8859. Exodus 20

1. And God spoke all these words, saying,

2. I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.

3. You shall not have other gods before My face.

4. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness [of things] which are in the heavens above, and which are on the earth beneath, and which are in the waters under the earth.

5. You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them; for I am Jehovah your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, ¹ on the third and on the fourth [generations] of those who hate Me,

6. And showing mercy to thousands who love Me and keep My commandments.

7. You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain; for Jehovah will not render him innocent who takes His name in vain.

8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9. Six days you shall labour and do all your work;

10. And the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work - you, nor your son, nor your daughter; your male slave, nor your female slave, nor your beast, nor your sojourner who is within your gates.

11. For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and sanctified it.

12. Honour your father and your mother, in order that your days may be prolonged on the land which Jehovah your God gives you.

13. ² You shall not kill.

14. You shall not commit adultery.

15. You shall not steal.

16. You shall not answer as witness of a lie against your neighbour.

17. You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male slave nor his female slave, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's.

18. And all the people saw the voices and torches, ³ and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and the people saw and were violently shaken, and stood afar off.

19. And they said to Moses, Speak yourself to us, and we will hear; and do not let God speak to us, lest perhaps we die.

20. And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come in order to test you, and in order that His fear may be before your faces, so that you do not sin.

21. And the people stood afar off; and Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

22. And Jehovah said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.

23. You shall not make [to be] with Me gods of silver and gods of gold; you shall not make [them] for yourselves.

24. An altar of soil ⁴ you shall make for Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your eucharistic offerings, your flocks and your herds; in every place where I shall put the memory of My name I will come to you and bless you.

25. And if you make for Me an altar of stones, you shall not build it with hewn ones; for if you move your chisel over it you will profane it.

26. And you shall not go up to My altar by steps, in order that your nakedness may not be revealed on it.

CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with God's truths that are to be implanted in the good which governs those belonging to the Lord's spiritual Church. The Ten Commandments are those truths; and the commandments that follow them in this chapter, regarding sacrifices and the altar, are outward truths concerned with worship.

Сноски:

4015. 'And he stripped white strips on them - an exposing of the white which was on the rods' means an ordering effected by the interior power of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'stripping' and of 'strips' as peelings away of the exterior parts so that the interior may be laid bare, and so as exposings; from the meaning of 'while' as truth, dealt with above in 3993, 4007; and from the meaning of 'a rod' as power, dealt with just above in 4013, in this case an interior power because the surface of the rods beneath their outer covering is meant. By an ordering effected by the interior power of truth is meant the power of the interior man acting on the exterior man, that is, of the spiritual man acting on the natural man. For all ordering of good and truth within the natural man comes from the spiritual man, that is, it comes from the Lord by way of the spiritual man - by way of the truth there. For the Lord flows into the good of the spiritual or interior man; and through the truth there He flows into the natural man. But He does not flow in directly by way of good into the natural until the person has been regenerated. All ordering within the natural man therefore is effected by the interior man. The natural - that is, the natural man - cannot possibly be ordered, that is, regenerated, in any other way.

[2] The fact that this ordering is effected by the interior man is evident from a person's acknowledgement of truth. Unless this acknowledgement is made by the interior man it is not acknowledgement; nor is it so unless it is made by conscience too, which is the acknowledgement by the interior man, and also by perception. Because the ordering by the interior man is effected by means of truth, power is therefore attributed to truth, as it is also to a rod, by which power is meant, as well as to the hand, by which likewise power is meant, 3091, as may be substantiated from very many places in the Word. Not that the power which truth possesses is from that truth but from good; and so it is truth empowered by good, that is, by the Lord through good. This shows to some extent what is meant by an ordering effected by the interior power of truth. In the highest sense, where the Lord is the subject, His own power is meant, for the power which the Divine has is His own power since it does not come from another.