Arcana Coelestia#4236
4236. 'And Jacob said [when he saw them], This is God's camp' means heaven. 'God's camp' means heaven, for the reason that 'an army' means truths and goods, 3448, and goods and truths are arranged by the Lord in conformity with heavenly order. Hence the arrangement of them like armies when arrayed is meant by 'an encampment', and the heavenly order itself, which is heaven, by 'a camp'. This camp or order is such that it cannot in any way be broken apart by hell, despite the constant effort from hell to break it apart. This also is why this order, which is heaven, is referred to as 'a camp', and why truths and goods, that is, angels, who are arranged in conformity with that order are called 'armies'. From all this it is now evident how 'God's camp' comes to mean heaven. It is that actual order, and so heaven itself, which was represented by the encampments of the children of Israel in the wilderness; and their actual dwelling together there according to their tribes was referred to as 'the camp'. The Tabernacle pitched in the middle and around which they encamped represented the Lord Himself. Regarding the children of Israel's encampment in this manner, see Numbers 1:1-end, and 33:2-56; and regarding their encampment around the Tabernacle according to their tribes - Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun to the east; Reuben, Simeon, and Gad to the south; Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin to the west; Dan, Asher, and Naphtali to the north; and the Levites in the middle next to the Tabernacle - Numbers 2:2 and following verses.
[2] The tribes' means all goods and truths in their entirety, see 3858, 3862, 3926, 3939, 4060. Consequently when Balaam saw Israel dwelling according to tribes and the Spirit of God came upon him, he delivered the utterance,
How good your tabernacles are, O Jacob; your dwelling-places, O Israel! They are like valleys that are planted, like gardens beside a river. Numbers 24:2-3, 5-6.
It is quite plain that this prophecy did not mean the people named Jacob and Israel but that it was the Lord's heaven which was represented. This also is why in other places in the Word their ordered settlements in the wilderness, or encampments according to tribes, are called camps, and in those places 'a camp' in the internal sense means heavenly order and 'encampment' an arrangement in conformity with that order, that is to say, with the order in which goods and truths exist in heaven - as in Leviticus 4:12; 8:17; 13:46; 14:8; 16:26, 28; 24:14, 23; Numbers 3; 4:4 and following verses; 5:2-4; Numbers 9:17-end; 10:1-10, 28; 11:31-32; 12:14-15; 31:19-24; Deuteronomy 23:9-14.
[3] The meaning of 'God's camp' as heaven may also be seen in Joel,
The earth quaked before Him, the heavens trembled. The sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars gathered back their shining; and Jehovah gave voice before His army, for His camp is exceedingly many; for that which executes His word is uncountable. Joel 2:10-11.
In Zechariah,
I will encamp by My house with an army set against anyone passing through and against anyone leaving, so that the oppressor passes over them no more. Zechariah 9:8.
In John,
Gog and Magog went up over the breadth 1 of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city; but fire came down 2 from God and consumed them. Revelation 20:9.
'Gog and Magog' stands for people whose worship is external separated from internal - worship that has become idolatrous, 1151. 'The breadth of the earth' stands for truth possessed by the Church - 'breadth', or a plain, meaning truth that constitutes doctrinal teaching, 2450, and 'earth' the Church, 556, 662, 1066, 1067, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355. 'The camp of the saints' stands for heaven or the Lord's kingdom on earth, which is the Church.
[4] Since most things in the Word also have a contrary sense, so too does the word 'camp'. In this case it means evils and falsities, and consequently hell, as in David,
Though the evil pitch camp against me, my heart will not fear. Psalms 27:3.
In the same author,
God has scattered the bones of those encamping against you; 3 you have put them to shame, for God has rejected them. Psalms 53:5.
The camp of Asshur in which the angel of Jehovah smote a hundred and eighty-five thousand, Isaiah 37:36, does not have any other meaning, nor likewise does the camp of the Egyptians, Exodus 14:19-20.
脚注:
1. literally, the plain
2. The Latin means went up, but the Greek means came down, which Swedenborg has in another place where he quotes this verse.
3. The Latin means me, but the Hebrew means you.
Numbers第9章
1
Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
2
"Moreover let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season.
3
On the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season--according to all its statutes, and according to all its ordinances, you shall keep it."
4
Moses spoke to the children of Israel, that they should keep the Passover.
5
They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.
6
There were certain men, who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.
7
Those men said to him, "We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season among the children of Israel?"
8
Moses answered them, "Wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you."
9
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
10
"Say to the children of Israel, 'If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh.
11
In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
12
They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.
13
But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn't offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
14
"'If a foreigner lives among you, and desires to keep the Passover to Yahweh; according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its ordinance, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner, and for him who is born in the land.'"
15
On the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the Tent of the Testimony: and at evening it was over the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until morning.
16
So it was continually. The cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night.
17
Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Israel traveled; and in the place where the cloud remained, there the children of Israel encamped.
18
At the commandment of Yahweh, the children of Israel traveled, and at the commandment of Yahweh they encamped. As long as the cloud remained on the tabernacle they remained encamped.
19
When the cloud stayed on the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept Yahweh's command, and didn't travel.
20
Sometimes the cloud was a few days on the tabernacle; then according to the commandment of Yahweh they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of Yahweh they traveled.
21
Sometimes the cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they traveled: or by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they traveled.
22
Whether it was two days, or a month, or a year that the cloud stayed on the tabernacle, remaining on it, the children of Israel remained encamped, and didn't travel; but when it was taken up, they traveled.
23
At the commandment of Yahweh they encamped, and at the commandment of Yahweh they traveled. They kept Yahweh's command, at the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.
