8858. A person's whole character is determined by the nature of whatever dominates his life; this is what marks him off from others. His heaven is formed in accordance with it if he is good, or his hell if he is bad. For it constitutes his true will and so the true being of his life, which is unchangeable after death. From all this one may see what the life is like in a person who has been regenerated, and what it is like in one who has not been regenerated.
Exodus 21
1
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
2
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
3
If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4
If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
5
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
6
Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
7
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
8
If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
9
And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
10
If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
11
And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.
12
He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
13
And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
14
But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
15
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
16
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17
And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
18
And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
19
If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
20
And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.
21
Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
22
If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23
And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24
Eye for Eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25
Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
26
And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
27
And if he smite out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
28
If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
29
But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
30
If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
31
Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
32
If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
33
And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;
34
The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.
35
And if one man's ox hurt another's, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.
36
Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.
Arcana Coelestia # 1368
1368. That 'Ur of the Chaldeans' means external worship containing falsities is clear from the meaning of 'the Chaldeans' in the Word. At verse 9 above it has been shown that 'Babel' means worship which interiorly contains evils, whereas 'Chaldea' means worship which interiorly contains falsities. Consequently Babel means worship which inwardly contains no trace of good and Chaldea worship which inwardly contains no trace of truth. Worship which inwardly contains no trace of good and no trace of truth is worship which interiorly contains what is unholy and idolatrous. That such worship is meant in the Word by 'Chaldea' becomes clear from the following places: In Isaiah,
Behold, the land of the Chaldeans! This people is not. Asshur founded her in the tziim. They will erect their watch-towers, they will raise up her palaces; he will make her into a ruin. Isaiah 23:13.
'The land of the Chaldeans who are not a people' stands for falsities, 'Asshur founded' for reasonings, 'watch-towers' for delusions. In the same prophet,
Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, For your sake I have sent into Babel and have broken down all the bars, and the Chaldeans in whose ships there is shouting. Isaiah 43:14.
'Babel' stands for worship which interiorly contains evil, 'the Chaldeans' for worship which interiorly contains falsity. 'Ships' means cognitions of truth that have been perverted.
[2] In the same prophet, sit in silence and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for no more will they call you the mistress of kingdoms. I was angry with My people, I rendered My heritage unholy, and I gave them into your hand These two things will come to you suddenly in one day - loss of children and widowhood. In full measure they will come upon you on account of the multitude of your sorceries, and on account of the greatness of your enchantments. Isaiah 47:5-6, 9.
Here it is evident that 'Chaldea' means profanation of truth and is called 'sorceries and enchantments'. In the same prophet,
Go away out of Babel, flee from the Chaldeans. Isaiah 48:20.
This stands for flight from profaning good and truth in worship. In Ezekiel,
Make known to Jerusalem her abominations; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. You committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt. You committed whoredom with the sons of Asshur. Hence you multiplied your whoredom even into the land of Chaldea. Ezekiel 16:2-3, 26, 28-29.
This refers to the Jewish Church in particular. 'The sons of Egypt' stands for facts, 'the sons of Asshur' for reasonings, 'the land of Chaldea into which it multiplied its whoredom' for the profanation of truth.
Anyone may see that Egypt, Asshur, and Chaldea are not used to mean countries, and that no other kind of whoredom is being referred to.
[3] In the same prophet,
Oholah committed whoredom and doted on her lovers, the Assyrians her neighbours. And she did not give up her acts of whoredom brought from Egypt. She added to her acts of whoredom. And she saw men; it was portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans painted in vermilion, girded with belts on their loins, with dyed flowing turbans on their heads, all of them leaders in appearance, the likeness of the sons of Babel, the Chaldeans, the land of their nativity. She loved them passionately as soon as she set eyes on them and she sent messengers to them in Chaldea. The sons of Babel defiled her by means of their acts of whoredom. Ezekiel 23:5, 8, 14-17.
Here 'the Chaldeans', called 'the sons of Babel', stands for truths that have been profaned in worship. 'Oholah' stands for the spiritual Church which is called 'Samaria'. 1
In Habakkuk,
I am rousing the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, marching into the breadths of the earth, to possess habitations that are not its own. A dreadful and terrible nation; and from itself proceeds its judgement and its pride. Its horses are swifter than leopards, and sharper than the evening wolves. Its horsemen spread out, and its horsemen come from afar. They fly in like an eagle hastening to devour. The whole [nation] comes for violence; the panting desire of its face 2 is set towards the east. Habakkuk 1:6, 9.
Here the Chaldean nation is described by means of many representatives meaning the circumstances in which truth is profaned in worship.
A further description of Babel and Chaldea is given in two whole chapters - in Jeremiah 50, 51 - where it is plainly evident what they both mean. There Babel plainly means in worship the profanation of celestial things and Chaldea the profanation of spiritual things. From these considerations it is now clear what is meant by 'Ur of the Chaldeans', that it is external worship which interiorly contains what is unholy and idolatrous. I have also been allowed to learn from these people themselves that their worship was such.
Сноски:
1. Ezekiel 23:4 identifies Oholah with Samaria.
2. literally, faces
