage the temple in Jerusalem but the temple of the Lord; when Mount Zion, or simply Zion, is mentioned, they do not envisage a location in Jerusalem but the Lord's kingdom; and when Jerusalem is mentioned, they do not envisage the Jerusalem situated in the tribe of Benjamin and Judah but the holy and heavenly Jerusalem.

Notes de bas de page:

1. Here, apparently following Schmidius' Latin version of the Scriptures, Swedenborg has two similar but not identical expressions - pseudoprophetae and falsi prophetae. But in the original Greek the same word occurs in both places.

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