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Exodus 20

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1 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 I am Jehovah thy God, who brought· thee ·out of the land of Egypt, out·​·of the house of servitude*.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before My faces.

4 Thou shalt not make to thee a graven image, nor any figure of what is in the heavens above, or what is in the earth beneath, or what is in the waters beneath the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow· thyself ·down to them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah, thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and on the fourth generation* of those who hate Me;

6 and doing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

7 Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold· him ·innocent who takes His name in vain.

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep· it ·holy.

9 Six days shalt thou serve, and do all thy work*;

10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah thy God; thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son nor thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor thy sojourner who is in thy gates;

11 for in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and made· it ·holy.

12 Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be prolonged upon the ground that Jehovah thy God is giving to thee.

13 Thou shalt not murder.

14 Thou shalt not commit·​·adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not answer against thy neighbor as a false witness*.

17 14 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

18 15 And all the people saw the voices, and the torches, and the voice of the shophar*, and the mountain smoking; and the people saw, and they quaked, and stood far·​·off.

19 16 And they said to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; and let not God Speak with us, lest perchance we die.

20 17 And Moses said to the people, Fear not; for God has come for the sake of tempting you, and so·​·that the fear of Him may be before your faces, that you sin not.

21 18 And the people stood far·​·off, and Moses approached the dense·​·darkness where God was.

22 19 And Jehovah said to Moses, Thus shalt thou say to the sons of Israel, You have seen that I have spoken with you from the heavens.

23 20 You shall not make with Me gods of silver and gods of gold; you shall not make them to you.

24 21 An altar of ground thou shalt make to Me, and shalt sacrifice on it thy burnt·​·offerings, and thy peace·​·offerings, thy flocks, and thy herds; in every place where I shall cause My name to be remembered, I will come to thee, and I will bless thee.

25 22 And if thou make for Me an altar of stones, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou move thy chisel on it, then thou wilt profane it.

26 23 And thou shalt not go·​·up on stairs on My altar, that thy nakedness be not revealed upon it.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Arcana Coelestia # 10543

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10543. 'At Mount Horeb' means within the external things of worship, the Church, and the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'Mount Horeb' as Divine Truth present in external things. For Horeb was the mountainous region surrounding Mount Sinai, and 'Mount Sinai' means Divine Truth; consequently 'Horeb', being the mountainous region round about, means Divine Truth present in external things. For what is in the middle and higher than the outlying parts around it means that which is internal, and therefore what is around and below it means that which is external.

'Mount Sinai' means Divine Truth, see 8805, 9420.

The middle means that which is internal, 1074, 2940, 2973, 5897, 6084, 6103, 9164, and so does what is high, 2148, 4210, 4599, 9489, 9773, 10181.

What is round about means that which is external, 2973, and so does what is below.

Since the people's interest lay in external things and not in what was internal, when the Law was declared from Mount Sinai they stood in Horeb at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain was fenced off all the way round to prevent the people from touching it, Exodus 19:12-13, 21, 23-24; 20:21; Deuteronomy 4:10-12. The external of worship, the Church, and the Word is spoken of because the external of one is the external of another; for worship is performed by the Church, and the Church's truths and forms of good, and its worship, are derived from the Word. Those therefore who are interested in only the external things of worship and the Church are interested in only the external things of the Word.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 4599

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4599. 'And pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder' means more interior aspects of this. This is clear from the meaning of 'pitching a tent' as an advance in holiness, in this case towards more interior aspects - 'a tent' meaning holiness, see 414, 1102, 2145, 2152, 3312, 4391; from the meaning of 'beyond the tower' as into more interior aspects, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'Eder' as the nature of the state, that is to say, the nature of the advance made in holiness towards more interior aspects. This tower possessed that meaning from of old, but because there is no further reference to it in the Word apart from Joshua 15:21, this cannot be proved from parallel passages in the way other names can. The reason 'beyond the tower' means towards more interior aspects is that things which are more interior are expressed as objects that are lofty and high - as mountains, hills, towers, housetops, and the like. The reason for this is that minds which form their ideas from natural objects in the world as perceived through the external senses see things of an interior nature as objects that are higher than others, 2148.

[2] That 'towers' means interior things may also be seen from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill, 1 which he surrounded [with an enclosure] and gathered out the stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it. Isaiah 5:1-2.

'A vineyard' stands for the spiritual Church, 'the choicest vine' for spiritual good, 'he built a tower in the midst of it' for the interior aspects of truth. Similarly also in the Lord's parable in Matthew,

A householder planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants. Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1.

[3] In Ezekiel,

The sons of Arvad, and your army, were on your walls round about, and Gammadim were in your towers; they hung their shields on your walls round about; they made perfect your beauty. Ezekiel 27:11.

This refers to Tyre, by which are meant cognitions of good and truth, or people who possess these cognitions. 'Gammadim in its tower' stands for cognitions of interior truth.

[4] In Micah,

Jehovah will reign over them in Mount Zion, from now on and for ever. And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you will it come, and the former kingdom will return, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. Micah 4:7-8.

This describes the Lord's celestial kingdom. 'Mount Zion' describes the inmost part of it, which is love to the Lord; 'hill of the daughter of Zion' its immediate derivative, which is mutual love, called in the spiritual sense charity towards the neighbour; 'tower of the flock' describes its interior truths of good. The existence of a spiritual-celestial kingdom from this is meant by 'the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem'. In David,

Mount Zion will be glad, the daughters of Judah will be exultant, because of Your judgements. Encompass Zion, and go around her; count up her towers. Psalms 48:11-12.

Here 'towers' stands for interior truths which defend the things that constitute love and charity.

[5] In Luke,

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For who of you, when he wishes to build a tower, does not first sit down and work out the cost, whether he has the means to complete it? Or what king going to encounter another king in war does not first sit down and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? So every one of you who does not renounce all that is his own cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:27-28, 31, 33.

Anyone who is not acquainted with the internal sense of the Word can only suppose that here the Lord was using comparisons, and that the expressions 'building a tower' and 'going to war' were not used to mean anything more. He does not know that each comparison in the Word has a spiritual meaning, and is representative, and that 'building a tower' means acquiring interior truths to oneself and 'going to war' fighting from those truths. For the subject in this quotation is the temptations undergone by those who belong to the Church and are here called the Lord's disciples. Those temptations are meant by 'his own cross' which each of them has to carry; and the truth that they do not in any way conquer of themselves and from what is their own but from the Lord is meant by 'he who does not renounce all that is his own cannot be My disciple'. This is how these expressions hang together; but if the references to a tower and to war are understood to be simply comparisons without a more interior sense they do not hang together. From this one may see what light flows from the internal sense.

[6] The interiors of those who are governed by self-love and love of the world, and so the falsities from which they fight and from which they reinforce their kind of religion, are also expressed as 'towers' in the contrary sense, as in Isaiah,

The height of men (vir) will be brought low, and Jehovah alone will be exalted on that day, for the day of Jehovah Zebaoth will be against everyone that is lofty and high, and against everyone that is lifted up, and he will be humbled; and against all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and against all the oaks of Bashan, and against all high mountains, and against all hills that are lifted up, and against every lofty tower and against every fortified wall. Isaiah 2:11-18.

Here the interior and exterior aspects of those loves are described by cedars, oaks, mountains, hills, a tower, and a wall - interior falsities being described by 'a tower'. Thus interior things are again described by objects that are 'high'. The difference however is this: People who are governed by these - by evils and falsities - believe that they themselves are high and above others, whereas those who are governed by goods and truths believe that they themselves are least and below others, Matthew 20:26-27; Mark 10:44. All the same, goods and truths are described as things that are 'high' because in heaven they are closer to the Most High, that is, to the Lord. Furthermore 'towers' is used in the Word in reference to truths, but 'mountains' to forms of good.

Notas de rodapé:

1. literally, on a horn of a son of oil

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