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Exodus第9章

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1 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Go in unto Pharaoh, and thou hast spoken unto him, Thus said Jehovah, God of the Hebrews, Send My people away, and they serve me,

2 for, if thou art refusing to send away, and art still keeping hold upon them,

3 lo, the hand of Jehovah is on thy cattle which [are] in the field, on horses, on asses, on camels, on herd, and on flock -- a pestilence very grievous.

4 `And Jehovah hath separated between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt, and there doth not die a thing of all the sons of Israel's;

5 and Jehovah setteth an appointed time, saying, To-morrow doth Jehovah do this thing in the land.'

6 And Jehovah doth this thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt die, and of the cattle of the sons of Israel not one hath died;

7 and Pharaoh sendeth, and lo, not even one of the cattle of Israel hath died, and the heart of Pharaoh is hard, and he hath not sent the people away.

8 And Jehovah saith unto Moses and unto Aaron, `Take to you the fulness of your hands [of] soot of a furnace, and Moses hath sprinkled it towards the heavens, before the eyes of Pharaoh,

9 and it hath become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and it hath become on man and on cattle a boil breaking forth [with] blains, in all the land of Egypt.'

10 And they take the soot of the furnace, and stand before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkleth it towards the heavens, and it is a boil [with] blains, breaking forth, on man and on beast;

11 and the scribes have not been able to stand before Moses, because of the boil, for the boil hath been on the scribes, and on all the Egyptians.

12 And Jehovah strengtheneth the heart of Pharaoh, and he hath not hearkened unto them, as Jehovah hath spoken unto Moses.

13 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Rise early in the morning, and station thyself before Pharaoh, and thou hast said unto him, Thus said Jehovah, God of the Hebrews, Send My people away, and they serve Me,

14 for, at this time I am sending all My plagues unto thy heart, and on thy servants, and on thy people, so that thou knowest that there is none like Me in all the earth,

15 for now I have put forth My hand, and I smite thee, and thy people, with pestilence, and thou art hidden from the earth.

16 `And yet for this I have caused thee to stand, so as to show thee My power, and for the sake of declaring My Name in all the earth;

17 still thou art exalting thyself against My people -- so as not to send them away;

18 lo, I am raining about [this] time to-morrow hail very grievous, such as hath not been in Egypt, even from the day of its being founded, even until now.

19 `And, now, send, strengthen thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field; every man and beast which is found in the field, and is not gathered into the house -- come down on them hath the hail, and they have died.'

20 He who is fearing the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh hath caused his servants and his cattle to flee unto the houses;

21 and he who hath not set his heart unto the word of Jehovah leaveth his servants and his cattle in the field.

22 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Stretch forth thy hand towards the heavens, and there is hail in all the land of Egypt, on man, and on beast, and on every herb of the field in the land of Egypt.'

23 And Moses stretcheth out his rod towards the heavens, and Jehovah hath given voices and hail, and fire goeth towards the earth, and Jehovah raineth hail on the land of Egypt,

24 and there is hail, and fire catching itself in the midst of the hail, very grievous, such as hath not been in all the land of Egypt since it hath become a nation.

25 And the hail smiteth in all the land of Egypt all that [is] in the field, from man even unto beast, and every herb of the field hath the hail smitten, and every tree of the field it hath broken;

26 only in the land of Goshen, where the sons of Israel [are], there hath been no hail.

27 And Pharaoh sendeth, and calleth for Moses and for Aaron, and saith unto them, `I have sinned this time, Jehovah [is] the Righteous, and I and my people [are] the Wicked,

28 make ye supplication unto Jehovah, and plead that there be no voices of God and hail, and I send you away, and ye add not to remain.'

29 And Moses saith unto him, `At my going out of the city, I spread my palms unto Jehovah -- the voices cease, and the hail is not any more, so that thou knowest that the earth [is] Jehovah's;

30 but thou and thy servants -- I have known that ye are not yet afraid of the face of Jehovah God.'

31 And the flax and the barley have been smitten, for the barley [is] budding, and the flax forming flowers,

32 and the wheat and the rye have not been smitten, for they are late.

33 And Moses goeth out from Pharaoh, [from] the city, and spreadeth his hands unto Jehovah, and the voices and the hail cease, and rain hath not been poured out to the earth;

34 and Pharaoh seeth that the rain hath ceased, and the hail and the voices, and he continueth to sin, and hardeneth his heart, he and his servants;

35 and the heart of Pharaoh is strong, and he hath not sent the sons of Israel away, as Jehovah hath spoken by the hand of Moses.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#1343

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1343. That 'Eber' was a nation, the Hebrew nation, which took its name from 'Eber' as its forefather, and which means the worship in general of the second Ancient Church, is clear from the references to him in the historical sections of the Word. Because a new form of worship began with that nation, all those were called Hebrews whose worship was similar to it. Their worship was like that re-established at a later time among the descendants of Jacob, its chief features being that they called their God Jehovah and held sacrifices. The Most Ancient Church was of one mind in acknowledging the Lord and calling Him Jehovah, as is clear also from the early chapters of Genesis and elsewhere in the Word. The Ancient Church, that is, the Church after the Flood also acknowledged the Lord and called Him Jehovah, especially those who possessed internal worship and were called 'the sons of Shem'. The remainder whose worship was external also acknowledged Jehovah and worshipped Him. But when internal worship became external, and still more when it became idolatrous, and when each nation started to have its own god to worship, the Hebrew nation retained the name of Jehovah and called their own God Jehovah. In this they were different from all other nations.

[2] Along with external worship, Jacob's descendants in Egypt, including Moses himself, lost knowledge even of this fact, that their God was called Jehovah. Consequently they had first of all to be taught that Jehovah was the God of the Hebrews, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as becomes clear from the following in Moses,

Jehovah said to Moses, You and the elders of Israel shall go in to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, Jehovah the God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now let us go, pray, a three days' journey into the wilderness, and let us sacrifice to Jehovah our God. Exodus 3:18.

In the same author,

Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah that I should hearken to His voice to send Israel away? I do not know Jehovah, and moreover I will not send Israel away. And they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us; let us go, pray, a three days' journey into the wilderness, and let us sacrifice to Jehovah our God. Exodus 5:2-3.

[3] The fact that Jacob's descendants lost in Egypt, along with the worship, even the name of Jehovah becomes clear from the following in Moses,

Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is His name? What shall I tell them? And God said to Moses, I Am Who I Am. And He said, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, I Am has sent me to you. And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, Jehovah the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you; this is My name for ever. Exodus 3:13-15.

[4] From this it is evident that even Moses did not know it and that they were distinguished from everyone else by the name of Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews. Hence also Jehovah is elsewhere called the God of the Hebrews,

You shall say to Pharaoh, Jehovah the God of the Hebrews has sent me to you. Exodus 7:16.

Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews. Exodus 9:1, 13.

Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews Exodus 10:3.

In Jonah,

I am a Hebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven. Jonah 1:9.

And also in Samuel,

The Philistines heard the noise of the shouting and said, What does the noise of this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean? And they learned that the Ark of Jehovah had come to the camp. The Philistines said, Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. Acquit yourselves like men, O Philistines, lest you be slaves to the Hebrews. 1 Samuel 4:6, 8-9.

Here also it is evident that nations were distinguished from one another by the gods whose names they called on, and that the Hebrew nation was distinguished by that of Jehovah.

[5] The fact that sacrifices were the second essential feature of the worship of the Hebrew nation is also evident from the words from Exodus 3:18; 5:2-3, quoted above, as well as from the fact that the Egyptians abhorred the Hebrew nation on account of this form of worship, as is clear from the following in Moses,

Moses said, It is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing to Jehovah our God what is abhorrent to the Egyptians; behold, we would be sacrificing what is abhorrent to the Egyptians in their eyes; will they not stone us? Exodus 8:26.

Consequently the Egyptians also abhorred the Hebrew nation so much that they refused even 'to eat bread' with them, Genesis 43:32. From this it is also evident that not merely the descendants of Jacob constituted the Hebrew nation but everybody who possessed that kind of worship. This also was why in Joseph's day the land of Canaan was called the land of the Hebrews,

Joseph said. By theft I have been taken away out of the land of the Hebrews. Genesis 40:15.

[6] The fact that sacrifices took place among the idolaters in the land of Canaan becomes clear from many references, for they used to sacrifice to their gods - to the baals and to others What is more, Balaam, who came from Syria where Eber had lived, that is, where the Hebrew nation had originated, before Jacob's descendants entered the land of Canaan, not only offered sacrifices but also called his God Jehovah. As to the fact that Balaam came from Syria where the Hebrew nation had originated, see Numbers 23:7; that he offered sacrifices, Numbers 22:39-40; 23:1-3, 14, 29; that he called his God Jehovah, Numbers 22:18, and elsewhere in those chapters. And Genesis 8:20 speaks of Noah offering burnt offerings to Jehovah - though this is not true history but made-up history - for 'burnt offerings' means the holiness of worship, as may be seen in that story. These considerations now show what 'Eber' or 'the Hebrew nation' means.

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