Commentary

 

Wash

  

“Washing” in the Bible represents purification - unsurprisingly! Washing dirt from the skin symbolizes using true ideas from the Lord to remove evil desires and false ideas from our minds. This is the reason that washing was such an integral part of ritual; cleaning the body to perform physical acts of worship - something with no actual spiritual value - is symbolic of repenting our evils and falsities as part of worshiping the Lord.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8919

Study this Passage

  
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8919. 'And they said to Moses' means complaint. This is clear from the rest of this verse, for what they said are words of complaint.

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