The Bible

 

Exodus 23

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1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine 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 meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

5 If thou 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 oliveyard.

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

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

14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto 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 firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours 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 firstfruits 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 unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

23 For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto 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 shall 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: the number of thy days I will fulfil.

27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto 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 become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

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

31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto 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 sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9301

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9301. 'You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk' means that the good of innocence belonging to a later state must not be joined to the truth of innocence belonging to an earlier state. This is clear from the meaning of 'cooking' as joining together, dealt with in 8496; from the meaning of 'a kid' as the good of innocence, dealt with in 3519, 4871; and from the meaning of 'milk' as the truth of innocence, dealt with in 2184, 3183, so that 'mother's milk' is the truth of earlier innocence. From these meanings it is evident that 'you shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk' means that the good of innocence of a later state must not be joined to the truth of innocence of an earlier state. This is the heavenly arcanum from which that law springs; for all the laws and all the judgements and statutes which were given to the children of Israel contain heavenly arcana, to which they also correspond. But how this arcanum should be understood - that the good of innocence belonging to a later state must not be joined to the truth of innocence belonging to an earlier state - must be stated briefly. The innocence belonging to an earlier state is the innocence that exists with young children and older ones, but the innocence belonging to a later state is the innocence that exists with grown up and elderly people who are governed by the good of love to the Lord. The innocence that exists with young children and older ones is external and resides in thorough ignorance, whereas the innocence of elderly people is internal and resides in wisdom. Regarding the difference between the two, see 2305, 2306, 3183, 3494, 1 4797.

[2] The innocence which resides in wisdom consists in a person's knowing, acknowledging, and believing that all by himself he cannot understand anything at all or will anything at all, and therefore in his refusal to try and understand or will anything all by himself, only in the power of the Lord; and also this, that whatever he thinks he understands all by himself is false, and whatever he thinks he wills all by himself is evil. This state of life is that of the innocence of a later state, which is that of all in the third heaven, called the heaven of innocence. This is why they are filled with wisdom, for what they understand and what they will comes from the Lord. But the innocence which resides in ignorance, such as that present with young children and older ones, consists in believing that everything they know and think, and also everything they will, is theirs within them, and that therefore everything they say and do comes from themselves. They have no idea that these are illusions. The truths that go with this innocence are based for the most part on the illusions of the outward senses, which however must be dispelled as a person advances towards wisdom. From this brief explanation it may be recognized that the good of innocence belonging to a later state must not be joined to the truth of innocence belonging to an earlier state.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin reads 3495. Possibly 3494, 3994, 3995 is intended.

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