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Deuteronomy 18

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1 The priests, the Levites, [and] the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel: Jehovah's offerings by fire, and his inheritance shall they eat,

2 but they shall have no inheritance among their brethren: Jehovah, he is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.

3 And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that sacrifice a sacrifice, whether ox, or sheep: they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the jawbones, and the maw.

4 The firstfruits [also] of thy corn, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstfruits of the shearing of thy sheep, shalt thou give him;

5 for Jehovah thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, that he may stand to serve in the name of Jehovah, he and his sons continually.

6 And if the Levite shall come from one of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourneth, and shall come according to all the desire of his soul unto the place which Jehovah will choose,

7 and shall serve in the name of Jehovah his God, as all his brethren the Levites that stand there before Jehovah,

8 -- they shall have like portions to eat, besides that which he hath sold of his patrimony.

9 When thou art come into the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.

10 There shall not be found among you he that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, that useth divination, that useth auguries, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,

11 or a charmer, or one that inquireth of a spirit of Python, or a soothsayer, or one that consulteth the dead.

12 For every one that doeth these things is an abomination to Jehovah, and because of these abominations Jehovah thy God doth dispossess them from before thee.

13 Thou shalt be perfect with Jehovah thy God.

14 For these nations, which thou shalt dispossess, hearkened unto those that use auguries, and that use divination; but as for thee, Jehovah thy God hath not suffered thee [to do] so.

15 Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken;

16 according to all that thou desiredst of Jehovah thy God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Jehovah my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.

17 And Jehovah said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.

18 A prophet will I raise up unto them from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

19 And it shall come to pass that the man who hearkeneth not unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

20 But the prophet who shall presume to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

21 And if thou say in thy heart, How shall we know the word that Jehovah hath not spoken?

22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of Jehovah, and the thing followeth not, nor cometh to pass, that is the word which Jehovah hath not spoken; the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: be not afraid of him.

   

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #3698

Studere hoc loco

  
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3698. 'He dreamed' means foresight. This is clear from the meaning of 'dreaming' in the internal sense as foretelling things to come, for prophetical dreams, which were Divine, were foretellings of things to come, as becomes clear from the dreams described in the Word, 1975, 1976. Because 'dreams' and 'dreaming' in the internal sense mean things to come, foresight is meant in the highest sense in which the subject is the Lord, for the Lord's Divine foresight is the source of foretellings of things to come. The fact that the foretellings of events which are out of the ordinary and cannot therefore be foreseen have no other origin becomes clear from the Word, as from the following words in Moses,

When a prophet has spoken in the name of Jehovah but that event has not happened or taken place it was not Jehovah who spoke. The prophet spoke it presumptuously. Deuteronomy 18:22.

[2] And even the foretellings of events which did take place may have been made by evil people and worshippers of another god, as stated in the same book,

If a prophet or the dreamer of a dream arises in the midst of you, and gives you a sign or else a wonder, and the sign or wonder he has told you comes to pass, and he says, Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them; you shall not obey the words of that prophet or the dreamer of that dream; for Jehovah your God is testing you. Deuteronomy 13:1-3.

From these words it is evident that the actual foretelling originated in the Divine but the incitement to worship other gods in the proprium of the prophet, who was allowed to make such a suggestion to people so that they could be tested, as is stated. This among other reasons is also why on many occasions in former times people who worshipped the baals and other gods even prophesied, saw visions, and dreamed dreams, and also why what they uttered actually happened, so that they frequently led others astray. These people are referred to in Jeremiah 23. And besides these there were others called diviners, soothsayers, sorcerers, familiar spirits, among those who applied themselves to natural magic, from which nothing at all Divine could be foretold, only what was contrary to the Divine, that is, to the Lord, and contrary to the good of love and to the truth of faith in Him. This is magic, no matter what it looks like in outward appearance.

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