Bibliorum

 

Esodo 22

Study

   

1 Se uno ruba un bue o una pecora e li ammazza o li vende, restituirà cinque buoi per il bue e quattro pecore per la pecora.

2 Se il ladro, còlto nell’atto di fare uno scasso, è percosso e muore, non v’è delitto d’omicidio.

3 Se il sole era levato quand’avvenne il fatto, vi sarà delitto d’omicidio. Il ladro dovrà risarcire il danno; se non ha di che risarcirlo, sarà venduto per ciò che ha rubato.

4 Se il furto, bue o asino o pecora che sia gli è trovato vivo nelle mani, restituirà il doppio.

5 Se uno arrecherà de’ danni a un campo altrui o ad una vigna, lasciando andare le sue bestie a pascere nel campo altrui risarcirà il danno col meglio del suo campo e col meglio della sua vigna.

6 Se divampa un fuoco e s’attacca alle spine sì che ne sia distrutto il grano in covoni o il grano in piedi o il campo, chi avrà acceso il fuoco dovrà risarcire il danno.

7 Se uno affida al suo vicino del danaro o degli oggetti da custodire, e questi siano rubati dalla casa di quest’ultimo, se il ladro si trova, restituirà il doppio.

8 Se il ladro non si trova, il padrone della casa comparirà davanti a Dio per giurare che non ha messo la mano sulla roba del suo vicino.

9 In ogni caso di delitto, sia che si tratti d’un bue o d’un asino o d’una pecora o d’un vestito o di qualunque oggetto perduto del quale uno dica: "E’ questo qui!" la causa d’ambedue le parti verrà davanti a Dio; colui che Dio condannerà, restituirà il doppio al suo prossimo.

10 Se uno in custodia al suo vicino un asino o un bue o una pecora o qualunque altra bestia, ed essa muore o resta stroppiata o è portata via senza che ci sian testimoni,

11 interverrà fra le due parti il giuramento dell’Eterno per sapere se colui che avea la bestia in custodia non ha messo la mano sulla roba del suo vicino. Il padrone della bestia si contenterà del giuramento, e l’altro non sarà tenuto a rifacimento di danni.

12 Ma se la bestia gli è stata rubata, egli dovrà risarcire del danno il padrone d’essa.

13 Se la bestia è stata sbranata, la produrrà come prova, e non sarà tenuto a risarcimento per la bestia sbranata.

14 Se uno prende in prestito dal suo vicino una bestia, e questa resti stroppiata o muoia essendo assente il padrone d’essa, egli dovrà rifare il danno.

15 Se il padrone è presente, non v’è luogo a rifacimento di danni; se la bestia è stata presa a nolo, essa è compresa nel prezzo del nolo.

16 Se uno seduce una fanciulla non ancora fidanzata e si giace con lei, dovrà pagare la sua dote e prenderla per moglie.

17 Se il padre di lei rifiuta del tutto di dargliela, paghi la somma che si suol dare per le fanciulle.

18 Non lascerai vivere la strega.

19 Chi s’accoppia con una bestia dovrà esser messo a morte.

20 Chi offre sacrifizi ad altri dèi, fuori che all’Eterno solo, sarà sterminato come anatema.

21 Non maltratterai lo straniero e non l’opprimerai; perché anche voi foste stranieri nel paese d’Egitto.

22 Non affliggerete alcuna vedova, ne alcun orfano.

23 Se in qualche modo li affliggi, ed essi gridano a me, io udrò senza dubbio il loro grido;

24 la mia ira s’accenderà, e io vi ucciderò con la spada; e le vostre mogli saranno vedove, e i vostri figliuoli orfani.

25 Se tu presti del danaro a qualcuno del mio popolo, al povero ch’è teco, non lo tratterai da usuraio; non gl’imporrai interesse.

26 Se prendi in pegno il vestito del tuo prossimo, glielo renderai prima che tramonti il sole;

27 perché esso è l’unica sua coperta, è la veste con cui si avvolge il corpo. Su che dormirebb’egli? E se avverrà ch’egli gridi a me, io l’udrò; perché sono misericordioso.

28 Non bestemmierai contro Dio, e non maledirai il principe del tuo popolo.

29 Non indugerai a offrirmi il tributo dell’abbondanza delle tue raccolte e di ciò che cola dai tuoi strettoi. Mi darai il primogenito de’ tuoi figliuoli.

30 Lo stesso farai del tuo grosso e del tuo minuto bestiame: il loro primo parto rimarrà sette giorni presso la madre; l’ottavo giorno, me lo darai.

31 Voi mi sarete degli uomini santi; non mangerete carne di bestia trovata sbranata nei campi; gettatela ai cani.

   

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #9278

Studere hoc loco

  
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9278. 'Six days you shall do your work' means a state of labour and conflict, when a person is governed by external delights that must be joined to things that are internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'six days' that come before the seventh, as states of labour and conflict, dealt with in 737, 900, 8510, 8888, 8975, the labour and conflict during them being meant by 'the work' that will be done on those days. 'The work' done during the six days and 'the rest' on the seventh day mean the things experienced by a person in his first state and in his second while being regenerated, and also those experienced by him after he has been regenerated. Regarding a person's first and second states while he is being regenerated, see above in 9274; and regarding the things experienced by him after he has been regenerated, 9213. The purpose of these experiences is that external things may be joined to internal ones; for there is an external man, which is also called natural, and there is an internal man, which is called spiritual. The external man is in contact with the world, and the internal with heaven.

[2] Divine order demands that heaven should rule the world with a person and not the world rule heaven with him; for when heaven rules a person, the Lord rules him, but when the world rules a person, the hells rule him. The natural disposition which a person is born with is such that he loves the world and self more than heaven and the Lord; and since this is the opposite of Divine order, an inversion must take place through regeneration. It takes place when the things that belong to heaven and the Lord are loved more than those which belong to the world and self. This is the reason why a person who has been regenerated, and also one who is in heaven, passes through two states that alternate with each other, in one of which external things prevail and in the other internal ones prevail; for by means of this alternation of states the external things are brought into agreement with the internal and at length made subordinate to them.

[3] When the external things prevail the person experiences labour and conflict; for he is immersed in the kind of life which savours of the world and into which the hells enter from every side, unceasingly endeavouring to engage in molestation, indeed to exercise control over the things of heaven with the person. But the Lord unceasingly protects and delivers him. This is the reason for the labour and conflict which are meant by the six days of the week in which work must be done. When however the internal things prevail, then - because the person is in heaven with the Lord - the labour and conflict come to an end, and he enjoys peace and serenity, in which also a joining together takes place. These blessings are what are meant by 'the seventh day'. The more internal aspects of the human being have been created in the image of heaven and the more external in the image of the world, so that the human being is a miniature form of heaven, also of the world, thus a microcosm, as the ancients called him, see 6057. So it is that Divine order demands that the Lord coming by way of heaven should rule the world with a person, and not at all vice versa.

[4] The nature of the labour and conflict experienced by the person when external things prevail may be recognized from this, that his state at that time is such that he is stirred by the world and indifferent towards heaven, unless it appears to him as the world does. But then the light by which he sees is so dim that he can only suppose that external things flow into internal ones, consequently that the eye sees or the ear hears by itself, that objects seen or heard by them are what produce thoughts and shape the understanding part of the mind, and that this gives him the ability to believe in and love God all by himself, and so to see heaven from the world. He cannot be easily led away from this illusion until he has been raised from external things to internal ones, and so to the light of heaven. Then he begins to perceive that things belonging to the world with him, thus those belonging to the body and its senses, see and act by means of influx from heaven, that is, from the Lord coming by way of heaven, and not at all by themselves. This goes to show why it is that a person thinking on the level of the senses supposes that his life is derived entirely from the world and the natural order, that there is no hell nor any heaven, and finally that there is no God. As a consequence he derides everything of the Church so far as he himself is concerned but is all in favour of it so far as the simple are concerned, as the means in addition to laws to keep them in check.

[5] From all this people may know what is meant by a situation in which external things prevail and not at the same time internal ones, and that when external things prevail a person feels indifferent towards what belongs to heaven or what belongs to the Lord and sees it in only dim light. They may also know who exactly in the world are the intelligent and wise, namely those who are governed by the Church's truth and good because they are recipients of wisdom from heaven, and who exactly are the stupid and foolish, namely those who are not governed by the Church's truth or good because the world is their only source of knowledge. And those among them who use worldly knowledge to set themselves firmly against the Church's truth and good are more foolish and stupid than the rest, no matter how much they suppose themselves to excel others in intelligence and wisdom and call people simple if they lead a good life based on the truths taught by doctrine. But such people's simplicity is wisdom in angels' eyes; and after death they are raised by the Lord into angelic wisdom.

[6] The Lord also teaches that this is so, in Matthew,

Therefore I speak in parables, because those who see do not see, and those who hear do not hear, nor do they understand. Matthew 13:13-14.

In John,

I will send the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. Yet a little while, the world will see Me no longer. John 14:17, 19.

The world's inability to receive the Spirit of truth 'because it neither sees Him nor knows Him' means that it will not acknowledge the Lord with faith in the heart, because external things belonging to the world will obscure [Him]. This being so, is there anyone at the present day who worships Him as the Lord of the whole of heaven and of earth, Matthew 28:18? Yet all who are in heaven, and so with whom internal things prevail, see the Lord as their only God.

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