The Bible

 

Exodus 22:12

Study

       

12 But if it have been stolen from him, he shall make [it] good unto its owner.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9203

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

9203. 'I will surely hear their cry' means that they are to receive help. This is clear without explanation.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

Commentary

 

Back (as in go back)

  
Photo of notes in a jar, by Jenny Stein

The meaning of “back” is more literal when it is connected to objects. When someone takes something back or gives something back, the spiritual meaning is mostly centered on the object in question and the people performing the action.There are many instances in the Bible which describe people turning back, looking back or going back. In most cases it is a negative, sometimes devastatingly so (as with Lot’s wife, turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back at the destructrion of Sodom). In general this represents our state when we are advancing to a new spiritual level and find ourselves wishing for the comfort and ease of the old one – going back represents a return to an earlier, inferior stage.