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Exodus 23

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1 Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie: neither shalt thou join thy hand to bear false witness for a wicked person.

2 Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou yield in judgment, to the opinion of the most part, to stray from the truth.

3 Neither shalt thou favour a poor man in judgment.

4 If thou meet thy enemy's ox or ass going astray, bring it back to him.

5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lie underneath his burden, thou shalt not pass by, but shalt lift him up with him.

6 Thou shalt not go aside in the poor man's judgment.

7 Thou shalt fly lying. The innocent and just person thou shalt not put to death: because I abhor the wicked.

8 Neither shalt thou take bribes, which even blind the wise, and pervert the words of the just.

9 Thou shalt not molest a stranger, for you know the hearts of strangers: for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

10 Six years thou shalt sow thy ground, and shalt gather the corn thereof.

11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it alone, and suffer it to rest, that the poor of thy people may eat, and whatsoever shall be left, let the beasts of the field eat it: so shalt thou do with thy vineyard and thy oliveyard.

12 Six days thou shalt work: the seventh day thou shalt cease, that thy ox and thy ass may rest: and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.

13 Keep all things that I have said to you. And by the name of strange gods you shall not swear, neither shall it be heard out of your mouth.

14 Three times every year you shall celebrate feasts to me.

15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month of new corn, when thou didst come forth out of Egypt: thou shalt not appear empty before me.

16 And the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of thy work, whatsoever thou hast sown in the field. The feast also in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in all thy corn out of the field.

17 Thrice a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God.

18 Thou shalt not sacrifice the blood of my victim upon leaven, neither shall the fat of my solemnity remain until the morning.

19 Thou shalt carry the firstfruits of the corn of thy ground to the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.

20 Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared.

21 Take notice of him, and hear his voice, and do not think him one to be contemned: for he will not forgive when thou hast sinned, and my name is in him.

22 But if thou wilt hear his voice, and do all that I speak, I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee.

23 And my angel shall go before thee, and shall bring thee in unto the Amorrhite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, whom I will destroy.

24 Thou shalt not adore their gods, nor serve them. Thou shalt not do their works, but shalt destroy them, and break their statues.

25 And you shall serve the Lord your God, that I may bless your bread and your waters, and may take away sickness from the midst of thee.

26 There shall not be one fruitless nor barren in thy land: I will fill the number of thy days.

27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come: and will turn the backs of all thy enemies before thee.

28 Sending out hornets before, that shall drive away the Hevite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, before thou come in.

29 I will not cast them out from thy face in one year: lest the land be brought into a wilderness, and the beasts multiply against thee.

30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, till thou be increased, and dost possess the land.

31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea to the sea of the Palestines, and from the desert to the river: I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and will drive them out from before you.

32 Thou shalt not enter into league with them, nor with their gods.

33 Let them not dwell in thy land, lest perhaps thy make thee sin against me, if thou serve their god: which undoubtedly will be a scandal to thee.

   

Dalle opere di Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #9299

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9299. 'And the fat of My feast shall not remain through the night until morning' means the good of worship, which does not originate in the self but comes from the Lord and is always new. This is clear from the meaning of 'remaining through the night' as that which originates in the self, for 'the night' in the Word means evil and falsity, 221, 709, 6000, 7776, 7851, 7870, 7947, thus also the self since the human self or proprium is nothing other than evil and falsity, 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1023, 1044, 4328, 5660, 5786, 8480; from the meaning of 'the fat' as the good of love, dealt with in 353, 5943, at this point the good of love present in worship since the words that are used are 'the fat of [My] feast' and worship is meant by 'a feast', 9286, 9287, 9294; and from the meaning of 'morning' as the Lord and His coming, as becomes clear from what has been shown regarding 'the morning' in 2405, 2780, 5962, 8426, 8427, 8812, so that 'the morning' here, where the good of worship originating not in the self is referred to, means that which comes from the Lord and is always new.

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

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Arcana Coelestia #5660

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5660. 'And we are causing other silver to come down in our hand to buy food' means that the mind is set on acquiring good through truth from some other source. This is clear from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with just above in 5657, and as 'silver' means truth, some other truth and therefore truth from some other source is meant by 'other silver' (for no other truth that is genuine truth exists apart from that received from the Lord, who gives it freely, so that there is no other source than He from which real truth is derived); and from the meaning of 'causing to come down' as a mind set on acquiring - on acquiring the good of truth, which is meant by the grain they bought. The story told in the sense of the letter implies that the other silver came to Joseph, for the purchase of food from him and so from no other source. But the internal sense is not subject to any limitation set by the story told in the sense of the letter indeed it is not concerned with that sense, only with the real matter under discussion here, which is this: If they were to make themselves subservient like slaves owing to the fact that some truths were freely given within the exterior natural, they would from some other source acquire good through truth. This idea also forms the train of thought in the internal sense, for immediately after this the words 'we do not know who put the silver in our pouches' are used, meaning their lack of belief because they did not know where truth present in the exterior natural came from.

[2] Something like this happens in the next life in the case of spirits who are being introduced by means of truths into good, especially into this - that everything good and true flows in from the Lord. When they learn that everything they think or will flows into them, so that they themselves cannot be the source of their thinking and willing, they fight all they can against the idea. For they believe that, if this idea is true, they cannot have any life within themselves that is entirely their own and that all delight is therefore destroyed, for they make the existence of separate selfhood vital to delight. Furthermore those spirits think that if they do not have any power entirely their own to do what is good and to believe what is true, they must let their hands hang down, not do or think anything on their own initiative, and wait for influx. They are allowed to go on thinking in this kind of way until they reach the point when they almost decide that they do not want to receive what is good and true from such influx but from some other source which does not involve their being deprived in this manner of their selfhood. Sometimes they are even allowed to make enquiries about where they may find that kind of goodness and truth. But when after this they do not find such goodness and truth anywhere, those who are being regenerated come back and freely choose to let the Lord lead their will and thought. They are also told at the same time that they are going to receive a heavenly selfhood such as the angels possess, and along with this the gift of everlasting bliss and happiness.

[3] As regards this heavenly selfhood, it is a product of the new will conferred by the Lord. It is different from the selfhood properly man's own, in that those who have received that heavenly selfhood no longer see only themselves in every single thing they do or in every single thing they learn about and convey to others. Instead they see their neighbour, the general public, the Church, the Lord's kingdom, and so the Lord Himself. The ends they have in life are what undergo change; for ends which have lower things - namely self and the world - in view are removed and higher ones introduced to replace them. Ends in life are nothing else than the actual life in a person, for a person's ends in view are the things that his will desires. They are also the actual loves present in him, for what a person loves is what his will desires and what constitute his end in view. The person who is given a heavenly selfhood enjoys too a state of serenity and peace, for he trusts in the Lord and believes that no evil at all can come to touch him, knowing too that no strong evil desires can molest him. More than that, those who have received a heavenly selfhood enjoy true freedom; for being led by the Lord constitutes freedom since one is then led within the sphere of good, from good, and to good. From this it becomes clear that they enjoy bliss and happiness, for nothing exists to disturb them - no self-love at all, consequently no enmity, hatred, or vengeance at all; nor any love of the world at all, consequently no deceitfulness, fear, or unease at all.

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