Bibliorum

 

Exodus 23

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1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:

3 Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.

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

5 If thou shalt see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.

6 Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.

7 Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

8 And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

9 Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger; for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:

11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy olive-yard.

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

13 And in all things that I have said to you be circumspect: and make no mention of the names of other gods, neither let it be heard from thy mouth.

14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast to me in the year.

15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)

16 And the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of in-gathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field.

17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.

19 The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

20 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and an adversary to thy adversaries.

23 For my Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in to the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off.

24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

25 And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: I will complete 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 I will make all thy enemies turn their backs to thee.

28 And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee.

29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land should become desolate, and the beast of the field should multiply against thee.

30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou shalt be increased and inherit the land.

31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee to sin against me: for if thou shalt serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to thee.

   

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #9290

Studere hoc loco

  
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9290. 'As I commanded you' means in keeping with the laws of order. This is clear from the meaning of 'commanding', when done by the Lord, as Divine Truth emanating from Him, for that Truth contains and teaches the commandments that have to do with life and with worship. This Divine Truth constitutes order itself in the heavens, and truths compose the laws of that order, 1728, 1919, 2258, 2447, 5703, 7995, 8700, 8988. From this it is evident that 'as I commanded you' means in keeping with the laws of order.

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

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #2258

Studere hoc loco

  
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2258. 'Will not the Judge of the whole earth execute judgement?' means that Divine Good cannot effect this in the manner of truth separated from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'the Judge of the whole earth', and also from the meaning of 'judgement'. 'The Judge of the whole earth' means in the internal sense good itself from which truth goes forth. This was also represented in the representative Church by the priests being at the same time judges. As priests they represented Divine Good, and as judges Divine Truth. But 'the Judge of the whole earth' means both, and this from the meaning of 'the earth', dealt with in various places in Volume One. But to confirm these matters at this point from the representatives of that Church would take too long. 'Judgement' however means truth, as shown above in 2235. From the meaning of these words, and at the same time from the train of thought in the internal sense, it becomes clear that 'will not the Judge of the whole earth execute judgement?' means that Divine Good cannot effect this in the manner of truth separated from good.

[2] To understand these matters it should be recognized that there are two things which constitute the order of the whole of heaven and are from there present in the universe, namely good and truth. Good is the essential constituent of order, and all aspects of it are forms of mercy. Truth is the secondary constituent of order, and all its aspects are truths. Divine Good adjudges all people to heaven, but Divine Truth condemns them all to hell. Consequently if the Lord's mercy, which is the very nature of Good, were not eternal, all men - however many these may be - would be condemned. This is what is meant here by the statement that Divine Good cannot effect this thing in the manner of truth separated from good. See also what is stated on these matters in Volume One, in 1728. But the reason the evil are condemned to hell is not that Divine Good is separated from Divine Truth, but that man separates himself from Divine Good; for the Lord in no way sends anyone down to hell, but man sends himself down, as stated frequently already. Also, seeing that the Divine Good is joined to Divine Truth, it should be recognized that unless the evil were separated from the good, the evil would do harm to the good and would be constantly endeavouring to destroy order. Thus the prevention of the good from suffering harm is an act of mercy. It is the same in earthly kingdoms. If evils went unpunished a whole kingdom would be steeped in evils, and this being so it would perish. For that reason kings and judges are showing greater mercy when they punish evils and remove from society those who commit them than when they show undue leniency towards the same.

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