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Exodus第30章

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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.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#9475

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9475. 'And for the incense of spices' means for delightful perception. This is clear from the meaning of 'incense' as the things of worship that are perceived with delight, such as acts of thanksgiving, adoration, prayer, and the like; and from the meaning of 'spices' as truths of faith which are delightful because they originate in good. For sweet odours, such as spicy ones, mean that which is delightful; and whatever is delightful is such by virtue of the good made known through truths. So it is that 'the incense of spices' means the delightful perception that belongs to truth originating in good. The spices which went into the making of that incense are listed, and the preparation of it is described in the following words,

Take for yourself spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum - [these] spices, and pure frankincense. You shall make them an incense, salted, pure, holy. You shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tent of meeting. Most holy 1 shall it be to you. The incense shall be to you holy for Jehovah. Exodus 30:34-38.

The altar of incense, along with the incense itself, is described as follows,

You shall make an altar for burning incense. You shall overlay it with pure gold. You shall put it before the veil that is over the ark of the Testimony before the mercy-seat, that Aaron may burn on it spicy incense every morning; when he trims the lamps he shall burn it, and between the evenings. Exodus 30:1-10; 37:25-end; 40:26-27.

And elsewhere,

When Aaron comes into the Holy Place he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire 2 from upon the altar, with his hands full of spicy incense beaten fine. 3 Then he shall bring it inside the veil, in order that he may put the incense onto the fire before Jehovah, and the cloud of incense may cover the mercy-seat which is over the Testimony. Leviticus 16:12-13.

[2] Since 'incense' meant acts of worship such as had their origin in good made known through truths, as do all expressions of faith that have their origin in the good of love, the fire was taken from the altar; for the fire on the altar meant the good of God's love, 934, 4906, 5071 (end), 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324, 7852. On this account when fire had been taken from any other source they were struck down by a plague and died, Leviticus 10:1-2ff; Numbers 16:45-48; for fire from any other source, or 'foreign fire', meant love that was not God's.

[3] The fact that expressions of faith having their origin in the good of love and charity, for example thanksgivings, acts of adoration, and prayers, are meant by 'incense' is clear in David,

My prayers are acceptable, [as] incense before You. Psalms 141:2.

In John,

The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Revelation 5:8.

In the same book,

An angel holding a golden censer ... And much incense was given to him, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. The smoke of the incense went up from the prayers of the saints. Revelation 8:3-4.

[4] The reason why such expressions of faith are meant by 'incense' is that they are matters of thought and consequently of the lips. But matters of affection and consequently of the heart are meant by 'the minchah' in Malachi 1:11, where it says that from the rising of the sun even to its setting Jehovah's name will be great among the nations, and 'in every place incense has been offered to My name, and a pure minchah'; and the same things are meant by 'the burnt offering' in Moses,

The sons of Levi will teach Jacob Your judgements and Israel Your law. They will put incense in Your nose, and burnt offering on Your altar. Deuteronomy 33:10.

'Incense' in these places stands for such things as are matters of thought and the lips and have regard to the truths of faith; 'minchah' and 'burnt offering' stand for such things as are matters of affection and the heart and have regard to forms of the good of love. All this being so, in the contrary sense worship arising from falsities of faith is meant by burning incense to other gods, Jeremiah 1:16; 44:3, 5; burning incense to idols, Ezekiel 8:11; 16:18; and burning incense to the baalim, Hosea 2:13.

脚注:

1. literally, The holy thing of holy things

2. literally, the fullness of a censer, burning coals of fire

3. literally, the fullness of his fists, spicy incense [beaten] fine

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