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Isaiah 59

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1 Behold, Yahweh's hand is not shortened, that it can't save; neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear:

2 but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.

4 None sues in righteousness, and none pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

5 They hatch adders' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.

6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.

8 The way of peace they don't know; and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whoever goes therein does not know peace.

9 Therefore is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.

10 We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.

11 We roar all like bears, and moan bitterly like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

13 transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

14 Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter.

15 Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it upheld him.

17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.

18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.

19 So shall they fear the name of Yahweh from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of Yahweh drives.

20 "A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob," says Yahweh.

21 "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says Yahweh. "My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed," says Yahweh, "from henceforth and forever."

   

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Arcana Coelestia #8443

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8443. 'And behold, the glory of Jehovah was seen in the cloud' means the Lord's presence within truth adjusted to their discernment. This is clear from the meaning of 'the glory of Jehovah' as the presence and arrival of the Lord, dealt with above in 8427; and from the meaning of 'the cloud' as the literal sense of the Word, dealt with in the Preface to Genesis 18, and in 4391, 5922, 6343 (end), 6752, 8106, thus truth adjusted to people's discernment, for the Word in the letter is that kind of truth. But 'the glory that is in the cloud' is Divine Truth, which is not adjusted in that way to people's discernment, because it is above illusions and appearances of the senses; so it is also the internal sense of the Word, Preface to Genesis 18, and 5922, 8427. The reason why 'the glory' is the internal sense of the Word is that this sense deals with the Church and the Lord's kingdom, and the highest sense with the Lord Himself, which sense also contains Divine Truth in its absolute form.

[2] There are many levels of God's truth, not just one. The first level of God's truth, and also the second, is that truth going forth directly from the Lord; it is above angels' understanding. But the third level of God's truth is that truth as it exists in the inmost or third heaven; its nature is such that man can grasp nothing whatever of it. The fourth level of God's truth is as it exists in the middle or second heaven; this is not intelligible to man either. But the fifth level of God's truth is that truth as it exists in the lowest or first heaven; this may to some small extent be perceived by man, but only if he is enlightened, though even then it is such that human language is incapable of expressing a large part of it. When it passes into ideas it generates the ability to perceive it and also to believe that it is indeed the truth. But the sixth level of God's truth is as it exists with man; it is adjusted to his discernment, thus it is the sense of the letter of the Word. This sense or kind of truth is represented by 'the cloud' and inner truths by 'the glory in the cloud'.

[3] This explains why Jehovah, that is, the Lord, appeared so many times to Moses and the children of Israel in a cloud, as at Exodus 24:15-16; 40:34-35; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Matthew 24:30; and elsewhere. When the Lord is making His appearance He does so through Divine Truth; indeed what is appearing is Divine Truth. The meaning of 'a cloud' as truth adjusted to human discernment has its origin in representatives in the next life. There the speech of angels in the higher heavens manifests itself to those below as light and also as the brilliance of light; but the speech of angels belonging to a lower heaven manifests itself as a bright cloud, the shape of which varies, and the thick or thin texture of which is determined by the character of truths. From all this it becomes clear that 'the glory of Jehovah was seen in the cloud' means the Lord's presence within truth adjusted to their discernment.

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

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Exodus 16

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1 They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

2 The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;

3 and the children of Israel said to them, "We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

4 Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.

5 It shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily."

6 Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, "At evening, then you shall know that Yahweh has brought you out from the land of Egypt;

7 and in the morning, then you shall see the glory of Yahweh; because he hears your murmurings against Yahweh. Who are we, that you murmur against us?"

8 Moses said, "Now Yahweh shall give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to satisfy you; because Yahweh hears your murmurings which you murmur against him. And who are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against Yahweh."

9 Moses said to Aaron, "Tell all the congregation of the children of Israel, 'Come near before Yahweh, for he has heard your murmurings.'"

10 It happened, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud.

11 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

12 "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread: and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.'"

13 It happened at evening that quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp.

14 When the dew that lay had gone, behold, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the frost on the ground.

15 When the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, "What is it?" For they didn't know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat."

16 This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: "Gather of it everyone according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, you shall take it, every man for those who are in his tent."

17 The children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less.

18 When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.

19 Moses said to them, "Let no one leave of it until the morning."

20 Notwithstanding they didn't listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became foul: and Moses was angry with them.

21 They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted.

22 It happened that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

23 He said to them, "This is that which Yahweh has spoken, 'Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to Bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.'"

24 They laid it up until the morning, as Moses asked, and it didn't become foul, neither was there any worm in it.

25 Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. today you shall not find it in the field.

26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none."

27 It happened on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, and they found none.

28 Yahweh said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

29 Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."

30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

31 The house of Israel called its name Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey.

32 Moses said, "This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, 'Let an omer-full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.'"

33 Moses said to Aaron, "Take a pot, and put an omer-full of manna in it, and lay it up before Yahweh, to be kept throughout your generations."

34 As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

35 The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.

36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.