Van Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #4277

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4277. 'And he touched the hollow of his thigh' means where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. This is clear from the meaning of 'the thigh' as conjugial love, and consequently as all celestial and spiritual love, since these are derived from conjugial love as offspring from their parent, dealt with in 3021; and from the meaning of 'the hollow' or socket or cavity of it - that is to say, of the thigh - as the place where the joining together exists, and here therefore where celestial-spiritual good is joined to natural good meant by 'Jacob'. But no one can be told anything about that conjunction unless he knows first of all what celestial-spiritual good, meant by 'Israel', is, and what natural good, meant by 'Jacob', is. It will be told below at verse 28 where Jacob, who at that point is named Israel, is the subject and also further on where Jacob's descendants are the subject.

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

Van Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #5355

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5355. 'For God has made me fruitful' means leading to a multiplication of truth from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'making fruitful' as a multiplication, that is to say, of truth from good, for fruitfulness is used in reference to good and multiplication to truth, 43, 55, 913, 983, 1940, 2846, 2847. In the original language the name Ephraim is derived from a word meaning fruitfulness, the essential nature of which is contained in the statement 'for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction'. That essential nature is one in which truth from good in the natural has been multiplied after the temptations undergone there have come to an end. But a brief description of what a multiplication of truth from good is must be given. When good, that is, love towards the neighbour, is present in a person, so also is the love of truth. Consequently, insofar as that good is present he feels an affection for truth, since good exists within truth like the soul within its body.

[2] In the measure therefore that good multiplies truth it reproduces itself; and if it is the good of genuine charity it reproduces itself endlessly within truth and through truth. For there is no limit either to good or to truth; the Infinite is present within every single form of truth or good because each one has its origin in the Infinite. Yet that endless quality cannot ever match up to the Infinite itself, for what is limited or finite cannot be compared with the Infinite. In the Church at the present day scarcely any multiplication of truth takes place. The reason for this is that at the present day the good of genuine charity is non-existent. The Church believes that it is enough if a person knows simply the tenets of the Church within which he is born and in various ways firmly assents to these. But one with whom the good of genuine charity exists and who consequently feels an affection for truth is not content with that but wishes to clarify from the Word what the truth is and to see it before firmly assenting to it. Also, it is good that enables him to see it, for the discernment of truth originates in good, the Lord being within that good and imparting such discernment. When the person receives truth from Him he increases it to an unlimited extent. This may be likened to a tiny seed which grows into a tree and produces more tiny seeds, which then grow into a garden, and so on beyond that.

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

De Bijbel

 

Exodus 30

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1 "You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood.

2 Its length shall be a cubit, and its breadth a cubit. It shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.

3 You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it.

4 You shall make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, on its two sides you shall make them; and they shall be for places for poles with which to bear it.

5 You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

6 You shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.

7 Aaron shall burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it.

8 When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations.

9 You shall offer no strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering; and you shall pour no drink offering on it.

10 Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in the year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year he shall make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh."

11 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

12 "When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are numbered among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to Yahweh, when you number them; that there be no plague among them when you number them.

13 They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary; (the shekel is twenty gerahs;) half a shekel for an offering to Yahweh.

14 Everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to Yahweh.

15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls.

16 You shall take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls."

17 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

18 "You shall also make a basin of brass, and its base of brass, in which to wash. You shall put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.

19 Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it.

20 When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they not die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they not die: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations."

22 Moreover Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

23 "Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty;

24 and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary; and a hin of olive oil.

25 You shall make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil.

26 You shall use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the testimony,

27 the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense,

28 the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its base.

29 You shall sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy.

30 You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest's office.

31 You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.

32 It shall not be poured on man's flesh, neither shall you make any like it, according to its composition: it is holy. It shall be holy to you.

33 Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.'"

34 Yahweh said to Moses, "Take to yourself sweet spices, gum resin, and onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be an equal weight;

35 and you shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy:

36 and you shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be to you most holy.

37 The incense which you shall make, according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves: it shall be to you holy for Yahweh.

38 Whoever shall make any like that, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people."