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Deuteronomy 9

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1 Hear, Israel! Thou art to pass over the Jordan this day, to enter in to possess nations greater and mightier than thou, cities great and walled up to heaven,

2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard [say], Who can stand before the sons of Anak!

3 Know then this day, that Jehovah thy God is he that goeth over before thee, a consuming fire; he will destroy them, and he will cast them down before thee, and thou shalt dispossess them and cause them to perish quickly, as Jehovah hath said unto thee.

4 Thou shalt not say in thy heart, when Jehovah thy God thrusteth them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness Jehovah hath brought me in to possess this land; but for the wickedness of these nations doth Jehovah dispossess them from before thee.

5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart, dost thou enter in to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations doth Jehovah thy God dispossess them from before thee, and that he may perform the word which Jehovah swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6 Know therefore that Jehovah thy God doth not give thee this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people.

7 Remember, forget not, how thou provokedst Jehovah thy God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came to this place, ye have been rebellious against Jehovah.

8 And at Horeb ye provoked Jehovah to wrath, and Jehovah was angry with you, to destroy you,

9 when I went up the mountain to receive the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which Jehovah made with you, and I abode in the mountain forty days and forty nights, -- I ate no bread and drank no water, --

10 -- and Jehovah delivered to me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them [was written] according to all the words which Jehovah spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

11 And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Jehovah gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant.

12 And Jehovah said unto me, Arise, go down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them: they have made for themselves a molten image.

13 And Jehovah spoke unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

15 And I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

16 And I saw, and behold, ye had sinned against Jehovah your God: ye had made for yourselves a molten calf; ye had quickly turned aside from the way which Jehovah had commanded you.

17 And I seized the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.

18 And I fell down before Jehovah, as at the first, forty days and forty nights, -- I ate no bread and drank no water, -- because of all your sin which ye had sinned, in doing what is evil in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.

19 For I was afraid of the anger and fury wherewith Jehovah was wroth against you to destroy you. And Jehovah listened unto me also at that time.

20 And with Aaron Jehovah was very angry to destroy him; and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, and ground it very small, until it became fine dust; and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that flowed down from the mountain.

22 And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked Jehovah to wrath.

23 And when Jehovah sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you, ye rebelled against the word of Jehovah your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.

24 Ye have been rebellious against Jehovah from the day that I knew you.

25 So I fell down before Jehovah the forty days and forty nights, as I fell down; for Jehovah had said he would destroy you.

26 I prayed therefore to Jehovah, and said, Lord Jehovah, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a powerful hand.

27 Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin;

28 lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because Jehovah was not able to bring them into the land which he had promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.

29 They are indeed thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out with thy great power and with thy stretched-out arm.

   

Das Obras de Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia # 8588

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8588. 'And Meribah' means the essential nature of the complaining. This is clear from the consideration that in the original language Meribah means contention or wrangling, and 'wrangling' means complaining, 8563, 8566; and since also names mean the essential nature of something, 8587, 'Meribah' here means the essential nature of the complaining. As regards the specific temptation here and the essential nature of it, it should be recognized that those people are being described here who in temptations almost give in; that is to say, they complain against heaven, also against the Divine Himself, and at length almost cease to believe in God's providence. These things are meant in the internal sense by what has gone before and also by what follows in the present verse; they are the essential nature of the state of the temptation, meant by 'Massah', and the essential nature of the complaining in the temptation, meant by 'Meribah'. The fact that the latter is meant here by 'Meribah' is evident in David,

You called on Me in distress, and I rescued you; I answered you in the hiding place. I tested you by the waters of Meribah. Psalms 81:7.

[2] But the internal historical sense, in which the religious condition of the Israelite nation is the subject, describes the nature of their attitude towards Jehovah. It was such that when they asked Him for aid they refused to plead for it, and instead demanded it. The reason for this was that when they saw miracles their acknowledgement of Jehovah as the Supreme Deity did not exist in their heart, only on their lips. The fact that there was no acknowledgement of Him in their heart is perfectly clear from the Egyptian calf which they made for themselves and worshipped, saying that these were their gods, and also from their frequent apostasy, regarding which see 8301. These are the matters that the internal historical sense describes here; but the internal spiritual sense describes the essential nature of the temptation when those undergoing it are brought to the final phase before their deliverance.

[3] The fact that the character of the Israelite nation and their religious condition are described by their contending with Moses at Massah and Meribah is also clear in David,

Do not harden your heart as in Meribah, as in the day of Massah, in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted Me; they tempted Me, and saw My work. For forty years I loathed [that] generation, and said, They are a people who err in their heart and have not known My ways, to whom I swore in My anger, They shall not enter My rest. Psalms 95:8-11.

In Moses,

You shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as you tempted [Him] in Massah. Deuteronomy 6:16.

In the same author,

Furthermore in Taberah and in Massah and in Kibroth Hattaavah, you were rebels against Jehovah from the day I knew you. Deuteronomy 9:22, 24.

In the same author,

Of Levi he said, Your Thummim and your Urim shall be for the Holy Man (Vir) whom you tempted in Massah; you contended with Him at the waters of Meribah. Deuteronomy 33:8-9

'The Holy Man' here stands for the Lord, whom they tempted, and whom

Moses and Aaron 'did not honour as holy'.

[4] In the internal historical sense, in which the religious condition of the

Israelite nation is the subject, Moses and Aaron do not represent God's truth, but the religious condition of that nation, whose leaders and heads they were, 7041. Since that religious condition was such as has been mentioned above, it was declared to the two that they would not lead the people into the land of Canaan. This is stated in the Book of Numbers as follows,

Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in Me and honour Me as holy in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with Jehovah. Numbers 20:12-13; 27:14.

And in the same book,

Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word 1 at the waters of Meribah. Numbers 20:24.

The like is said of Moses at Deuteronomy 32:49-51.

[5] Among that nation representative worship of God was nevertheless established because representative worship could have been established among any nation that thought the outward things of worship were holy and venerated them in a virtually idolatrous manner. For a representative has no regard to the person who represents, only to the reality represented, 1361; and that nation was by disposition such, more than any other nation, that outward things devoid of anything internal were altogether venerated by them as being holy and Divine. They were such that they revered their fathers - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and later on Moses and David - as demi-gods. In addition they venerated as being holy and Divine, and worshipped, every piece of stone or wood dedicated to their worship of God, such as the Ark, the tables there, the lampstand, the altar, Aaron's vestments, the Urim and Thummim, and later on the temple. By means of outward things such as these at that time communication of the angels of heaven with mankind was in the Lord's providence made possible; for the Church, or a representative of the Church, must exist somewhere, in order that heaven may be in communication with the human race. And since that nation more than any other could make Divine worship consist in outward things, and so could act as a representative of the Church, that nation was the one to be adopted.

[6] The communication with angels in heaven by means of representatives was effected at that time in the following way. People's outward worship was conveyed to angelic spirits who are simple and give no thought to inward values, though they are themselves nevertheless good inwardly. Such spirits are those who in the Grand Man correspond to the skin. They pay no attention at all to what is in a person inwardly, only to what is visible outwardly; and if this is seen by them to be holy they think that what is inward is so too. The more internal angels of heaven saw in these spirits the realities that were being represented, consequently the corresponding heavenly and Divine values; for they could reside with these spirits and see those values, but not with men, except through those spirits. Angels dwell with men in their inward values; but when no inward values are there, they dwell in the interiors of simple spirits; for the wisdom of angels extends only to spiritual and celestial values, which are the inward realities of representatives. From this brief explanation one may recognize how communication with heaven through such a people could be made possible. But see what has been shown already on this matter:

Among the Jews the holiness of their worship was carried up outside themselves into heaven in a miraculous fashion, 4307. The descendants of Jacob were able to represent what was holy, irrespective of what they were really like, provided that the religious observances which had been commanded were carried out precisely, 3147, 3479, 3480, 3881 (end), 4208, 4281, 4288, 4289, 4293, 4307, 4444, 4500, 4680, 4825, 4844, 4847, 4899, 4912, 6304, 6306, 7048, 7051, 8301 (end).

Notas de rodapé:

1. literally, mouth

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

Das Obras de Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia # 4847

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4847. 'In case he also dies, like his brothers' means fear lest it should perish, that is to say, that the representative of the Church among those descended from Jacob, specifically among those descended from Jacob through Judah, should perish. This is clear from the meaning of 'in case he dies' as fear lest it may perish. As regards the perishing of the representative of the Church among those descended from Jacob if the internal things of a genuine representative Church were linked to it, this implies that among those descended from Jacob a representative Church was to have been established like that which had existed with the ancients. But the disposition of that nation was such that its only wish was to worship and adore external things; it had no wish to know anything at all about internal ones, since it was immersed in desires belonging to self-love and love of the world, and in falsities that resulted from these. It believed, more than gentiles did, that a number of gods existed, but that Jehovah was greater than the rest because He could perform greater miracles. This was why as soon as the miracles ended, or when - because they were of frequent and common occurrence - little importance was placed on them, that nation instantly turned to other gods, as one can see quite clearly from the historical and prophetical parts of the Word.

[2] Such being the nature of that nation, a representative Church like that which had existed among the ancients could not be established among it, only that which was a representative of the Church. Also, the Lord made provision so that through that representative of the Church some degree of communication with heaven might be established; for what is representative can exist even in people who are evil because one does not look at the person who represents, only at the reality represented by him. From this it is evident that in the case of that nation worship was nothing else than idolatrous, 4825, even though the representatives held holy and Divine realities within them. To that kind of worship - to idolatrous worship - what was internal could not be joined; for if what was internal had been linked to it, that is, if they had acknowledged internal things, they would have rendered holy things unholy. For a holy internal, if joined to an idolatrous external, is rendered unholy.

This explains why internal things were not disclosed to that nation, for if these had been disclosed to it, it would have perished.

[3] The inability of that nation to receive and acknowledge internal things, however fully these might have been revealed to them, is quite evident from members of it at the present day. At the present day they do, it is true, have a knowledge of internal things since they live among Christians; yet they reject these things and also deride them. Even the majority of those who have been converted do nothing else in their hearts. From these considerations it is clear that a Church representative of spiritual and celestial things did not exist among that nation, only a representative of the Church, that is, an external without an internal, which in itself is idolatrous. From them it may also be seen how mistaken is the thinking of those Christians who believe that when the Church reaches its end the Jewish nation will be converted, and will at that time be chosen in preference to Christians. Even more mistaken is the thinking of those who believe that at that time the Messiah or Lord is going to appear to them, when by means of a great prophet and great miracles He is going to lead them back into the land of Canaan. These are the errors that people fall into who take 'Judah', 'Israel', and 'the land of Canaan' in the prophetical parts of the Word to mean Judah, Israel, and the land of Canaan, and who consequently believe the literal sense alone and have no interest in any internal sense

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