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Exodus 23

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1 `Thou dost not lift up a vain report; thou dost not put thy hand with a wicked man to be a violent witness.

2 `Thou art not after many to evil, nor dost thou testify concerning a strife, to turn aside after many to cause [others] to turn aside;

3 and a poor man thou dost not honour in his strife.

4 `When thou meetest thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou dost certainly turn it back to him;

5 when thou seest the ass of him who is hating thee crouching under its burden, then thou hast ceased from leaving [it] to it -- thou dost certainly leave [it] with him.

6 `Thou dost not turn aside the judgment of thy needy one in his strife;

7 from a false matter thou dost keep far off, and an innocent and righteous man thou dost not slay; for I do not justify a wicked man.

8 `And a bribe thou dost not take; for the bribe bindeth the open-[eyed], and perverteth the words of the righteous.

9 `And a sojourner thou dost not oppress, and ye -- ye have known the soul of the sojourner, for sojourners ye have been in the land of Egypt.

10 `And six years thou dost sow thy land, and hast gathered its increase;

11 and the seventh thou dost release it, and hast left it, and the needy of thy people have eaten, and their leaving doth the beast of the field eat; so dost thou to thy vineyard -- to thine olive-yard.

12 `Six days thou dost do thy work, and on the seventh day thou dost rest, so that thine ox and thine ass doth rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the sojourner is refreshed;

13 and in all that which I have said unto you ye do take heed; and the name of other gods ye do not mention; it is not heard on thy mouth.

14 `Three times thou dost keep a feast to Me in a year;

15 the Feast of Unleavened things thou dost keep; seven days thou dost eat Unleavened things, as I have commanded thee, at the time appointed [in] the month of Abib; for in it thou hast come forth out of Egypt, and ye do not appear [in] My presence empty;

16 and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of thy works which thou sowest in the field; and the Feast of the In-Gathering, in the outgoing of the year, in thy gathering thy works out of the field.

17 `Three times in a year do all thy males appear before the face of the Lord Jehovah.

18 `Thou dost not sacrifice on a fermented thing the blood of My sacrifice, and the fat of My festival doth not remain till morning;

19 the beginning of the first-fruits of thy ground thou dost bring into the house of Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

20 `Lo, I am sending a messenger before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee in unto the place which I have prepared;

21 be watchful because of his presence, and hearken to his voice, rebel not against him, for he beareth not with your transgression, for My name [is] in his heart;

22 for, if thou diligently hearken to his voice, and hast done all that which I speak, then I have been at enmity with thine enemies, and have distressed those distressing thee.

23 `For My messenger goeth before thee, and hath brought thee in unto the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I have cut them off.

24 `Thou dost not bow thyself to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their doings, but dost utterly devote them, and thoroughly break their standing pillars.

25 `And ye have served Jehovah your God, and He hath blessed thy bread and thy water, and I have turned aside sickness from thine heart;

26 there is not a miscarrying and barren one in thy land; the number of thy days I fulfil:

27 My terror I send before thee, and I have put to death all the people among whom thou comest, and I have given the neck of all thine enemies unto thee.

28 `And I have sent the hornet before thee, and it hath cast out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee;

29 I cast them not out from before thee in one year, lest the land be a desolation, and the beast of the field hath multiplied against thee;

30 little [by] little I cast them out from before thee, till thou art fruitful, and hast inherited the land.

31 `And I have set thy border from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and thou hast cast them out from before thee;

32 thou dost not make a covenant with them, and with their gods;

33 they do not dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to sin against Me when thou servest their gods, when it becometh a snare to thee.'

   

Commentaar

 

Ox, young

  

'The son of a cow' signifies the celestial natural level and natural exterior good.

(Referenties: Arcana Coelestia 2184 [1-7], 4244)

Van Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #9271

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9271. Verses 10-13 And six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce. And in the seventh you shall let it rest, and let it lie fallow; 1 and the needy of your people will eat, and whatever is left by them 2 the wild animal of the field will eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard, with your olive grove. Six days you shall do your work, 3 and on the seventh day you shall cease, in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and your female slave's son and the sojourner may draw breath. 4 And all that I have said to you you shall keep. And you shall not mention the name of other gods; it shall not be heard on your lips. 5

'And six years you shall sow your land' means the first state, when a member of the Church receives instruction in the truths and forms of the good of faith. 'And gather in its produce' means forms of the good of truth that result from it. 'And in the seventh you shall let it rest, and let it lie fallow' means the second state, when the member of the Church is governed by good, and so enjoys peace and serenity. 'And the needy of your people will eat' means being joined through the good of charity to those who possess few truths and still have a desire to receive instruction. 'And whatever is left by them let the wild animal of the field eat' means being joined through them to those immersed in the delights that go with external truth. 'In like manner you shall do with your vineyard, with your olive grove' means that this is to be so with spiritual good and with celestial good. 'Six days you shall do your work' means a state of labour and conflict, when a person is governed by external delights that must be joined to things that are internal. 'And on the seventh day you shall cease' means a state of good, when the person is governed by internal things, and his peace and serenity then. 'In order that your ox and your ass may rest' means the peace and serenity that external forms of good and truths enjoy at the same time. 'And your female slave's son and the sojourner may draw breath' means the state of life of those governed by truths and forms of good outside the Church. 'And all that I have said to you you shall keep' means that they should carry out the commandments, judgements, and statutes. 'And you shall not mention the name of other gods' means that they should not base their thinking on teachings that present what is false. 'It shall not be heard on your lips' means that they should not obey them or in any way affirm them.

Voetnoten:

1. literally, leave off [with] it, and leave it alone

2. literally, and their residue

3. literally, works

4. i.e. may be refreshed

5. literally, mouth

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