Arcana Coelestia #7599

By Emanuel Swedenborg

Studere hoc loco

  
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7599. 'And [as for] you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the face of Jehovah God' means that those engaged in molestation do not yet live in fear of the Lord. This is clear from the representation of 'Pharaoh and his servants' as those who engage in molestation, dealt with before; and from the meaning of '[not yet] fearing the face of Jehovah' as having no fear of the Lord, the Lord being 'Jehovah' in the Word, see the places quoted immediately above in 7598. The expression 'the face of Jehovah' is used because it means mercy, and from this, peace and all good, 222, 223, 5585, and in the contrary sense the absence of mercy, peace, and good, 5585, 5592, 5816, 5823. The reason why the absence of mercy, peace, and good is meant by 'the face of Jehovah' is that the evil turn away from Jehovah or the Lord; for they turn away from the good of charity and the truth of faith in which the Lord is present. They then have what is the Lord's behind their back, and what is their own facing them; and what is behind their back they neither see nor care about. All evil stems from this, consequently human unhappiness and hell.

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