The Bible

 

Numbers 29

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1 "'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing of trumpets to you.

2 You shall offer a burnt offering for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh: one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish;

3 and their meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for the bull, two tenth parts for the ram,

4 and one tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs;

5 and one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you;

6 besides the burnt offering of the new moon, and the meal offering of it, and the continual burnt offering and the meal offering of it, and their drink offerings, according to their ordinance, for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

7 "'On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; and you shall afflict your souls: you shall do no kind of work;

8 but you shall offer a burnt offering to Yahweh for a pleasant aroma: one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old; they shall be to you without blemish;

9 and their meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for the bull, two tenth parts for the one ram,

10 a tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs:

11 one male goat for a sin offering; besides the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of it, and their drink offerings.

12 "'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work, and you shall keep a feast to Yahweh seven days:

13 and you shall offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh; thirteen young bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish;

14 and their meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for every bull of the thirteen bulls, two tenth parts for each ram of the two rams,

15 and a tenth part for every lamb of the fourteen lambs;

16 and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, the meal offering of it, and the drink offering of it.

17 "'On the second day [you shall offer] twelve young bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;

18 and their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

19 and one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of it, and their drink offerings.

20 "'On the third day eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;

21 and their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

22 and one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of it, and the drink offering of it.

23 "'On the fourth day ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;

24 their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

25 and one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering, the meal offering of it, and the drink offering of it.

26 "'On the fifth day nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;

27 and their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

28 and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of it, and the drink offering of it.

29 "'On the sixth day eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;

30 and their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

31 and one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering, the meal offering of it, and the drink offerings of it.

32 "'On the seventh day seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;

33 and their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

34 and one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering, the meal offering of it, and the drink offering of it.

35 "'On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly: you shall do no servile work;

36 but you shall offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish;

37 their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the ordinance:

38 and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of it, and the drink offering of it.

39 "'You shall offer these to Yahweh in your set feasts, besides your vows, and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meal offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.'"

40 Moses told the children of Israel according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #922

Study this Passage

  
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922. 'He took from every clean beast, and from every clean bird' means goods that stem from charity, and the truths of faith. This has been shown already; 'beast' means goods that stem from charity, 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 'bird' the truths of faith, 40, 776. Burnt offerings were made from cattle, from lambs and goats, and from turtle doves and young pigeons, Leviticus 1:2-17; Numbers 15:2-15; 28:1-end. These were clean beasts, each one of them meaning some particular heavenly quality. And because they meant these things in the Ancient Church, and in subsequent Churches represented them, it is clear that burnt offerings and sacrifices were nothing else than representatives that go with internal worship, and that when they had been divorced from internal worship they became idolatrous. This any mentally normal person can see, for what is an altar but merely something made of stone? And what is a burnt offering and a sacrifice but the slaughtering of an animal? For worship to be Divine it has to represent some heavenly quality which the worshippers know and acknowledge and from which they worship the One they are representing.

[2] Nobody except the person who does not wish to understand anything at all about the Lord can be ignorant of the fact that these things were representatives of the Lord. It is the internal things, namely charity and faith deriving from charity, through which the One who is being represented has to be seen, acknowledged, and believed, as is quite clear in the Prophets, for example in Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah Zebaoth, the God of Israel, Add your burnt offerings on to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. I did not speak with your fathers and I did not command them on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt on the matters of burnt offering and sacrifice. But this matter I commanded them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God. Jeremiah 7:21-23.

Hearing or obeying His voice is obeying the law, the whole of which focuses on the one command that men should love God above everything else and their neighbour as themselves, for on these depend the Law and the Prophets, Matthew 22:37-40; 7:12. In David,

O Jehovah, sacrifice and offering You have not desired; burnt offering and sin-sacrifice You host not sought. I have delighted to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart. 1 Psalms 40:6, 8.

[3] In Samuel, who said to Saul,

Has Jehovah as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22.

What obeying His voice involves is apparent in Micah,

Shall I come before Jehovah with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does Jehovah require of you but to carry out judgement and the love of mercy, and to humble yourself by walking with your God. Micah 6:6-8.

These are the things that burnt offerings and sacrifices of clean beasts and birds mean. In Amos,

Though you offer Me your burnt offerings and gifts, I will not accept them, and the peace offering of your fatted ones I will not look upon. Let judgement flow like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Amos 5:22, 24.

'Judgement' means truth, and 'righteousness' good. Both stem from charity and are the burnt offerings and sacrifices of the internal man. In Hosea,

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6.

From all these quotations the nature of sacrifices and burnt offerings when charity and faith are not present is clear. It is also clear from them that because 'clean beasts and clean birds' meant the goods that stem from charity and faith they also represented them.

Footnotes:

1. literally, in the midst of my viscera

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