8859. Exodus 20

1. And God spoke all these words, saying,

2. I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.

3. You shall not have other gods before My face.

4. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness [of things] which are in the heavens above, and which are on the earth beneath, and which are in the waters under the earth.

5. You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them; for I am Jehovah your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, ¹ on the third and on the fourth [generations] of those who hate Me,

6. And showing mercy to thousands who love Me and keep My commandments.

7. You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain; for Jehovah will not render him innocent who takes His name in vain.

8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9. Six days you shall labour and do all your work;

10. And the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work - you, nor your son, nor your daughter; your male slave, nor your female slave, nor your beast, nor your sojourner who is within your gates.

11. For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and sanctified it.

12. Honour your father and your mother, in order that your days may be prolonged on the land which Jehovah your God gives you.

13. ² You shall not kill.

14. You shall not commit adultery.

15. You shall not steal.

16. You shall not answer as witness of a lie against your neighbour.

17. You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male slave nor his female slave, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's.

18. And all the people saw the voices and torches, ³ and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and the people saw and were violently shaken, and stood afar off.

19. And they said to Moses, Speak yourself to us, and we will hear; and do not let God speak to us, lest perhaps we die.

20. And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come in order to test you, and in order that His fear may be before your faces, so that you do not sin.

21. And the people stood afar off; and Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

22. And Jehovah said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.

23. You shall not make [to be] with Me gods of silver and gods of gold; you shall not make [them] for yourselves.

24. An altar of soil ⁴ you shall make for Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your eucharistic offerings, your flocks and your herds; in every place where I shall put the memory of My name I will come to you and bless you.

25. And if you make for Me an altar of stones, you shall not build it with hewn ones; for if you move your chisel over it you will profane it.

26. And you shall not go up to My altar by steps, in order that your nakedness may not be revealed on it.

CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with God's truths that are to be implanted in the good which governs those belonging to the Lord's spiritual Church. The Ten Commandments are those truths; and the commandments that follow them in this chapter, regarding sacrifices and the altar, are outward truths concerned with worship.

Footnotes:

974. Because Thou hast judged these things, signifies by whom it was foreseen that these things would take place, and by whom it was provided that the heavens, which are in the Divine good and in the Divine truth, might not suffer harm. This is evident from the signification of "judging these things," as being to cause them to be done or come to pass, namely, what follows, that "because they have poured out the blood of saints and prophets, He gave them blood to drink." But as this is said respecting the Lord, and the Lord never gives anyone blood to drink, or gives what is signified by "drinking blood," and yet these with many other like things in the Word are attributed in the sense of the letter to the Lord, it follows that these words must be understood to mean that the Lord foresaw that these things would take place, and provided that no harm should be done thereby to the heavens, which are in the Divine good and in the Divine truth. For the Lord foresees evil and provides good. Such are the things signified by these words in the spiritual sense, that is, when the natural, which is the exterior, is put off, and the spiritual, which is the interior, appears; consequently when the thought of the natural man, which is according to appearances, is supplanted by the spiritual thought of the angels, which is according to the essence of the thing. This makes clear what the sense of the letter of the Word is and what its spiritual sense is, also what human thought is and what angelic thought is, namely, that these are in accord like what is internal and what is external, or like a cause and an effect, and that the effect or external that is with man is put off, and the cause or internal that is with the angels who are with man becomes manifest. And this is why a holy internal from the angels flows into the external thought of the man who regards the Word as holy, even when he does not know it.

(Continuation respecting the Fifth Commandment)

[2] When a man begins to shun and turn away from evils because they are sins all things that he does are good, and also may be called good works; with a difference according to the excellence of the uses. For what a man does before he shuns and turns away from evils as sins are works done by the man himself; and as the man's own [proprium], which is nothing but evil, is in these, and they are done for the sake of the world, therefore they are evil works. But the works that a man does after he shuns and turns away from evils as sins are works from the Lord, and because the Lord is in these and heaven with Him they are good works. The difference between works done from man and works done from the Lord in man is not apparent to men's sight, but is clearly evident to the sight of angels. Works done from man are like sepulchers outwardly whitened, which within are full of the bones of the dead. They are like platters and cups outwardly clean, but containing unclean things of every kind. They are like fruits inwardly rotten, but with the outer skin still shining; or like nuts or almonds eaten by worms within, while the shell remains untouched; or like a foul harlot with a fair face. Such are the good works done from man himself, since however good they appear on the outside, within they are full of impurities of every kind; for their interiors are infernal, while their exteriors appear heavenly. But after man shuns and turns away from evils as sins his works are good not only outwardly but inwardly also; and the more interior they are the more they are good, for the more interior they are the nearer they are to the Lord. Then they are like fruits that have a fine-flavored pulp, in the center of which are depositories with many seeds, from which new trees, even to whole gardens, may be produced; but everything and all things in his natural man are like eggs from which swarms of flying creatures may be produced, and gradually fill a great part of heaven. In a word, when man shuns and turns away from evils as sins the works that he does are living, while those that he did before were dead, for what is from the Lord is living, but what is from man is dead.