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Exodus 30

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1 And you are to make an altar for the burning of perfume; of hard wood let it be made.

2 The altar is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high, and its horns are to be made of the same.

3 It is to be plated with the best gold, the top of it and the sides and the horns, with an edging of gold all round it.

4 Under the edge on the two opposite sides, you are to make two gold rings, to take the rods for lifting it.

5 And make these rods of the same wood, plating them with gold.

6 And let it be placed in front of the veil before the ark of the law, before the cover which is over the law, where I will come face to face with you.

7 And on this altar sweet spices are to be burned by Aaron every morning when he sees to the lights.

8 And every evening, when he puts the lights up in their places, the spices are to be burned, a sweet-smelling smoke going up before the Lord from generation to generation for ever.

9 No strange perfume, no burned offering or meal offering, and no drink offering is to be offered on it.

10 And once every year Aaron is to make its horns clean: with the blood of the sin-offering he is to make it clean once every year from generation to generation: it is most holy to the Lord.

11 And the Lord said to Moses,

12 When you are taking the number of the children of Israel, let every man who is numbered give to the Lord a price for his life, so that no disease may come on them when they are numbered.

13 And this is what they are to give; let every man who is numbered give half a shekel, by the scale of the holy place: (the shekel being valued at twenty gerahs:) this money is an offering to the Lord.

14 Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, is to give an offering to the Lord.

15 The man of wealth is to give no more and the poor man no less than the half-shekel of silver, when the offering is made to the Lord as the price for your lives.

16 And you are to take this money from the children of Israel to be used for the work of the Tent of meeting, to keep the memory of the children of Israel before the Lord and to be the price of your lives.

17 And the Lord said to Moses,

18 You are to make a brass washing-vessel, with a brass base; and put it between the Tent of meeting and the altar, with water in it;

19 That it may be used by Aaron and his sons for washing their hands and feet;

20 Whenever they go into the Tent of meeting they are to be washed with water, to keep them from death; and whenever they come near to do the work of the altar, or to make an offering by fire to the Lord,

21 Their hands and feet are to be washed. so that they may be safe from death: this is an order to them for ever; to him and his seed from generation to generation.

22 And the Lord said to Moses,

23 Take the best spices, five hundred shekels' weight of liquid myrrh, and of sweet cinnamon half as much, that is, two hundred and fifty shekels, and two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet calamus,

24 And of cassia, five hundred shekels' weight measured by the scale of the holy place, and of olive oil a hin:

25 And make these into a holy oil, a perfume made by the art of the perfume-maker; it is to be a holy oil.

26 This oil is to be put on the Tent of meeting, and on the ark of the law,

27 And on the table and all its vessels, and on the support for the lights, with its vessels, and on the altar for burning spices,

28 And on the altar of burned offerings with its vessels, and on the washing-vessel and its base.

29 And you are to make them most holy; anything touching them will become holy.

30 And put the oil on Aaron and his sons, making them holy to do the work of priests to me.

31 And say to the children of Israel, This is to be the Lord's holy oil, from generation to generation.

32 It is not to be used for man's flesh, and no other is to be made like it: holy it is, and you are to keep it holy.

33 Whoever makes any like it, or puts it on one who is not a priest, will be cut off from his people.

34 And the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, with the best frankincense, in equal weights;

35 And make from them a perfume, such as is made by the art of the perfume-maker, mixed with salt, and clean and holy.

36 And put some of it, crushed very small, in front of the ark in the Tent of meeting, where I will come face to face with you; it is to be most holy.

37 You are not to make any perfume like it for yourselves: it is to be kept holy to the Lord.

38 Whoever makes any like it, for its sweet smell, will be cut off from his people.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #9228

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9228. That “seven” signifies an entire period from beginning to end, thus what is full, is evident from many passages in the Word.

In Isaiah:

The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah shall bind up the breach of His people (Isaiah 30:26).

The subject here treated of is the salvation of the faithful, and their intelligence and wisdom in the Lord’s kingdom. The “moon” denotes faith from the Lord, thus faith in the Lord; and the “sun,” love from the Lord, thus love to the Lord (see n. 30-38, 1521, 1529, 1531, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321, 4696, 5377, 7078, 7083, 7171, 8644); “the light of the sun being sevenfold, as the light of seven days” denotes a full state of intelligence and wisdom from love and faith in the Lord.

[2] In Ezekiel:

They that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shield and the buckler, with the bow and with the arrows, and with the handstaff and with the spear; they shall kindle fire with them seven years; so that they shall bring no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; and they shall cleanse the land seven months (Ezekiel 39:9, 12).

The subject here treated of is the destruction of falsity. The “weapons” here enumerated denote the falsities by means of which the evil fight against the truths of the church; “to kindle fire with them seven years” signifies complete destruction through the cupidities of the loves of self and of the world; that “they shall bring no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests” signifies until nothing of good remains, either in the interior or in the exterior man; “to cleanse the land seven months” signifies the complete restoration of good and truth in the church. It has already been shown in many places that “weapons” denote truths fighting against falsities, and in the opposite sense falsities fighting against truths; that “bows with arrows” denote doctrinal things of truth, and in the opposite sense doctrinal things of falsity; that a “handstaff” denotes the power of truth, and in the opposite sense the power of falsity; that “to set on fire and burn” denotes to lay waste through the cupidities of the loves of self and of the world; that “wood out of the field” denotes the interior goods of the church, and “wood out of the forests” the memory-knowledges of good and truth; and that “the land” denotes the church. Everyone can see that other things are here signified than those which appear in the letter, as that they should burn the weapons and kindle a fire with them seven years, and that they should bring no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests. Yet we know that holy and Divine things must be signified, because the Word is holy and from the Divine; but what holy and Divine things are contained in these words cannot possibly be known, unless it is known what is signified by “weapons,” what by “seven years” and by “seven months,” and what by “wood out of the field and wood out of the forests.” It is clear therefore that these prophetic words cannot in the least be apprehended without some acquaintance with the internal sense.

[3] In David:

Seven times a day do I praise Thee, because of the judgments of Thy righteousness (Psalms 119:164).

Render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom (Psalms 79:12).

“Sevenfold” denotes to the full. In like manner in Moses, that they should be “punished sevenfold if they transgressed the commandments and the statutes” (Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28). He who does not know that “seven” signifies an entire period from beginning to end, consequently what is full, must believe that “seven weeks” signify seven periods of time in the following passage in Daniel:

Know thou and perceive that from the going forth of the Word even unto the restoring and building of Jerusalem, even to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks (Daniel 9:25);

but the “seven weeks even to Messiah the Prince,” signify that which is said of the Lord, that He will come “in the fullness of the times,” thus they signify an entire period. From this it is evident that “the seven spirits before the throne of God” (Revelation 1:4); the “book sealed with seven seals” (Revelation 5:1); and the “seven angels having seven vials which are the seven last plagues” (Revelation 15:1, 6-7; 21:9), do not mean seven spirits, nor seven seals, nor seven angels, nor seven vials, nor seven plagues; but all things in fullness. So by “the barren one bearing seven” (1 Samuel 2:5) is not meant seven, but much, even to fullness.

[4] Because “seven” had such a signification, it was therefore ordained that a priest, at his initiation, should “put on the garments seven days” (Exodus 29:30); that “his hands should be filled seven days” (verses 24-35); that “the altar should be sanctified seven days” (verse 37); and that “those who were initiated into the priesthood should not go out from the tent for seven days” (Leviticus 8:33). In like manner, “when the unclean spirit goeth out of a man and returneth with seven others” (Matthew 12:43-45; Luke 11:24-26); “if a brother sin seven times in the day, and seven times turn again, he should be forgiven” (Luke 17:4); and that “the heart of Nebuchadnezzar should be changed from a man’s, and a beast’s heart be given to him, until seven times had passed over him” (Daniel 4:16, 23, 25). From this also it was that Job’s friends “sat down with him upon the earth seven days and seven nights, and spoke nothing unto him” (Job 2:13). (That “seventy” in like manner signifies what is full, see n. 6508; and also a “week,” that is, seven days, n. 2044, 3845.) From all this it can now be seen that by “the eighth day” is signified the beginning of the following state.

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

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Ezekiel 39:12

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12 Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.