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Exodus第19章

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1 In the third month after the departure of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they [into] the wilderness of Sinai:

2 they departed from Rephidim, and came [into] the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in the wilderness; and Israel encamped there before the mountain.

3 And Moses went up to God, and Jehovah called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:

4 Ye have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, and [how] I have borne you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

5 And now, if ye will hearken to my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then shall ye be my own possession out of all the peoples -- for all the earth is mine --

6 and ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak to the children of Israel.

7 And Moses came and called the elders of the people, and laid before the mall these words which Jehovah had commanded him.

8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that Jehovah has spoken will we do! And Moses brought the words of the people back to Jehovah.

9 And Jehovah said to Moses, Lo, I will come to thee in the cloud's thick darkness, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee also for ever. And Moses told the words of the people to Jehovah.

10 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to the people, and hallow them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes;

11 and let them be ready for the third day; for on the third day Jehovah will come down before the eyes of all the people on mount Sinai.

12 And set bounds round about the people, saying, Take heed to yourselves, [not] to go up unto the mountain nor touch the border of it: whatever toucheth the mountain shall certainly be put to death:

13 not a hand shall touch it, but it shall certainly be stoned, or shot through; whether it be a beast or a man, it shall not live. When the long drawn note of the trumpet soundeth, they shall come up to the mountain.

14 And Moses came down from the mountain to the people, and hallowed the people; and they washed their clothes.

15 And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day; do not come near [your] wives.

16 And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet exceeding loud; and the whole people that was in the camp trembled.

17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

18 And the whole of mount Sinai smoked, because Jehovah descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace; and the whole mountain shook greatly.

19 And the sound of the trumpet increased and became exceeding loud; Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.

20 And Jehovah came down on mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain; and Jehovah called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

21 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go down, testify to the people that they break not through to Jehovah to gaze, and many of them perish.

22 And the priests also, who come near to Jehovah, shall hallow themselves, lest Jehovah break forth on them.

23 And Moses said to Jehovah, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai; for thou hast testified to us, saying, Set bounds about the mountain, and hallow it.

24 And Jehovah said to him, Go, descend, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee; but the priests and the people shall not break through to go up to Jehovah, lest he break forth on them.

25 So Moses went down to the people, and told them.

   

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Arcana Coelestia#8788

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8788. 'And sanctify them today and tomorrow' means covering over their interiors in order that those people may appear now and subsequently in the holiness of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'sanctifying' as arranging them so that outwardly they may appear in holiness; and since this is accomplished by covering over their interiors, 'sanctifying' has this meaning also. The fact that 'today and tomorrow' means now and subsequently is self-evident. What all this implies will be stated briefly. The Church established among the Jews was not, as regards the Jews themselves, the Church, only a representative of the Church. For the Church to exist there must reside with those belonging to the Church faith in the Lord, and also love to Him, as well as love towards the neighbour. These virtues make the Church. But they did not reside with the people who were called Jacob; for they did not acknowledge the Lord, and so did not wish to hear about faith in Him, let alone about love to Him or indeed about love towards the neighbour. They were ruled by self-love and love of the world, the kinds of love that are the complete opposites of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. Such a disposition has been rooted in that people from their earliest forebears. This is why no Church could be established among that people; all they could do was represent things that constitute the Church. Mere representation of the Church comes about when people's worship centres on external things, but only on such things as correspond to heavenly ones. External things then serve to represent internal, and the internal things are made evident in heaven, to which those people are consequently joined. Therefore to make representation possible among the Israelite people, when interiorly they were devoid of the faith and love of heaven, indeed were full of self-love and love of the world, their interiors were covered over. Then their externals alone, without their internals, could be conveyed to spirits, and through these to angels. Consequently unless their internals had been covered over, internals too would have been made evident, in which case the representation would have been destroyed because foul [thoughts and affections] would have burst out and defiled it. Such a covering over was possible with that people more than with all the rest because they venerated external things more than others did; they thought that those things themselves were intrinsically holy, indeed Divine.

All this makes clear what one should understand by 'sanctifying', namely covering over their interiors in order that those people may appear in the holiness of faith, though not to themselves, only to the angels present with them. See what has been shown already about this people and the establishment of the Church among them, in 4208, 4281, 4288, 4289, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4317, 4429, 4433, 4444, 4459, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4899, 4911, 4912, 4500, 7048, 7051, 8588. The fact that sanctification among them amounted to no more than an appearance of holiness in externals, since they themselves had no holiness within them, becomes clear from the ceremonies by which they were sanctified, that is to say, by sacrifices, washings, sprinklings of blood, and anointings, which do not in any way whatever touch internal things.

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