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Exodus第20章

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1 And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness [of any thing] that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me,

6 and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that 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 guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

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

10 but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12 Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.

13 Thou shalt not kill.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.

18 And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off.

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

20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you, that ye sin not.

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

22 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

23 Ye shall not make [other gods] with me; gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you.

24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in every place where I record my name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee.

25 And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.

26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not uncovered thereon.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Apocalypse Revealed#847

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847. We are told here and there in the Word that people were slain, pierced or stabbed, or simply put to death, and yet the meaning is not that they were slain, pierced, stabbed, or put to death, but that they were rejected by people caught up in evils and falsities, as may be seen in nos. 59, 325, 589. This is also the symbolic meaning of the dead in the next verse, where we are told:

The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were completed. (Revelation 20:5)

It is apparent from this that those who are said to have been beheaded symbolize people rejected by those caught up in falsities hatched out of their own intelligence.

That an axe used to behead someone symbolizes falsity hatched out of people's own intelligence is apparent from the following:

...the statutes of the peoples are vanity, if indeed one cuts wood from the forest, the work of the hands of an artisan, with an ax. (Jeremiah 10:3)

(Egypt's) voice shall go like a serpent, ...they come... with axes, like hewers of wood. (Jeremiah 46:22)

He is known as one who lifts up axes against a thicket of wood, and already they are demolishing his carvings with axes and hammers... They have profaned to the ground the dwelling place of Your name. (Psalms 74:5-7)

When you besiege a city..., you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. (Deuteronomy 20:19)

Axes in these passages symbolize falsity hatched out of people's own intelligence, and this for the reason that iron symbolizes truth in its lowest form, which we call sensual truth, which when divorced from rational and spiritual truth turns into falsity. It is falsity hatched from people's own intelligence because sensuality is inherent in people's native character, as may be seen in no. 424.

Because iron and axes have this symbolic meaning, the command was given to Israel that if they built an altar of stone, it should be built of unhewn stones, and that no iron tool should be used on the stones, lest they profane it (Exodus 20:25, Deuteronomy 27:5).

Therefore, regarding the temple in Jerusalem, we are told the following:

...the edifice itself... was built with unhewn stone, and no hammer or ax or any iron tool was heard in the edifice while it was being built. (1 Kings 6:7)

Conversely, when a carved image is the subject, which symbolizes falsity hatched out of people's own intelligence, we are told that it was fashioned with iron, with tongs or axes and hammers (Isaiah 44:12). To be shown that falsity hatched out of people's own intelligence is symbolically meant by a carving or idol, see no. 459 above.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.