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Exodus第12章

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1 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses and unto Aaron, in the land of Egypt, saying,

2 `This month [is] to you the chief of months -- it [is] the first to you of the months of the year;

3 speak ye unto all the company of Israel, saying, In the tenth of this month -- they take to them each man a lamb for the house of the fathers, a lamb for a house.

4 `(And if the household be too few for a lamb, then hath he taken, he and his neighbour who is near unto his house, for the number of persons, each according to his eating ye do count for the lamb,)

5 a lamb, a perfect one, a male, a son of a year, let be to you; from the sheep or from the goats ye do take [it].

6 `And it hath become a charge to you, until the fourteenth day of this month, and the whole assembly of the company of Israel have slaughtered it between the evenings;

7 and they have taken of the blood, and have put on the two side-posts, and on the lintel over the houses in which they eat it.

8 `And they have eaten the flesh in this night, roast with fire; with unleavened things and bitters they do eat it;

9 ye do not eat of it raw, or boiled at all in water, but roast with fire, its head with its legs, and with its inwards;

10 and ye do not leave of it till morning, and that which is remaining of it till morning with fire ye do burn.

11 `And thus ye do eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye have eaten it in haste; it is Jehovah's passover,

12 and I have passed over through the land of Egypt during this night, and have smitten every first-born in the land of Egypt, from man even unto beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I do judgments; I [am] Jehovah.

13 `And the blood hath become a sign for you on the houses where ye [are], and I have seen the blood, and have passed over you, and a plague is not on you for destruction in My smiting in the land of Egypt.

14 `And this day hath become to you a memorial, and ye have kept it a feast to Jehovah to your generations; -- a statute age-during; ye keep it a feast.

15 Seven days ye eat unleavened things; only -- in the first day ye cause leaven to cease out of your houses; for any one eating anything fermented from the first day till the seventh day, even that person hath been cut off from Israel.

16 `And in the first day [is] a holy convocation, and in the seventh day ye have a holy convocation; any work is not done in them, only that which is eaten by any person -- it alone is done by you,

17 and ye have observed the unleavened things, for in this self-same day I have brought out your hosts from the land of Egypt, and ye have observed this day to your generations -- a statute age-during.

18 `In the first [month], in the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, ye do eat unleavened things until the one and twentieth day of the month, at evening;

19 seven days leaven is not found in your houses, for any [one] eating anything fermented -- that person hath been cut off from the company of Israel, among the sojourners or among the natives of the land;

20 anything fermented ye do not eat, in all your dwellings ye do eat unleavened things.'

21 And Moses calleth for all the elders of Israel, and saith unto them, `Draw out and take for yourselves [from] the flock, for your families, and slaughter the passover-sacrifice;

22 and ye have taken a bunch of hyssop, and have dipped [it] in the blood which [is] in the basin, and have struck [it] on the lintel, and on the two side-posts, from the blood which [is] in the basin, and ye, ye go not out each from the opening of his house till morning.

23 `And Jehovah hath passed on to smite the Egyptians, and hath seen the blood on the lintel, and on the two side-posts, and Jehovah hath passed over the opening, and doth not permit the destruction to come into your houses to smite.

24 `And ye have observed this thing, for a statute to thee, and to thy sons -- unto the age;

25 and it hath been, when ye come in unto the land which Jehovah giveth to you, as He hath spoken, that ye have kept this service;

26 and it hath come to pass when your sons say unto you, What [is] this service ye have?

27 that ye have said, A sacrifice of passover it [is] to Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt, in His smiting the Egyptians, and our houses He delivered.'

28 And the people bow and do obeisance, and the sons of Israel go and do as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron; so have they done.

29 And it cometh to pass, at midnight, that Jehovah hath smitten every first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who is sitting on his throne, unto the first-born of the captive who [is] in the prison-house, and every first-born of beasts.

30 And Pharaoh riseth by night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there is a great cry in Egypt, for there is not a house where there is not [one] dead,

31 and he calleth for Moses and for Aaron by night, and saith, `Rise, go out from the midst of my people, both ye and the sons of Israel, and go, serve Jehovah according to your word;

32 both your flock and your herd take ye, as ye have spoken, and go; then ye have blessed also me.'

33 And the Egyptians are urgent on the people, hasting to send them away out of the land, for they said, `We are all dead;'

34 and the people taketh up its dough before it is fermented, their kneading-troughs [are] bound up in their garments on their shoulder.

35 And the sons of Israel have done according to the word of Moses, and they ask from the Egyptians vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and garments;

36 and Jehovah hath given the grace of the people in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they cause them to ask, and they spoil the Egyptians.

37 And the sons of Israel journey from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, apart from infants;

38 and a great rabble also hath gone up with them, and flock and herd -- very much cattle.

39 And they bake with the dough which they have brought out from Egypt unleavened cakes, for it hath not fermented; for they have been cast out of Egypt, and have not been able to delay, and also provision they have not made for themselves.

40 And the dwelling of the sons of Israel which they have dwelt in Egypt [is] four hundred and thirty years;

41 and it cometh to pass, at the end of four hundred and thirty years -- yea, it cometh to pass in this self-same day -- all the hosts of Jehovah have gone out from the land of Egypt.

42 A night of watchings it [is] to Jehovah, to bring them out from the land of Egypt; it [is] this night to Jehovah of watchings to all the sons of Israel to their generations.

43 And Jehovah saith unto Moses and Aaron, `This [is] a statute of the passover; Any son of a stranger doth not eat of it;

44 and any man's servant, the purchase of money, when thou hast circumcised him -- then he doth eat of it;

45 a settler or hired servant doth not eat of it;

46 in one house it is eaten, thou dost not carry out of the house [any] of the flesh without, and a bone ye do not break of it;

47 all the company of Israel do keep it.

48 `And when a sojourner sojourneth with thee, and hath made a passover to Jehovah, every male of his [is] to be circumcised, and then he doth come near to keep it, and he hath been as a native of the land, but any uncircumcised one doth not eat of it;

49 one law is to a native, and to a sojourner who is sojourning in your midst.'

50 And all the sons of Israel do as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron; so have they done.

51 And it cometh to pass in this self-same day, Jehovah hath brought out the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, by their hosts.

   

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Arcana Coelestia#2959

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2959. 'The land [is worth] four hundred shekels of silver' means the price of redemption by means of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'four hundred shekels', dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2048, 2937. The reason 'four hundred shekels' means the price of redemption is that 'four hundred' means vastation and 'a shekel' price. What vastation is, see 2455 (end), 2682, 2694, 2699, 2702, 2704, where it is shown that there are two types of vastation. The first takes place when the Church altogether ceases to exist, that is, when there is no longer any charity or faith. At that point the Church is said to be vastated or laid waste. The second takes place when those who belong to the Church are reduced to a state of ignorance and also of temptation, for the reason that the evils and falsities residing with them are to be set apart and so to speak dissipated. Those who emerge from this vastation are those who are specifically called the redeemed, for at that point they are taught the goods and truths of faith, and are reformed and regenerated by the Lord, as shown in the paragraphs quoted. Now since the number four hundred, when used to specify a period of time - such as four hundred years - means the duration and also the state of vastation, so that same number, when used to specify the number of shekels, means the price of redemption; and when the word 'silver' is mentioned together with this number, the price of redemption by means of truth is meant.

[2] That 'four hundred years' means the duration and the state of vastation becomes clear also from what Abraham was told,

Jehovah said to Abraham, 1 Know for sure that your seed will be strangers in a land not theirs. And they will serve them, and these will afflict them for four hundred years. Genesis 15:13.

There it may be seen that 'four hundred years' is used to mean the duration of the stay of the children of Israel in Egypt. Yet it is not the duration of their stay in Egypt that is meant but something that is not evident to anyone except from the internal sense. This becomes clear from the fact that the duration of the stay of the children of Israel in Egypt was no more than half the stated period, as becomes quite clear from the descendants of Jacob down to Moses. For the facts are that Levi was descended from Jacob, Kohath from Levi, Amram from Kohath, and Aaron and Moses from Amram, Exodus 6:16-20; Levi and his son Kohath went down to Egypt together with Jacob, Genesis 46:11; and Moses came two generations later, and was eighty years old when he spoke to Pharaoh, Exodus 7:7. These facts show that the period of time from Jacob's entry into Egypt until his sons' departure from that land was approximately two hundred and fifteen years.

[3] That 'four hundred' is used in the Word to mean something other than its numerical value in the historical sense is clearer still from its being said that

The length of time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years, and at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it happened on that same day, that all the armies of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:40-41.

The duration of the stay of the children of Israel in that land was in fact only half that number of years; but it was from Abraham's entry into Egypt that the four hundred and thirty years were measured. Consequently what is said at this point in Exodus is for the sake of the internal sense Lying within those words. In the internal sense the sojourn of the sons of Jacob in Egypt represents and means the vastation of the Church, the state and duration of which are described by the number four hundred and thirty years. Thirty describes the state of vastation of the sons of Jacob as being no vastation at all, for they were such as could not be reformed through any state of vastation (for the meaning of the number thirty, see 2276); and 'four hundred years' represents the general state of vastation of those who belonged to the Church.

[4] Those therefore who come out of that vastation are referred to as the redeemed, as is also evident from the words addressed to Moses,

Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from beneath the burdens of Egypt, and I will rescue you from their slavery, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgements. Exodus 6:6.

And elsewhere,

Jehovah has brought you out by means of a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:8; 13:5.

And elsewhere,

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, but Jehovah your God redeemed you. Deuteronomy 15:15; 24:18.

In Samuel,

Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt. 2 Samuel 7:23.

Since those who emerge from the state of vastation are referred to as the redeemed, 'four hundred shekels' therefore means the price of redemption.

[5] As regards 'a shekel' meaning the price or valuation, this is clear from the following places in the Word: In Moses,

All your valuations shall be according to the shekel of holiness. Leviticus 27:25.

And elsewhere,

If a soul commits a trespass and has sinned inadvertently in the holy things of Jehovah, he shall bring his guilt offering to Jehovah, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to your valuation in silver shekels, according to the shekel of holiness. Leviticus 5:15.

From this it is evident that 'a shekel' means the price or valuation. It is called 'the shekel of holiness' because the price or valuation has regard to truth and good from the Lord - truth and good from the Lord being, within the Church, holiness itself. Consequently it is called 'the shekel of holiness' many times elsewhere, as in Exodus 30:24; Leviticus 27:3; Numbers 3:47, 50; 7:13, 19, 25, 31, 37, 43, 49, 55, 61, 67, 73; 18:16.

[6] That 'a shekel' is the price of what is holy is quite evident in Ezekiel when the holy land and the holy city are the subject. There the shekel is referred to as follows,

The shekel there shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh (pound). Ezekiel 45:12.

Anyone may see that here 'shekel', 'pound', and the numbers mentioned mean holy things, that is, good and truth, for the holy land and the holy city or new Jerusalem, which are the subject there, mean nothing else than the Lord's kingdom where neither shekel, nor gerahs, nor pound, nor the numbering of them occurs. But the number itself, from the meaning it has in the internal sense, determines the valuation or price of good and truth.

[7] In Moses it is said that every man (vir) should give a ransom for his soul, so that there would be no plague. He had to give half a shekel, according to the shekel of holiness, a shekel being twenty gerahs. Half a shekel was to be the thruma (offering) to Jehovah, Exodus 30:12-13. Here ten gerahs, which make half a shekel, are remnants which are received from the Lord. Remnants are goods and truths stored away with a person - such remnants, being meant by 'ten', see 576, 1738, 1906, 2284. That remnants are goods and truths from the Lord that are stored away with a person, see 1906, 2284. Consequently they are also called 'the thruma (or offering) to Jehovah', and it is said that by means of this a soul will be redeemed. The reason it is stated several times that a shekel was twenty gerahs, as in these verses from Exodus, and also in Leviticus 27:25; Numbers 3:47; 18:16; and elsewhere, is that the shekel of twenty gerahs means the valuation of the good preserved in remnants - twenty meaning the good preserved in remnants, see 2280. Also therefore a shekel was a weight according to which the price of both gold and silver was determined, Genesis 24:22; Exodus 38:24; Ezekiel 4:10; 45:12 - the price of gold because 'gold' means good, 113, 1551, 1552, and the price of silver because 'silver' means truth, 1551, 2048. From this it is now evident that 'the land [is worth] four hundred shekels of silver' means the price of redemption by means of truth. The reason it is called 'the land' is that the spiritual Church is the subject, which is reformed and regenerated by means of truth received from the Lord, 2954. That 'the land' means the Church, see 662, 1066, 1068, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end).

脚注:

1. In Genesis 15 the patriarch's name is still Abram.

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

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Arcana Coelestia#1551

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1551. That 'silver' means truths is clear from the meaning of 'silver' as truth. The most ancient people compared the goods and truths present in man to metals. Innermost or celestial goods which flow from love to the Lord they compared to gold, truths deriving from these to silver. Goods of a lower or natural kind however they compared to bronze, and truths of a lower kind to iron. Nor did they just compare them; they also called them such. This was the origin of periods of time being likened to those same metals and being called the golden, silver, bronze, and iron ages, for these followed in that order one after another. The golden age was the time of the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial man. The silver age was the time of the Ancient Church, which was spiritual man. The bronze age was the time of the Church that followed, and the iron age came after that. Similar things were also meant by the statue which Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream, whose head was of fine gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, and shins of iron, Daniel 2:32-33. That periods of the Church were to follow one another in that order, and actually did so, is clear in that very chapter of the same prophet.

[2] That 'silver' in the internal sense of the Word wherever it is mentioned means truth, or in the contrary sense falsity, is clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver, and instead of wood, bronze, and instead of stones, iron. And I will make peace your assessment, and righteousness your tax-collectors. Isaiah 60:17.

Here it is evident what each metal means. The subject is the Lord's Coming, His kingdom, and the celestial Church. 'Instead of bronze, gold' is celestial good in place of natural good; 'instead of iron, silver' is spiritual truth in place of natural truth; 'instead of wood, bronze' is natural good in place of bodily good; 'instead of stone, iron' is natural truth in place of truth acquired through the senses. In the same prophet,

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the water, and he who has no money, 1 come, buy and eat! Isaiah 55:1.

'He who has no money' 1 is the person who does not know the truth but who nevertheless possesses the good that stems from charity, as is the case with many people inside the Church, and with gentiles outside it.

[3] In the same prophet,

The islands will wait for Me, the ships of Tarshish at their head, to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of Jehovah your God, and to the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 60:9.

This refers specifically to a new Church, or a Church among gentiles, and in general to the Lord's kingdom. 'Ships from Tarshish' stands for cognitions, 'silver' for truths, and 'gold' for goods, which are those things they 'will bring to the name of Jehovah'. In Ezekiel,

For your adornment you took vessels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and you made for yourselves figures of the male. Ezekiel 16:17.

Here 'gold' stands for cognitions of celestial things, 'silver' of spiritual things. In the same prophet,

You were adorned with gold and silver, and your raiment was fine linen and silk, and embroidered cloth. Ezekiel 16:13.

This refers to Jerusalem, by which the Lord's Church is meant, whose adornment is being described in this manner. In the same prophet,

Behold, you who are wise, there is no secret they have hidden from you; by your wisdom and by your intelligence you have acquired riches for yourself, and you have acquired gold and silver in your treasuries. Ezekiel 28:3-4.

Here, in what is said in reference to Tyre, 'gold' is plainly identified with the riches of wisdom, and 'silver' with the riches of intelligence.

[4] In Joel,

You have taken My silver and My gold, and My good and desirable treasures you have carried into your temples. Joel 3:5.

This refers to Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia, which mean cognitions, and these are 'the silver and the gold they took into their temples'. In Haggai,

The elect of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory. Mine is the silver, and Mine is the gold. The glory of this latter house will be greater than that of the former. Haggai 2:7-9.

This refers to the Lord's Church to which 'gold and silver' have reference. In Malachi,

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi. Malachi 3:3.

This refers to the Coming of the Lord. In David,

The words of Jehovah are pure words, silver refined in an earthen crucible, poured seven times. Psalms 12:6.

'Silver purified seven times' stands for Divine truth. At the time of their exodus out of Egypt the children of Israel were commanded that every woman should ask of her neighbour, and of her who sojourned in her house, vessels of silver and vessels of gold and garments, and that they should put them on their sons and on their daughters, and so despoil the Egyptians, Exodus 3:22; 11:2-3; 12:35-36. Anyone may see from this that the children of Israel would never have been ordered to steal and despoil the Egyptians of those possessions in that way if these did not represent some arcana. But what those arcana are may become clear from the meaning of 'silver and gold, garments, and Egypt', and from the fact that what these possessions represented is similar to the words here 'rich in the silver and gold from Egypt', used in reference to Abram.

[5] Just as 'silver' means truth so in a contrary sense it means falsity, for people under the influence of falsity imagine falsity to be the truth, as is also clear in the Prophets. In Moses,

You shall not covet the silver and the gold of the nations, nor take it for yourself, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to Jehovah your God. You shall utterly detest it. Deuteronomy 7:25-26.

'The gold of the nations' stands for evils, and 'their silver' for falsities. In the same author,

You shall not make gods of silver to be with Me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. Exodus 20:23.

In the internal sense these words mean nothing other than falsities and evil desires, falsities being meant by 'gods of silver', and evil desires by 'gods of gold'. In Isaiah,

On that day everyone will spurn his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you - a sin. Isaiah 31:7.

'Idols of silver and idols of gold' stands for similar things that are false and evil 'Which your hands have made' stands for what is a product of the proprium. In Jeremiah,

They are foolish and stupid; that wood is a way of learning vanities! Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the smith and of the hands of the moulder. Their clothing is violet and purple These are all the work of the wise. Jeremiah 10:8-9.

Here 'silver' and 'gold' quite clearly stand for similar things that are false and evil.

脚注:

1. or silver

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