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:

8760. 'And Moses went up to God' means the truth from God which was below heaven joining itself to Divine Truth in heaven. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as the truth from God, dealt with in 6771, 6827, 7014, at this point the truth from God which was below heaven, since he now represents the children of Israel as their head, and so represents those belonging to the spiritual Church not yet in heaven because they are not as yet governed by good formed from truths, 8753, 8754; and from the meaning of 'going up' as joining oneself to, for someone who goes up to the Divine joins himself to Him, even as the words 'going up into heaven' mean man's being joined to the Lord, and the words 'coming down from heaven' mean His being joined to man. Divine Truth in heaven, to which the other was joined, is what 'God' is used to mean; for in the Word the Lord is called 'God' by virtue of Divine Truth, and Jehovah' by virtue of Divine Good, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921 (end), 4402, 7010, 7268, 7873, 8301. And since the joining of Divine Truth to Divine Good is the subject here, this verse first says 'God', then 'Jehovah' just after, in these words, And Moses went up to God, and Jehovah called to him from the mountain.

[2] The expression Divine Truth in heaven is used, and then Divine Good in heaven, because the Divine Himself is far above the heavens; not only Divine Goodness itself is far above them but also Divine Truth itself which goes forth directly from Divine Good. The reason why they are far above heaven is that in Himself the Divine is the Infinite, and the Infinite cannot be joined to finite beings, thus not even to angels in heaven, unless He puts on some finite clothing and in that way adapts Himself for reception. Also Divine Good as it exists in itself is a flame of infinite intensity or love, a flame which no angel in heaven can bear; for he would be devoured by it, as a person in the world would be if the flame of the sun were to reach him without anything between them to moderate it. The light also from the flame of God's love, which is Divine Truth, would blind all who are in heaven if it were to flow in without abatement of its fiery brightness. All this goes to show what the difference is between Divine Good and Divine Truth that are above the heavens and Divine Good and Divine Truth in the heavens, which are the subject here.