DEUTERONOMY 16
Other translations - previous - next - notes - discussion - Deuteronomy - BM Home - Full Page

Deuteronomy Chapter 16

Verses 1-8. It is constantly to be borne in mind that all redemption is from the Lord's Divine Humanity (that is, the Lord Jesus Christ), which is signified by the Passover.
Verses 9-12. Thus truths will be implanted in affection, which is signified by the feast of weeks.
Verses 13-15. And the soul will be led to genuine good, which is the feast of tabernacles.
Verses 16, 17 In all these states the soul must endeavour to conform itself to the Divine Humanity (verses 18-20) with judgement and without bias (verses 21, 22), and without the admixture of anything from self-derived intelligence.

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover to the LORD your God: for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.

Remember the sanctity of the states proceeding from the Lord's Divine Humanity, and ever keep in view His glorification while on earth, and remember the necessity of following Him in the regeneration; for in the states proceeding from the Divine Humanity, the Divine Love and Wisdom brought you forth out of the natural unregenerate state when the soul was in a state of ignorance and falsity.

You shall therefore sacrifice the passover to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.

You shall therefore regard as most holy to the Lord, all the goodness and wisdom proceeding from the Lord's glorification and conjunction with mankind, and the redemption effected thereby; and to Him shall you ascribe all the spiritual and natural affections derived from that being in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead visibly displayed in human form, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ.

You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

You shall not mix or imbibe any false doctrine with these holy states; in them you shall receive pure good from heaven unmixed with evil, and regard it as most holy, even though it seem distasteful to the natural man; for deliverance from the unregenerate condition is thus rendered complete and thorough: and by this means the deliverance by the Lord from the unregenerate condition will be kept in view by the regenerate in all their alternating states.

And there shall be no leavened bread seen with you in all your coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which you sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.

And in these holy states derived from love to the Lord, none of the false doctrines which are in the memory will be attended to; neither shall the same good, from which you worshiped in the prior state of ignorance, remain in your state of deliverance from evil and clear perception of truth.
[Note.—For this would be to endeavour to acquire genuine good from the proprium, instead of receiving into the soul what is given by the Lord, day by day. See AC 9299, 8478-8483.]

You may not sacrifice the passover within any of your gates, which the LORD your God gives you:

You can not worship the Lord so as to receive pure innocence from Him from any of the external principles or truths with which the Lord has gifted the soul.

But at the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place his name in, there you shall sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came forth out of Egypt.

But in those states derived from the Divine Humanity alone, upon which the Divine Love and Wisdom have impressed the true characteristics of Divinity, from these you shall receive the genuine innocence of wisdom from the Lord at the close and commencement of each fresh regenerate state, when the soul perceives its own ignorance and obscurity (AE 401)—a state similar to that in which you were brought forth by the Lord out of the natural unregenerate condition.

And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God shall choose: and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents.

And the genuine good of innocence from the Lord will be adapted and communicated to the soul in the states which you shall receive, derived from the Love and Wisdom of the Lord's Divine Humanity. And in the new state of light and illustration to which the soul will be brought, its principles of action will be changed, and it will serve the Lord with more genuine worship derived from love to Him.

Six days you shall eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God: you shall do no work therein.

During the periods of temptations and combats with evil you shall be sustained with pure truth from the Word unmixed with falsity; and at the close of each regenerate state the combats shall cease by the reception in the soul of the Love and Wisdom proceeding from the Lord's Humanity, and you shall carry out the Lord's will without effort; and the mind shall be at peace.
[Note (verses 1-8).—For a detailed description of the meaning of the Passover see explanation of Exodus, chap. xii. in the AC 7824-8020. It is there shown that by the Passover, which is ever to be kept in mind, is signified the deliverance of the spiritual man from hell by the Lord. This was effected by His continual combats with hell when in the world, even to the final combat of the Cross, by which all was finished, and His Humanity became absolute Deity, apart from which it is not possible for the human mind to form any true conception of the attributes and character of the Divine Being. To receive the good desires and the knowledge of truth which flow from this Divine Being, it is necessary to believe that He is absolute God, to do the things which He said, and to conform the life as far as possible to His example, by following Him in His combats with evil even to the death of self; and it is the doctrine of the New Church that there is no other possible way of salvation. Verses 1-8 describe the necessity of ever bearing this in mind.]

Seven weeks shall you number to you: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as you beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.

The qualities derived from the conjunction of the Lord's Divine Humanity with the human race will then be impressed on all your future states; these qualities will be impressed upon you as soon as the truths sown in the heart begin to bear fruit by being united to good (which is signified by the Feast of Weeks).

And you shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give to the LORD your God, according as the LORD your God has blessed you:

And truths will be implanted in the soul in good derived from the Divine Love and Wisdom, by which you shall render service to the Lord with all your powers from a free principle of love according as you shall receive ability from the Divine Love and Wisdom.

And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite that is within your gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD your God has chosen to place his name there.

And the soul will be filled with joy from the Divine Love and Wisdom, both the interior will and the principles of action and affections thence derived, and the subservient faculties and affections of the mind, and the desires for genuine good from the Lord which you have in the natural mind will be recruited, and all those things in the mind which desire to be instructed and led right, the truths which desire to be governed by heavenly affections, and the affections which desire to be conjoined to true wisdom, and this joy shall flow from the union of the Lord's Divine Humanity with the soul.

And you shall remember that you were a bondman in Egypt: and you shall observe and do these statutes.

And you shall bear in mind how the soul suffered bondage from sin and falsity in the natural unregenerate condition; and you shall carefully observe and carry out the principles derived from following the footsteps of the Lord in the regeneration, by which alone you are delivered from that bondage.

You shall observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that you have gathered in your corn and your wine:

And you shall thus be brought to a state of love to the Lord (which is signified by the Feast of Tabernacles), and a life according to perception thence derived, when the soul has been well furnished by Him with right principles of truth and doctrine.

And you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within your gates.

And the soul will be filled with happiness from the influx of good from heaven, both the interior will and the truths and affections thence derived, and the subordinate principles which are serviceable to good and truth, and the holy desires which you have to rightly serve the Lord, and every principle in the mind which desires to be led to better things, and all things which are innocent but not yet under the direction of true wisdom, and the affections which are not yet united to genuine good from the Lord in the external mind.

Seven days shall you keep a solemn feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD your God shall bless you in all your increase, and in all the works of your hands, therefore you shall surely rejoice.

And you shall be brought to a state of peace, derived from the Love and Wisdom proceeding from the Lord's Humanity; and because the Lord your God will in that state bless you in all the developments of the soul, and in all its endeavours after higher things, therefore the whole soul shall be filled with joy.

Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

In all these states you shall seek to perceive the Lord with all your intellectual powers as revealed in the Divine Humanity; namely, in those in which the soul is sustained with pure truth from the Word, and in those in which truth begins to be conjoined with good, and in those in which good is the ruling principle in the mind; and when you shall perceive the Lord's will, you shall endeavour to carry it out in the life.

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.

Every principle and faculty of the mind (shall endeavour to serve the Lord), as far as they are able, according to the influx received from the Divine Love and Wisdom.

Judges and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, throughout your tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgement.

You shall watch with sound judgement and circumspection over all the entrances from the external man into the soul, in the circumstances through which you are led by the Divine Providence; and shall discriminate between what is true and false with unbiassed judgement.

You shall not wrest judgement; you shall not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

You shall not permit your judgement to be warped by worldly desires; you shall not permit what is fashionable or what is profitable to influence your judgement of what is right; for the consideration of worldly advantage in these matters blinds the understanding, and turns aside the dictates of conscience.

That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.

That which is altogether in accordance with your perception of right you shall follow, that your spiritual life may be recruited, and that you may receive from the Lord those heavenly states which can be only acquired by conforming the life to the Divine Love and Wisdom.

You shall not plant you a grove of any trees near to the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make you.

You shall not commingle anything of self-derived human wisdom and intelligence with the holy worship of Divine Love and Wisdom, which you shall receive and offer to the Lord.

Neither shall you set you up any image; which the LORD your God hates.

Neither shall you make religion to consist in any doctrinal creed, or external appearance of good, separate from the good derived from the Lord's Divine Humanity (AC 3727); for this altogether averts the soul from the Divine Goodness and Wisdom.

DEUTERONOMY 16 Other translations - previous - next - notes - discussion - Deuteronomy - BM Home - Full Page

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover to the LORD your God: for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.	Remember the sanctity of the states proceeding from the Lord's Divine Humanity, and ever keep in view His glorification while on earth, and remember the necessity of following Him in the regeneration; for in the states proceeding from the Divine Humanity, the Divine Love and Wisdom brought you forth out of the natural unregenerate state when the soul was in a state of ignorance and falsity.
You shall therefore sacrifice the passover to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.	You shall therefore regard as most holy to the Lord, all the goodness and wisdom proceeding from the Lord's glorification and conjunction with mankind, and the redemption effected thereby; and to Him shall you ascribe all the spiritual and natural affections derived from that being in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead visibly displayed in human form, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ.
You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.	You shall not mix or imbibe any false doctrine with these holy states; in them you shall receive pure good from heaven unmixed with evil, and regard it as most holy, even though it seem distasteful to the natural man; for deliverance from the unregenerate condition is thus rendered complete and thorough: and by this means the deliverance by the Lord from the unregenerate condition will be kept in view by the regenerate in all their alternating states.
And there shall be no leavened bread seen with you in all your coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which you sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.	And in these holy states derived from love to the Lord, none of the false doctrines which are in the memory will be attended to; neither shall the same good, from which you worshiped in the prior state of ignorance, remain in your state of deliverance from evil and clear perception of truth. [Note.—For this would be to endeavour to acquire genuine good from the proprium, instead of receiving into the soul what is given by the Lord, day by day. See AC 9299, 8478-8483.]
You may not sacrifice the passover within any of your gates, which the LORD your God gives you:	You can not worship the Lord so as to receive pure innocence from Him from any of the external principles or truths with which the Lord has gifted the soul.
But at the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place his name in, there you shall sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came forth out of Egypt.	But in those states derived from the Divine Humanity alone, upon which the Divine Love and Wisdom have impressed the true characteristics of Divinity, from these you shall receive the genuine innocence of wisdom from the Lord at the close and commencement of each fresh regenerate state, when the soul perceives its own ignorance and obscurity (AE 401)—a state similar to that in which you were brought forth by the Lord out of the natural unregenerate condition.
And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God shall choose: and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents.	And the genuine good of innocence from the Lord will be adapted and communicated to the soul in the states which you shall receive, derived from the Love and Wisdom of the Lord's Divine Humanity. And in the new state of light and illustration to which the soul will be brought, its principles of action will be changed, and it will serve the Lord with more genuine worship derived from love to Him.
Six days you shall eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God: you shall do no work therein.	During the periods of temptations and combats with evil you shall be sustained with pure truth from the Word unmixed with falsity; and at the close of each regenerate state the combats shall cease by the reception in the soul of the Love and Wisdom proceeding from the Lord's Humanity, and you shall carry out the Lord's will without effort; and the mind shall be at peace. [Note (verses 1-8).—For a detailed description of the meaning of the Passover see explanation of Exodus, chap. xii. in the AC 7824-8020. It is there shown that by the Passover, which is ever to be kept in mind, is signified the deliverance of the spiritual man from hell by the Lord. This was effected by His continual combats with hell when in the world, even to the final combat of the Cross, by which all was finished, and His Humanity became absolute Deity, apart from which it is not possible for the human mind to form any true conception of the attributes and character of the Divine Being. To receive the good desires and the knowledge of truth which flow from this Divine Being, it is necessary to believe that He is absolute God, to do the things which He said, and to conform the life as far as possible to His example, by following Him in His combats with evil even to the death of self; and it is the doctrine of the New Church that there is no other possible way of salvation. Verses 1-8 describe the necessity of ever bearing this in mind.]
Seven weeks shall you number to you: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as you beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.	The qualities derived from the conjunction of the Lord's Divine Humanity with the human race will then be impressed on all your future states; these qualities will be impressed upon you as soon as the truths sown in the heart begin to bear fruit by being united to good (which is signified by the Feast of Weeks).
And you shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give to the LORD your God, according as the LORD your God has blessed you:	And truths will be implanted in the soul in good derived from the Divine Love and Wisdom, by which you shall render service to the Lord with all your powers from a free principle of love according as you shall receive ability from the Divine Love and Wisdom.
And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite that is within your gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD your God has chosen to place his name there.	And the soul will be filled with joy from the Divine Love and Wisdom, both the interior will and the principles of action and affections thence derived, and the subservient faculties and affections of the mind, and the desires for genuine good from the Lord which you have in the natural mind will be recruited, and all those things in the mind which desire to be instructed and led right, the truths which desire to be governed by heavenly affections, and the affections which desire to be conjoined to true wisdom, and this joy shall flow from the union of the Lord's Divine Humanity with the soul.
And you shall remember that you were a bondman in Egypt: and you shall observe and do these statutes.	And you shall bear in mind how the soul suffered bondage from sin and falsity in the natural unregenerate condition; and you shall carefully observe and carry out the principles derived from following the footsteps of the Lord in the regeneration, by which alone you are delivered from that bondage.
You shall observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that you have gathered in your corn and your wine:	And you shall thus be brought to a state of love to the Lord (which is signified by the Feast of Tabernacles), and a life according to perception thence derived, when the soul has been well furnished by Him with right principles of truth and doctrine.
And you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within your gates.	And the soul will be filled with happiness from the influx of good from heaven, both the interior will and the truths and affections thence derived, and the subordinate principles which are serviceable to good and truth, and the holy desires which you have to rightly serve the Lord, and every principle in the mind which desires to be led to better things, and all things which are innocent but not yet under the direction of true wisdom, and the affections which are not yet united to genuine good from the Lord in the external mind.
Seven days shall you keep a solemn feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD your God shall bless you in all your increase, and in all the works of your hands, therefore you shall surely rejoice.	And you shall be brought to a state of peace, derived from the Love and Wisdom proceeding from the Lord's Humanity; and because the Lord your God will in that state bless you in all the developments of the soul, and in all its endeavours after higher things, therefore the whole soul shall be filled with joy.
Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:	In all these states you shall seek to perceive the Lord with all your intellectual powers as revealed in the Divine Humanity; namely, in those in which the soul is sustained with pure truth from the Word, and in those in which truth begins to be conjoined with good, and in those in which good is the ruling principle in the mind; and when you shall perceive the Lord's will, you shall endeavour to carry it out in the life.
Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.	Every principle and faculty of the mind (shall endeavour to serve the Lord), as far as they are able, according to the influx received from the Divine Love and Wisdom.
Judges and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, throughout your tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgement.	You shall watch with sound judgement and circumspection over all the entrances from the external man into the soul, in the circumstances through which you are led by the Divine Providence; and shall discriminate between what is true and false with unbiassed judgement.
You shall not wrest judgement; you shall not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.	You shall not permit your judgement to be warped by worldly desires; you shall not permit what is fashionable or what is profitable to influence your judgement of what is right; for the consideration of worldly advantage in these matters blinds the understanding, and turns aside the dictates of conscience.
That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.	That which is altogether in accordance with your perception of right you shall follow, that your spiritual life may be recruited, and that you may receive from the Lord those heavenly states which can be only acquired by conforming the life to the Divine Love and Wisdom.
You shall not plant you a grove of any trees near to the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make you.	You shall not commingle anything of self-derived human wisdom and intelligence with the holy worship of Divine Love and Wisdom, which you shall receive and offer to the Lord.
Neither shall you set you up any image; which the LORD your God hates.	Neither shall you make religion to consist in any doctrinal creed, or external appearance of good, separate from the good derived from the Lord's Divine Humanity (AC 3727); for this altogether averts the soul from the Divine Goodness and Wisdom.