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Ezequiel 45

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1 Demais, quando repartirdes a terra por sortes em herança, separareis uma oferta para o Senhor, uma santa porção da terra; o seu comprimento será de vinte e cinco mil canas, e a largura de dez mil. Esta será santa em todo o seu termo ao redor.

2 Desta porção o santuário ocupará quinhentas canas de comprimento, e quinhentas de largura, em quadrado, e terá em redor um espaço vazio de cinqüenta côvados.

3 Desta área santa medirás um comprimento de vinte e cinco mil côvados, e uma largura de dez mil; e ali será o santuário, que é santíssimo.

4 É ela uma porção santa da terra; será para os sacerdotes, ministros do santuário, que se aproximam do Senhor para o servir; e lhes servirá de lugar para suas casas, e de lugar santo para o santuário.

5 Também os levitas, ministros da casa, terão vinte e cinco mil canas de comprimento, e dez mil de largura, para possessão sua, para vinte câmaras.

6 E para possessão da cidade, de largura dareis cinco mil canas, e de comprimento vinte e cinco mil, ao lado da área santa; o que será para toda a casa de Israel.

7 O príncipe, porém, terá a sua parte deste lado e do outro da área santa e da possessão da cidade, defronte da área santa e defronte da possessão da cidade, tanto ao lado ocidental, como ao lado oriental; e de comprimento corresponderá a uma das porções, desde o termo ocidental até o termo oriental.

8 E esta terra será a sua possessão em Israel; e os meus príncipes não oprimirão mais o meu povo; mas distribuirão a terra pela casa de Israel, conforme as suas tribos.

9 Assim diz o Senhor Deus: Baste-vos, ó príncipes de Israel; afastai a violência e a opressão e praticai a retidão e a justiça; aliviai o meu povo das vossas exações, diz o Senhor Deus.

10 Tereis balanças justas, efa justa, e bato justo.

11 A efa e o bato serão duma mesma medida, de maneira que o bato contenha a décima parte do hômer, e a efa a décima parte do hômer; o hômer será a medida padrão.

12 E o siclo será de vinte jeiras; cinco siclos serão cinco siclos, e dez siclos serão dez; a vossa mina será de cinqüenta siclos.

13 Esta será a oferta que haveis de fazer: a sexta parte duma efa de cada hômer de trigo; também dareis a sexta parte duma efa de cada hômer de cevada;

14 quanto à porção fixa do azeite, de cada bato de azeite oferecereis a décima parte do bato tirado dum coro, que é dez batos, a saber, um hômer; pois dez batos fazem um hômer;

15 e um cordeiro do rebanho, de cada duzentos, de todas as famílias de Israel, para oferta de cereais, e para holocausto, e para oferta pacífica, para que façam expiação por eles, diz o Senhor Deus.

16 Todo o povo da terra fará esta contribuição ao príncipe de Israel.

17 Tocará ao príncipe dar os holocaustos, as ofertas de cereais e as libações, nas festas, nas luas novas e nos sábados, em todas as festas fixas da casa de Israel. Ele proverá a oferta pelo pecado, a oferta de cereais, o holocausto e as ofertas pacíficas, para fazer expiação pela casa de Israel.

18 Assim diz o Senhor Deus: No primeiro mês, no primeiro dia do mês, tomarás um bezerro sem mancha, e purificarás o santuário.

19 O sacerdote tomará do sangue da oferta pelo pecado, e pô-lo- á nas ombreiras da casa, e nos quatro cantos da saliência do altar e nas ombreiras da porta do átrio interior.

20 Assim também farás no sétimo dia do mês, pelos errados e pelos insensatos; assim fareis expiação pelo templo.

21 No primeiro mês, no dia catorze de mês, tereis a páscoa, uma festa de sete dias; pão ázimo se comerá.

22 E no mesmo dia o príncipe proverá, por si e por todo o povo da terra, um novilho como oferta pelo pecado.

23 E nos sete dias da festa proverá um holocausto ao Senhor, de sete novilhos e sete carneiros sem mancha, cada dia durante os sete dias; e um bode cada dia como oferta pelo pecado.

24 Também proverá uma oferta de cereais, uma efa para cada novilho, e uma efa para cada carneiro, e um e him de azeite para cada efa.

25 No sétimo mês, no dia quinze do mês, na festa, fará o mesmo por sete dias, segundo a oferta pelo pecado, segundo o holocausto, segundo a oferta de cereais, e segundo o azeite.

   

Commentary

 

Unleavened bread

  

In Genesis 19:3 and Exodus 12:15, this indicates something without impurities; for leaven signifies evil and falsity by which celestial and spiritual things become impure and profane. (Arcana Coelestia 2342)

'Unleavened bread' signifies the holiness of love, or the holy of holies. The baking of unleavened bread represents purification.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2342

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2342. 'And he baked unleavened bread' means purification. This is clear from the meaning of 'unleavened' or without yeast. In the Word 'bread' means in general every celestial and spiritual food, and so in general everything celestial and spiritual, see 276, 680, 1798, 2165, 2177. The need for the latter to be free of all impurities or unholiness was represented by 'unleavened bread'; for 'yeast' means the evil and falsity by means of which celestial and spiritual things are rendered impure and profane. On account of this representation those who belonged to the representative Church were forbidden in sacrifices to offer any bread or minchah other than bread without yeast, that is, unleavened, as is clear in Moses,

Every minchah which you bring to Jehovah shall be made without yeast. Leviticus 2:11. In the same author,

You shall not sacrifice the blood of My sacrifice with that made with yeast. Exodus 23:18; 34:25.

[2] They were also forbidden therefore to eat any other bread during the seven days of the Passover than bread without yeast, that is, which was unleavened. This prohibition occurs in the following verses in Moses,

For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even on the first day you shall remove yeast from your houses, for anyone eating that made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day until the seventh. In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month, in the evening. For seven days no yeast shall be found in your houses, for anyone eating that made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether a settler or one born in the land. Exodus 12:15, 19-20.

The same prohibition appears in other places as well, such as Exodus 13:6-7; 23:15; 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:3-4. Consequently the Passover is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Leviticus 23:6; Numbers 28:16-17; Matthew 26:17; Luke 22:1, 7.

[3] That the Passover represented the glorification of the Lord and so the conjunction of the Divine with the human race will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown elsewhere. And because the conjunction of the Lord with the human race is effected by means of love and charity, and by means of the faith deriving from these, celestial and spiritual things were represented by the unleavened bread which they were to eat each day during the Passover. Consequently to prevent the defilement of those things by anything unholy they were strictly forbidden to eat anything made with yeast, so strictly that any who did so were to be cut off; for those who profane celestial and spiritual things inevitably perish. Anyone may see that but for this arcanum within it that observance, together with so harsh a penalty, would never have been introduced.

[4] Everything that was commanded in that Church represented some arcanum, even the actual cooking, as with every instruction which the children of Israel carried out when they were leaving Egypt, namely that they were to eat that night flesh roasted by fire, and unleavened bread on bitter herbs; they were not to eat it raw or cooked in water; the head had to be on its legs; they were to let none of it remain until the morning; they were to burn what was left over with fire, Exodus 12:8-10. Every detail of these instructions was representative - eating it at night; flesh roasted by fire; unleavened bread on bitter herbs; the head on the legs; not raw; not cooked in water; not leaving any until the morning; and burning what was left with fire. But the arcana represented are in no way apparent unless they are disclosed by means of the internal sense. That sense alone shows that all these details are Divine.

[5] Something similar was done in the ritual for the taking of a Nazirite vow. The priest was to take the cooked shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and he was to place them on the palms of the Nazirite after he had shaved his consecrated head, Numbers 6:19. Anyone who does not know that a Nazirite represented the celestial man himself does not know either that every detail of these instructions embodies celestial things, and so arcana, which are not apparent in the letter, namely the instructions to take the cooked shoulder of a ram, an unleavened cake, an unleavened wafer, and to shave off his hair. This also shows what kind of opinion regarding the Word can be gained by people who do not believe in the existence of an internal sense, for without the internal sense such details are of no consequence at all. But when the ceremonial or ritualistic element has been stripped away everything becomes Divine and holy. Everything else has a deeper meaning, as does 'unleavened bread' which means the holiness of love, or what is most holy, as it is also called in Moses,

The unleavened bread that was left over was to be eaten by Aaron and his sons in a holy place, for it was most holy. Leviticus 6:16-17.

'Unleavened bread' therefore means pure love, and 'the baking of that which is unleavened' purification.

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