The Bible

 

Jeremiah 46

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1 The word of Yahweh which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.

2 Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.

3 Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle!

4 Harness the horses, and get up, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail.

5 Why have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and don't look back: terror is on every side, says Yahweh.

6 Don't let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates have they stumbled and fallen.

7 Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?

8 Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, I will rise up, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and its inhabitants.

9 Go up, you horses; and rage, you chariots; and let the mighty men go forth: Cush and Put, who handle the shield; and the Ludim, who handle and bend the bow.

10 For that day is [a day] of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be satiate, and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain do you use many medicines; there is no healing for you.

12 The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of them together.

13 The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt.

14 Declare in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say, Stand forth, and prepare; for the sword has devoured around you.

15 Why are your strong ones swept away? they didn't stand, because Yahweh did drive them.

16 He made many to stumble, yes, they fell one on another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.

17 They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has let the appointed time pass by.

18 As I live, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies, surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.

19 You daughter who dwells in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up, without inhabitant.

20 Egypt is a very beautiful heifer; [but] destruction out of the north is come, it is come.

21 Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they didn't stand: for the day of their calamity is come on them, the time of their visitation.

22 The sound of it shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as wood cutters.

23 They shall cut down her forest, says Yahweh, though it can't be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.

24 The daughter of Egypt shall be disappointed; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

25 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and those who trust in him:

26 and I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, says Yahweh.

27 But don't you be afraid, Jacob my servant, neither be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

28 Don't you be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh; for I am with you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you; but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.

   

Commentary

 

Pharaoh

  

'Pharaoh,' in Genesis 40, represents the new natural self. 'Pharaoh' and 'the Egyptians' in the Word, signify the sensory and scientific principles. 'Let Pharaoh live,' as in Genesis 42:16, is a phrase that is employed to say something emphatically, thus to state a certainty. 'Pharaoh and his army' signify people who are in falsities from evil. 'Pharaoh' signifies false ideas infesting the truth of the church. It also signifies scientific ideas, or the natural principle in general.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 1487, Arcana Coelestia 5192; Exodus 16)


The Bible

 

Exodus 16

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1 They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

2 The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;

3 and the children of Israel said to them, "We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

4 Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.

5 It shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily."

6 Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, "At evening, then you shall know that Yahweh has brought you out from the land of Egypt;

7 and in the morning, then you shall see the glory of Yahweh; because he hears your murmurings against Yahweh. Who are we, that you murmur against us?"

8 Moses said, "Now Yahweh shall give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to satisfy you; because Yahweh hears your murmurings which you murmur against him. And who are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against Yahweh."

9 Moses said to Aaron, "Tell all the congregation of the children of Israel, 'Come near before Yahweh, for he has heard your murmurings.'"

10 It happened, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud.

11 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

12 "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread: and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.'"

13 It happened at evening that quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp.

14 When the dew that lay had gone, behold, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the frost on the ground.

15 When the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, "What is it?" For they didn't know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat."

16 This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: "Gather of it everyone according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, you shall take it, every man for those who are in his tent."

17 The children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less.

18 When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.

19 Moses said to them, "Let no one leave of it until the morning."

20 Notwithstanding they didn't listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became foul: and Moses was angry with them.

21 They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted.

22 It happened that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

23 He said to them, "This is that which Yahweh has spoken, 'Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to Bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.'"

24 They laid it up until the morning, as Moses asked, and it didn't become foul, neither was there any worm in it.

25 Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. today you shall not find it in the field.

26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none."

27 It happened on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, and they found none.

28 Yahweh said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

29 Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."

30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

31 The house of Israel called its name Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey.

32 Moses said, "This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, 'Let an omer-full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.'"

33 Moses said to Aaron, "Take a pot, and put an omer-full of manna in it, and lay it up before Yahweh, to be kept throughout your generations."

34 As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

35 The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.

36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.