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Ezekiel 45

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1 Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation to the LORD, a holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all its borders on every side.

2 Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square around; and fifty cubits around for the suburbs of it.

3 And of this measure shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy place.

4 The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, who shall come near to minister to the LORD: and it shall be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the sanctuary.

5 And the five and twenty thousand of length, and the ten thousand of breadth, shall also the Levites, the ministers of the house, have for themselves, for a possession for twenty chambers.

6 And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, over against the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

7 And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and from the east side eastward: and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border to the east border.

8 In the land shall be his possession in Israel: and my princes shall no more oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.

10 Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.

11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure of it shall be after the homer.

12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.

13 This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of a homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of a homer of barley;

14 Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is a homer of ten baths: for ten baths are a homer:

15 And one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat-offering, and for a burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord GOD.

16 All the people of the land shall give this oblation for the prince in Israel.

17 And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt-offerings, and meat-offerings, and drink-offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin-offering, and the meat-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.

18 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:

19 And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.

20 And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.

21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

22 And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin-offering.

23 And seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt-offering to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin-offering.

24 And he shall prepare a meat-offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil for an ephah.

25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin-offering, according to the burnt-offering, and according to the meat-offering, and according to the oil.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #7847

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7847. 'And put it onto the two doorposts and onto the lintel' means the truths and forms of good of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'the doorposts' as the truths of the natural; and from the meaning of 'the lintel' as the forms of good belonging to it. The reason why the doorposts and lintel have this meaning is that 'the house' means the actual person or his mind, and parts forming the door mean the things that serve to lead into it. These, it may be evident, are the truths and forms of good of the natural; for the natural man receives instruction first, before the rational man, and the ideas he learns during that time are natural ones, into which spiritual ideas, which are more internal, are gradually instilled. From this one may see in what way the truths and forms of good of the natural serve to lead in. Furthermore lintel and doorposts are similar in meaning to a person's frontlets and hands; for it is in the nature of angelic ideas to associate natural objects with human characteristics. The reason for this is that the spiritual world or heaven is in form like a person, and therefore all things in that world - that is, all spiritual realities, which are truths and forms of good - have connection with that form, as has been shown where correspondences are the subject, at the ends of quite a number of chapters. And since in angelic ideas natural objects become spiritual realities a house does so too. To them it is a person's mind; the bedrooms and other rooms are the inner parts of the mind, and the windows, doors, doorposts, and lintels are the outer parts leading in. Since angelic ideas are like this they are also filled with life; and that being so, things which in the natural world are lifeless objects become objects filled with life when they pass into the spiritual world. For everything spiritual is filled with life since it comes from the Lord.

[2] The fact that 'doorposts and lintel' is similar in meaning to a person's 'frontlets and hands' may be seen from the following words in Moses,

You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. You are to bind them as a sign onto your hand, and let them be as frontlets between your eyes. And you are to write them onto the doorposts of your house, and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:5, 8-9; 11:13, 18, 20.

Since they hold a similar meaning to each other both observances have been stated here.

[3] As regards the meaning of 'lintel and doorposts' in the spiritual sense as the forms of good and the truths of the natural which lead into spiritual things, this is clear from the description in Ezekiel of the new temple, which means the spiritual Church. There reference is made many times to doorposts and lintels, objects which were also measured. This would never have been done unless those details had also meant something descriptive of the Church or of heaven, that is, something spiritual, such as the following details in that prophet,

The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering, and put it onto the doorpost of the house, and onto the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and onto the post of the gate of the inner court, on the first day of the month. Ezekiel 45:19.

[4] In the same prophet,

The prince shall enter by the way of the portico outside, and stand by the gate post; and the priests shall make his burnt offering. At that time he shall worship on the threshold of the gate. Ezekiel 46:2.

Anyone may recognize that 'the temple' here is not used to mean the temple but the Lord's Church, for the kinds of things described here in a number of chapters have never come about, and never will. In the highest sense 'the temple' is used to mean the Lord's Divine Human. He Himself teaches this meaning in John 2:19, 21-22; and in the representative sense 'the temple is therefore used to mean His Church. For statements that the angel measured the lintels of this new temple, see Ezekiel 40:9-10, 14, 16, 24; 41:21, 25. This measuring of them would have had no importance unless 'the lintels', and also the numbers involved, had meant some aspect of the Church. Because 'the doorposts and lintel' meant the truths and forms of good in the natural, which serve to lead in, the ones in this new temple were square, Ezekiel 41:21. For the same reason the doorposts in Solomon's temple were made of planks of olive wood, 1 Kings 6:31, 33. 'Olive wood' meant the good of truth or the good which is that of the spiritual Church.

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

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