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Exodus 17

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1 Then all the multitude of the children of Israel setting forward from the desert of Sin, by their mansions, according to the word of the Lord, encamped in Raphidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

2 And they chode with Moses, and said: Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses answered them: Why chide you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?

3 So the people were thirsty there for want of water, and murmured against Moses, saying: Why didst thou make us go forth out of Egypt, to kill us and our children, and our beasts with thirst?

4 And Moses cried to the Lord, saying: What shall I do to this people? Yet a little more and they will stone me.

5 And the Lord said to Moses: God before the people, and take with thee of the ancients of Israel: and take in thy hand the rod wherewith thou didst strike the river, and go.

6 Behold I will stand there before thee, upon the rock Horeb: and thou shalt strike the rock, and water shall come out of it that the people may drink. Moses did so before the ancients of Israel:

7 And he called the name of that place Temptation, because the chiding of the children of Israel, and for that they tempted the Lord, saying: Is the Lord amongst us or not?

8 And Amalec came, and fought against Israel in Raphidim.

9 And Moses said to Josue: Choose out men: and go out and fight against Amalec: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill having the rod of God in my hand.

10 Josue did as Moses had spoken, and he fought against Amalec; but Moses, and Aaron, and Hur went up upon the top of the hill.

11 And when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel overcame: but if he let them down a little, Amalec overcame.

12 And Moses' hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put under him, and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides. And it came to pass that his hands were not weary until sunset.

13 And Josue put Amalec and his people to flight, by the edge of the sword.

14 And the Lord said to Moses: Write this for a memorial in a book, and deliver it to the ears of Josue: for I will destroy the memory of Amalec from under heaven.

15 And Moses built an altar: and called the name thereof, The Lord my exaltation, saying:

16 Because the hand of the throne of the Lord, and the war of the Lord shall be against Amalec, from generation to generation.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Exodus 17

Door New Christian Bible Study Staff

Arcana Coelestia 8554. In the preceding chapter, in the internal sense, the third temptation was treated of - that there was a lack of good. This having been given them, in the internal sense in this chapter the fourth temptation is treated of - that there was a lack of truth. This temptation is signified by "the murmuring of the sons of Israel because they had no water;" and therefore the truth of faith was given them by the Lord, which is signified by "the water out of the rock of Horeb."

Arcana Coelestia 8555. Then follows the combat of the falsity that is from evil against the truth and good of faith, which combat is represented by the fighting of Amalek against Israel. That they who are in the truth and good of faith conquer when they look upward to the Lord, and that they yield when they look downward, is represented by the sons of Israel conquering so long as Moses kept his hands raised, and by their yielding when he let them down.

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Arcana Coelestia #8555

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8555. After this the subject is the conflict of falsity arising from evil with the truth and good of faith. That conflict is represented by the battle which Amalek fought against Israel. The fact that those who have the truth and good of faith within them are winning when they look up to the Lord, and losing when they look down, is represented by the children of Israel, who were winning as long as Moses kept his hands raised up, but losing whenever he let them down.

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