The Bible

 

Leviticus 23

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1 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

2 `Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, Appointed seasons of Jehovah, which ye proclaim, holy convocations, [are] these: they [are] My appointed seasons:

3 six days is work done, and in the seventh day [is] a sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye do no work; it [is] a sabbath to Jehovah in all your dwellings.

4 `These [are] appointed seasons of Jehovah, holy convocations, which ye proclaim in their appointed seasons:

5 in the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings, [is] the passover to Jehovah;

6 and on the fifteenth day of this month [is] the feast of unleavened things to Jehovah; seven days unleavened things ye do eat;

7 on the first day ye have a holy convocation, ye do no servile work;

8 and ye have brought near a fire-offering to Jehovah seven days; in the seventh day [is] a holy convocation; ye do no servile work.'

9 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

10 `Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When ye come in unto the land which I am giving to you, and have reaped its harvest, and have brought in the sheaf, the beginning of your harvest unto the priest,

11 then he hath waved the sheaf before Jehovah for your acceptance; on the morrow of the sabbath doth the priest wave it.

12 `And ye have prepared in the day of your waving the sheaf a lamb, a perfect one, a son of a year, for a burnt-offering to Jehovah,

13 and its present two tenth deals of flour mixed with oil, a fire-offering to Jehovah, a sweet fragrance, and its drink-offering, wine, a fourth of the hin.

14 `And bread and roasted corn and full ears ye do not eat until this self-same day, until your bringing in the offering of your God -- a statute age-during to your generations, in all your dwellings.

15 `And ye have numbered to you from the morrow of the sabbath, from the day of your bringing in the sheaf of the wave-offering: they are seven perfect sabbaths;

16 unto the morrow of the seventh sabbath ye do number fifty days, and ye have brought near a new present to Jehovah;

17 out of your dwellings ye bring in bread of a wave-offering, two [loaves], of two tenth deals of flour they are, [with] yeast they are baken, first-[fruits] to Jehovah.

18 `And ye have brought near, besides the bread, seven lambs, perfect ones, sons of a year, and one bullock, a son of the herd, and two rams; they are a burnt-offering to Jehovah, with their present and their libations, a fire-offering of sweet fragrance to Jehovah.

19 `And ye have prepared one kid of the goats for a sin-offering, and two lambs, sons of a year, for a sacrifice of peace-offerings,

20 and the priest hath waved them, besides the bread of the first-[fruits] -- a wave-offering before Jehovah, besides the two lambs; they are holy to Jehovah for the priest;

21 and ye have proclaimed on this self-same day: a holy convocation is to you, ye do no servile work -- a statute age-during in all your dwellings, to your generations.

22 `And in your reaping the harvest of your land thou dost not complete the corner of thy field in thy reaping, and the gleaning of thy harvest thou dost not gather, to the poor and to the sojourner thou dost leave them; I Jehovah [am] your God.'

23 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

24 `Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first of the month, ye have a sabbath, a memorial of shouting, a holy convocation;

25 ye do no servile work, and ye have brought near a fire-offering to Jehovah.'

26 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

27 `Only -- on the tenth of this seventh month is a day of atonements; ye have a holy convocation, and ye have humbled yourselves, and have brought near a fire-offering to Jehovah;

28 and ye do no work in this self-same day, for it is a day of atonements, to make atonement for you, before Jehovah your God.

29 `For any person who is not humbled in this self-same day hath even been cut off from his people;

30 and any person who doth any work in this self-same day I have even destroyed that person from the midst of his people;

31 ye do no work -- a statute age-during to your generations in all your dwellings.

32 It [is] a sabbath of rest to you, and ye have humbled yourselves in the ninth of the month at even; from evening till evening ye do keep your sabbath.'

33 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

34 `Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, In the fifteenth day of this seventh month [is] a feast of booths seven days to Jehovah;

35 on the first day [is] a holy convocation, ye do no servile work,

36 seven days ye bring near a fire-offering to Jehovah, on the eighth day ye have a holy convocation, and ye have brought near a fire-offering to Jehovah; it [is] a restraint, ye do no servile work.

37 `These [are] appointed seasons of Jehovah, which ye proclaim holy convocations, to bring near a fire-offering to Jehovah, a burnt-offering, and a present, a sacrifice, and libations, a thing of a day in its day,

38 apart from the sabbaths of Jehovah, and apart from your gifts, and apart from all your vows, and apart from all your willing-offerings, which ye give to Jehovah.

39 `Only -- in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, in your gathering the increase of the land, ye do keep the feast of Jehovah seven days; on the first day [is] a sabbath, and on the eighth day a sabbath;

40 and ye have taken to yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palms, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of a brook, and have rejoiced before Jehovah your God seven days.

41 `And ye have kept it a feast to Jehovah, seven days in a year -- a statute age-during to your generations; in the seventh month ye keep it a feast.

42 `In booths ye dwell seven days; all who are natives in Israel dwell in booths,

43 so that your generations do know that in booths I caused the sons of Israel to dwell; in my bringing them out of the land of Egypt; I, Jehovah, [am] your God.'

44 And Moses speaketh [concerning] the appointed seasons of Jehovah unto the sons of Israel.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2075

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2075. 'And will Sarah, a daughter of ninety years, give birth?' means that truth joined to good will achieve this. This is clear from the representation and meaning of 'Sarah' as truth joined to good, which is Divine truth, and from the meaning of the number 'ninety', or what amounts to the same, 'nine'. One is bound to be surprised that the number 'a hundred years', which was Abraham's age, means that the Rational belonging to the Lord's Human Essence was to be united to the Divine Essence, and that the number 'ninety years', which was Sarah's age, means that truth joined to good would achieve this. But as there is nothing in the Lord's Word that is not heavenly and Divine, the same must be true of the actual numbers which appear there. That all numbers used in the Word, as with all names used in it, mean real things has been shown in Volume One, in 482, 487, 488, 493, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 893, 1988.

[2] Now as regards the number nine meaning conjunction, more so the number ninety, which is the product of nine times ten, 'ten' meaning remnants by which conjunction is achieved - as shown by what has been said above at the end of 1988 - this is also made clear from the following representatives and meaningful signs. It was commanded that on the tenth day of the seventh month there was to be a day of atonement, and that this was to be a sabbath of rest; 1 and on the ninth day of the seventh month in the evening, from one evening to the next, they were to celebrate the sabbath, Leviticus 23:27, 32.

[3] In the internal sense these details mean conjunction through remnants, that is to say, 'nine' means conjunction and 'ten' remnants. The existence of a Divine arcanum lying concealed within these numbers is quite evident from the months and the days of the year which were to be held sacred, for example, every seventh day was to be a sabbath; every seventh month, as stated here, was to be a sabbath of rests; likewise every seventh year, and also every seven times seventh year, which was to mark the start of a jubilee year. The same applies to all other numbers in the Word, for example, to the number three which has almost the same meaning as seven; to the number twelve which means all things belonging to faith; and to the number ten which, the same as tenths, means remnants, 576; and so on. And in the verses from Leviticus quoted above, unless the numbers ten and nine embodied arcana it would by no means have been commanded that there should be this sabbath of rest 1 on the tenth day of the seventh month, and that they should celebrate it on the ninth day of the month. Such is the Word of the Lord in the internal sense, even though nothing of the sort is evident in the historical sense.

[4] The same applies to what is recorded about Jerusalem being besieged by Nebuchadnezzar in the ninth year of Zedekiah, and about its being breached on the ninth day of the month in the eleventh year, as follows in the Second Book of Kings,

In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel came against Jerusalem, and the city came under siege until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the month the famine was severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land; and the city was breached. 2 Kings 25:1, 3-4.

'The ninth year, the tenth month' and 'the eleventh year and ninth day of the month when there was a famine in the city and no bread for the people of the land' means in the internal sense that no conjunction by means of the things of faith and charity existed any longer. 'Famine in the city and no bread for the people of the land' means that no faith at all nor any charity at all was left. This is the internal sense of these words which is nowhere apparent in the letter. Matters like these shine out even less from the historical sections of the Word than from the prophetical because the historical incidents captivate the mind (animus), so much that belief in anything deeper there is scarcely possible. Yet all those incidents are representative and the words used to describe them in every case carry spiritual meanings. These matters are hard to believe but they are nevertheless true, see 1769 1772.

Footnotes:

1. literally, a sabbath of a sabbath

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

The Bible

 

Genesis 6

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1 It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,

2 that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.

3 Yahweh said, "My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years."

4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came in to men's daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6 Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.

7 Yahweh said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."

8 But Noah found favor in Yahweh's eyes.

9 This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.

10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

12 God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

13 God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

14 Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.

15 This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship will be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

16 You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.

17 I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.

18 But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

19 Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.

20 Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come to you, to keep them alive.

21 Take with you of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them."

22 Thus Noah did. According to all that God commanded him, so he did.