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Numbers 18

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1 And Jehovah said to Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

2 And thy brothers also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, come·​·near with thee, that they may be joined to thee, and minister to thee; but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the Tabernacle of the testimony.

3 And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the Tabernacle; only they shall not come·​·near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar, and they shall not die, both they, and you.

4 And they shall be joined to thee, and keep the charge of the Tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the Tabernacle; and a stranger shall not come·​·near to you.

5 And you shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar, that there be no rage any·​·more upon the sons of Israel.

6 And I, behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the sons of Israel; to you they are given as a gift for Jehovah, to serve the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation.

7 And thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priesthood for every thing of the altar, and for that inside the veil; and you shall serve; I have given you the priesthood as a gift of service; and the stranger who draws·​·near shall be put·​·to·​·death.

8 And Jehovah spoke to Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of My upliftings of all the holy things of the sons of Israel; to thee I have given them for the anointing, and to thy sons, for a statute of an age.

9 This shall be for thee from the holy of holies from the fire: every offering of theirs, every gift·​·offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every guilt offering of theirs, which they shall return unto Me, it shall be a holy of holies for thee and for thy sons.

10 In the holy of holies shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it; it shall be holy to thee.

11 And this is thine: the uplifting of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the sons of Israel; I have given them to thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute of an age; everyone who is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

12 All the fat of the olive·​·oil, and all the fat of the must* and grain, their firstfruits which they shall give to Jehovah, to thee I have given them.

13 A firstfruit of all that is in the land, which they shall bring to Jehovah, shall be thine; everyone who is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

14 Every devoted·​·thing in Israel shall be thine.

15 All that opens·​·up the womb of all flesh, which they offer to Jehovah, among man and among beast, shall be for thee; only redeeming shalt thou redeem the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of the unclean beast shalt thou redeem.

16 And those who are to be redeemed from a son of a month shalt thou redeem, with thy value, the silver of five shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary; this is twenty gerahs.

17 Only the firstborn of an ox, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they are holy; thou shalt sprinkle their blood on the altar, and shalt burn· their fat ·for·​·incense for a fire·​·offering, for a restful smell to Jehovah.

18 And their flesh shall be for thee as the chest portion of the waving, and as the right hind·​·quarter is for thee.

19 All the upliftings of the holy things, which the sons of Israel lift·​·up to Jehovah, have I given to thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, for an eternal statute; it is a covenant of salt of eternity before Jehovah to thee and to thy seed with thee.

20 And Jehovah said to Aaron, Thou shalt not inherit in their land, and thou shalt not have a part in their midst. I am thy part and thine inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel.

21 And, behold, I have given the sons of Levi all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in·​·exchange·​·for their service which they serve, even the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation.

22 Neither must the sons of Israel any·​·more come·​·near unto the Tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.

23 But the Levites shall serve the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be an eternal statute for your generations, that in the midst of the sons of Israel they shall not inherit an inheritance.

24 But the tithes of the sons of Israel, which they lift·​·up as an uplifting to Jehovah, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, In the midst of the sons of Israel they shall not inherit an inheritance.

25 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

26 Then speak to the Levites, and say to them, When you take from the sons of Israel the tithes, which I have given to you from them for your inheritance, then you shall lift·​·up an uplifting from it for Jehovah, even a tithe* of the tithe.

27 And this your uplifting shall be reckoned to you, as though it were the grain of the threshing·​·floor, and as the fullness of the winepress.

28 So also shall you lift·​·up an uplifting to Jehovah from all your tithes, which you take from the sons of Israel; and you shall give from it Jehovah’s uplifting to Aaron the priest.

29 From all your gifts you shall lift·​·up every uplifting of Jehovah, of all its fat, the holy·​·part of it from it.

30 And thou shalt say to them, When you have lifted·​·up its fat from it, then it shall be reckoned to the Levites as the increase of the threshing·​·floor, and as the increase of the winepress.

31 And you shall eat it in every place, you and your houses; for it is your wage in·​·exchange·​·for your service in the Tabernacle of the congregation.

32 And you shall not bear sin on·​·account·​·of it, when you have lifted·​·up from it the fat of it; and you shall not profane the holy things of the sons of Israel, and you shall not die.

   


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

Commentaire

 

Beast

  
"Noah and His Ark" by Charles Willson Peale

In Genesis 1:24, beasts signify the things of man's will or loves. (Arcana Coelestia 44, 46)

In Genesis 9:10, beasts signify all that was living in the man of the Ancient Church, and also what belonged to his new will; likewise the lower things of his understanding and the will therefrom. (Arcana Coelestia 1026-1029)

In Psalm 104:20, beasts signify affections longing to be instructed, or spiritually nourished. (Apocalypse Explained 650[10])

In Luke 10:35, since the beast was a donkey, this signifies to instruct another according to his capability. (Apocalypse Explained 1154)

The beast of the south (Isaiah 30:6) signifies people who are principled in the knowledges of good and of truth, but do not apply them to life and instead to science.

Every beast and creeping thing (Genesis 8:19) signifies the goodnesses of the internal and external man.

"Beasts" represent the affection for doing good things, a true desire to do them from the heart. In the negative sense, "beasts" stand for the lust to do evil.

The beast ascending out of the sea (Revelation 13:1) signifies reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life.

(références: Apocalypse Explained 13, 773; Revelation 13:11)


Des oeuvres de Swedenborg

 

Apocalypse Explained #1154

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1154. Beasts of burden and sheep signifies profaned worship from truths and goods that are from a spiritual-natural origin. This is evident from the signification of "beasts of burden," as being the truths that look to charity (of which presently); also from the signification of "sheep," as being the goods of charity, as can be seen from all the passages in the Word where they are mentioned. (As in the following: Matthew 7:15; 9:36; 10:5, 6, 16; 12:10-12; 15:21-29; 18:12, 13; 25:31-41; 26:31; Mark 6:34; 14:27; John 10:1-18, 26-31; 21:15-17 and by passages in the prophets.) In these passages sheep signify those who are in the good of charity, therefore in an abstract sense, "sheep" signify the goods of charity. But "beasts of burden" signify the truths that look to the goods of charity, and as asses are especially meant, and these were used for riding and carrying burdens, things pertaining to use and to instruction were signified.

As in Isaiah:

They carry their wealth upon the shoulder of beasts of burden (Isaiah 30:6).

Wealth here signifies knowledges.

And in Luke:

The Samaritan set the man wounded by the robbers on his own beast of burden (Luke 10:34).

"To set him on his own beast of burden" signifies to instruct him according to his ability (See n. 375, 376, 444), where this is explained. What "beasts of burden" signify when asses are meant may be seen (n. 31, 140). It is said that "beasts of burden and sheep" signify truths and goods from a spiritual-natural origin, because such goods and truths are meant as are in those who are in the Lord's external church, and thus in the first or lowest heaven. These are natural, and yet they receive the spiritual, and are therefore called spiritual-natural. But here, as elsewhere, profaned worship from such truths and goods is meant.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] The operation of the Divine providence, man not knowing it, may be illustrated by two comparisons. It is like a gardener collecting the seeds of shrubs, fruit trees, and flowers of all kinds, and providing himself with spades, rakes, and other tools for working the land, and then fertilizing his garden, digging it, dividing it into beds, putting in the seeds, and smoothing the surface. All these things man must do as if of himself. But it is the Lord who causes the seeds to take root, to spring forth out of the earth, to shoot forth into leaves, and then into blossoms, and finally to yield new seeds for the benefit of the gardener. Again, it is like a man about to build a house, who provides himself with the necessary materials, as timber, rafters, stones, mortar, and other things. But afterwards the Lord builds the house from foundation to roof exactly adapted to the man, though the man does not know it. From this it follows, that unless a man provides the necessary things for a garden or a house, he will have no garden with the benefit of its fruits, and no house and thence no habitation.

[3] So it is with reformation. The things that man must provide himself with are the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, from the doctrine of the church, from the world, and by his own labor. The Lord does everything else while man is ignorant of it. But it is to be known, that all things necessary to planting a garden or building a house, which, as has been said, are the knowledges of truth and good, are nothing but the materials, and have no life in them until man does them or lives according to them as if of himself. When that is done the Lord enters and vivifies and builds, that is, reforms. Such a garden, or such a house is man's understanding, for therein is his wisdom, which derives from love all that it is.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.