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Exodus第23章

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1 Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness.

2 Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision:

3 But, on the other hand, do not be turned from what is right in order to give support to a poor man's cause.

4 If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back to him.

5 If you see the ass of one who has no love for you bent down to the earth under the weight which is put on it, you are to come to its help, even against your desire.

6 Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.

7 Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin.

8 Take no rewards in a cause: for rewards make blind those who have eyes to see, and make the decisions of the upright false.

9 Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land.

10 For six years put seed into your fields and get in the increase;

11 But in the seventh year let the land have a rest and be unplanted; so that the poor may have food from it: and let the beasts of the field take the rest. Do the same with your vine-gardens and your olive-trees.

12 For six days do your work, and on the seventh day keep the Sabbath; so that your ox and your ass may have rest, together with the son of your servant and the man from a strange land living among you.

13 Take note of all these things which I have said to you, and let not the names of other gods come into your minds or from your lips.

14 Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me.

15 You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your bread be without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt); and let no one come before me without an offering:

16 And the feast of the grain-cutting, the first-fruits of your planted fields: and the feast at the start of the year, when you have got in all the fruit from your fields.

17 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord God.

18 Do not give the blood of my offering with leavened bread; and do not let the fat of my feast be kept all night till the morning.

19 The best of the first-fruits of your land are to be taken into the house of the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.

20 See, I am sending an angel before you, to keep you on your way and to be your guide into the place which I have made ready for you.

21 Give attention to him and give ear to his voice; do not go against him; for your wrongdoing will not be overlooked by him, because my name is in him.

22 But if you truly give ear to his voice, and do whatever I say, then I will be against those who are against you, fighting those who are fighting you.

23 And my angel will go before you, guiding you into the land of the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and they will be cut off by my hand.

24 Do not go down on your faces and give worship to their gods, or do as they do; but overcome them completely, and let their pillars be broken down.

25 And give worship to the Lord your God, who will send his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take all disease away from among you.

26 All your animals will give birth without loss, not one will be without young in all your land; I will give you a full measure of life.

27 I will send my fear before you, putting to flight all the people to whom you come; all those who are against you will go in flight, turning their backs before you.

28 I will send hornets before you, driving out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite before your face.

29 I will not send them all out in one year, for fear that their land may become waste, and the beasts of the field be increased overmuch against you.

30 Little by little I will send them away before you, till your numbers are increased and you take up your heritage in the land.

31 I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send them out before you.

32 Make no agreement with them or with their gods.

33 Let them not go on living in your land, or they will make you do evil against me: for if you give worship to their gods, it will certainly be a cause of sin to you.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#9331

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9331. 'And I will send the hornet before you' means the dread felt by those who are steeped in falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'hornets' as falsities that are stinging and lethal and therefore cause feelings of dread. Terror is used in reference to those immersed in evils, and dread to those steeped in falsities; regarding the terror felt by the former, see above in 9327. The reason why the dread felt by those steeped in falsities is meant by 'hornets' is that these are winged creatures equipped with stings with which they can administer venomous pricks. For living creatures both great and small mean such things as compose human affections, that is, such as are connected with the will, or else they mean such things as compose human thoughts, that is, such as are connected with the understanding. For everything without exception in the human being has connection either with his will or with his understanding. Things that have no connection with one or the other do not exist in the human being, and so are not part of the human being. Creatures that walk and also ones that creep mean affections in both senses, and so mean forms of good or else evils since these belong to the affections, whereas flying creatures, including insects with wings, mean such things as belong to thought in both senses, and so mean truths or else falsities since these belong to thoughts.

Living creatures mean forms of good or else evils, see 9280. Ones that creep mean forms of good or else evils on the external level of the senses, 746, 909, 994. Flying creatures mean truths or falsities, 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 911, 988, 3219, 5149, 7441. Consequently insects with wings mean the same things, but as they exist on the outermost levels of the human mind.

[2] But falsities, which are the subject now, are of many kinds. There are falsities which do no harm, there are falsities which do slight harm and those which do serious harm, and there are also those which are lethal. What kind they are is recognized from the evils they arise from. Every falsity that is harmful or that is lethal owes its existence to evil; for falsity arising from evil is evil revealing itself in an outward form. In the next life also, when such falsities are represented visually, they are seen as swarms of filthy insects and flying creatures, a terrifying sight that is determined by the type of evil from which the falsities derive. From all this it is evident why it is that the dread felt by those steeped in falsities arising from evil is meant by 'hornets'. Similarly in Deuteronomy,

Jehovah your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you have perished. Deuteronomy 7:20.

[3] Throughout the Word various types of insects are mentioned, and wherever they are mentioned they mean falsities or evils in the outermost levels of the human mind, or the external level of the senses. These evils and falsities have their origin in the illusions of the senses and in various bodily pleasures and appetites, which mislead by means of their allurements and by outward appearances, and cause reason to assent to and so become immersed in falsities arising from evil. This type of falsities is meant by 'the noxious flying insects' of Egypt, see 7441, and likewise by 'the locusts' there, 7643. By 'the frogs' of Egypt reasonings arising from falsities are meant, 7351, 7352, 7384; by 'the lice' there evils of the same kind are meant, 7419; and by 'worms' falsities that devour and torment, 8481.

[4] Such evils and falsities are also meant by the various types of insects referred to in the following places: In Isaiah,

It will happen on that day, that Jehovah will whistle for the fly that is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Asshur. They will come and all of them will rest in the river of desolations, and in the clefts of the rocks, and in all bushes. Isaiah 7:18-19.

This refers to the Lord's Coming, and to the state of the Church then. 'The fly in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt' is falsity on the outermost levels of the human mind, that is, on the external level of the senses, 7441. 'The bee in the land of Asshur' is falsity perverting reasonings in the mind; for 'Asshur' means reasoning, 1186. 'The river of desolations' is falsity reigning everywhere; 'the clefts of the rocks' are the truths of faith lying in obscurity, because they have been removed from the light of heaven, 8581 (end); and 'bushes' are similar but newly developing truths, 2682.

[5] In Amos,

I struck you with blight and mildew; your very many gardens, and your vineyards, and your fig trees, and your olive trees the caterpillar (eruca) devoured. Amos 4:9.

In Joel,

What the caterpillar (eruca) has left the locust will devour, and what the locust has left the beetle (melolontha) will devour, and what the beetle has left the bruchus 1 will devour. Awake, you drunkards; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine that has been cut off from your mouth. Joel 1:4-5.

In the same prophet,

The threshing-floors are full of clean grain; the presses overflow with new wine and oil. And I will recompense for you the years that the locust has consumed, the beetle (melolontha), and the bruchus, and the caterpillar (eruca), My great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:24-25.

Here falsities and evils on the outermost levels or the external level of the senses of a member of the Church are meant by these types of insects, as is evident from the specific details in these quotations; for they refer to the perversion of the Church's truth and good. What 'the locust' and what 'the bruchus' mean may be seen in 7643; and the fact that the Church's forms of good and its truths in general are meant by 'gardens', 'vineyards', 'fig trees', 'olive trees', 'wine', and 'new wine', which are destroyed by such creatures, has been shown often in explanations.

[6] In David,

He caused frogs to crawl forth onto their land, into the chambers of their kings. He spoke, that a swarm might come, lice in all their borders. Psalms 105:30-31.

This refers to Egypt. What is meant by 'frogs' there, see 7351, 7352, 7384; and what by 'lice', 7419. In Moses,

You will plant and dress vineyards, but not drink wine nor gather [the fruit]; for the worm will eat it. Deuteronomy 28:39.

'The worm' stands for all such falsity and evil in general.

[7] In Isaiah,

Do not fear the reproach of man (homo), and do not be dismayed by their slanders. For the moth will devour them as a garment, and the grub will devour them as wool. Isaiah 51:7-8.

'The moth' stands for falsities on the outermost levels of the human mind, and 'the grub' for evils there. For 'a garment' which the moth will devour means the lower or more external truths that belong to the sensory level of the human mind, 2576, 5248, 6377, 6918, 9158, 9212; and 'wool' which the grub will devour means the lower or more external forms of good that belong to the sensory level of the human mind, as is evident from many places in the Word, and also from the meaning of 'a sheep', from which wool is obtained, as the good of charity, 4169. What exactly are the outermost levels of the natural man, which are called those of the senses, and what they are like, see 4009, 5077, 5081, 5084, 5089, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5580, 5767, 5774, 6183, 6201, 6310-6318, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949, 7442, 7645, 7693, 9212, 9216.

脚注:

1. i.e. a (wingless) kind of locust, possibly the larva of a locust

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