Arcana Coelestia (Elliott): AC 10175

10175. Those therefore who take delight in adulterous relationships can no longer receive any goodness or truth from heaven. This explains why those who take delight in adulterous relationships subsequently treat with contempt and also in their hearts reject things of the Church and of heaven. The reason why this should be so is that the love in adultery springs from a marriage of evil and falsity, which is the hellish marriage.

EXODUS 30

And you shall make an altar for burning incense; with pieces of shittim wood you shall make it.

A cubit shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth; square shall it be. And two cubits shall its height be. Its horns shall be of one piece with it ^a.

And you shall overlay it with pure gold, its roof and its walls ^b round about and its horns; and you shall make for it a rim of gold round about.

And two rings of gold you shall make for it under its rim on its two ribs; you shall make [them] on its two sides. And they shall serve as ^c receptacles for the poles, to carry it on them.

And you shall make the poles from pieces of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.

And you shall put it before the veil that is over the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy-seat which is above the Testimony, where I will meet with you.

And Aaron shall burn on it incense of spices morning by morning ^d; when adorning ^e the lamps he shall burn it.

And when Aaron causes the lamps to go up ^f between the evenings he shall burn it; incense shall be continual before Jehovah throughout ^g your generations.

You shall not cause strange ^h incense to go up on it, or a burnt offering, or a minchah; and you shall not pour a drink offering on it.

And Aaron shall make expiation on its horns once a year with the blood of the sin [offering] of expiations; once a year he shall make expiation on it throughout ^g your generations. It is the holy of holies ⁱ to Jehovah.

And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

When you take the sum of the children of Israel, as they have been numbered ^j, they shall give - each one - an expiation for his soul to Jehovah when they are numbered ^k, that there may be no plague among them when they are numbered ^j.

This is what they shall give, everyone passing over to those who have been numbered - half a shekel according to the shekel of holiness (a shekel is twenty obols ^l). Half a shekel shall be the offering to Jehovah.

Everyone passing over to those who have been numbered, from a son of twenty years ^m and over, shall give the offering of Jehovah.

The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when they give the offering of Jehovah, to make expiation for your souls.

And you shall take the silver of expiations from the children of Israel, and give it to the work of the tent of meeting; and to the children of Israel it shall be as a remembrance before Jehovah, to make expiation for your souls.

And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

And you shall make a laver of bronze, and its pedestal from bronze, for washing; and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it.

And Aaron and his sons shall wash in it ⁿ their hands and their feet.

When they go into the tent of meeting they shall wash with water, that they may not die, or when they approach the altar to minister, to burn a fire offering to Jehovah.

And they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they may not die; and it shall be the statute of an age ^o to them - for him and his seed [throughout] their generations.

And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

And you, take for yourself the chief spices - the best myrrh, five hundred [shekels]; and sweet-smelling cinnamon, half of that, two hundred and fifty; and sweet-smelling calamus, two hundred and fifty;

And cassia, five hundred, according to the shekel of holiness; and olive oil, a hin.

And you shall make it a holy anointing oil ^p, a compounded ointment ^q, the work of an ointment-maker; it shall be the holy anointing oil ^p.

And with it you shall anoint the tent of meeting, and the ark of the Testimony,

And the table and all its vessels, and the lampstand and its vessels, and the altar of incense,

And the altar of burnt offering and all its vessels, and the laver and its pedestal.

And you shall sanctify them, and they shall be the holy of holies ^q; everyone touching them will be sanctified.

And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them to serve Me in the priestly office.

And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil ^s to Me throughout ^t your generations.

It shall not be poured onto the flesh of a person, and as to the composition of it, you shall not make any other like it ^t. It is holy; it shall be holy to you.

The man who makes an ointment like it, and he who puts any of it on a foreigner, shall be cut off from his people.

And Jehovah said to Moses, Take for yourself sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum - [these] sweet ones, and pure frankincense; amount for amount there shall be ^v.

And you shall make this an incense, an ointment, the work of an ointment-maker - salted, pure, holy.

And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. The holy of holies ^w it shall be to you.

And the incense which you make, according to its composition ^x, you shall not make for yourselves; it shall be to you holy for Jehovah.

The man who makes any like it, to make an odour with it, will be cut off from his people.

Notes

^a lit. shall be from (or out of) it
^b i.e. its top and its sides
^c lit. And it shall be for
^d lit. in the morning in the morning
^e i.e. lighting
^f i.e. burn
^g lit. into
^h i.e. unauthorized
ⁱ i.e. it is most holy
^j lit. as to the numbered of them
^k lit. in numbering them
^l An obol was a Greek coin, worth a sixth of a drachma. The Hebrew word is gerah; see 10221.
^m A Hebrew idiom for a man twenty years old
ⁿ lit. from it i.e. the laver
^o i.e. a perpetual statute
^p lit. the oil of anointing of holiness
^q lit. ointment of ointment
^r i.e. they shall be most holy
^s lit. the oil of anointing of holiness
^t lit. into
^u lit. and in its quality you shall not make other like it
^v i.e. there shall be equal amounts of each, see 10297.
^w i.e. most holy
^x lit. which you make in its quality

CONTENTS

10175a This chapter deals with the altar of incense, the expiation of everyone by means of silver, the laver and washing [with water] from it, and the preparation of the anointing oil and of the incense. The burning of incense in the internal sense means the Lord, His hearing and receiving with pleasure everything of worship that springs from love and charity. Expiating every person by means of silver means ascribing everything of worship to the Lord and none of it to self, in order that no one may claim merit. The laver and washing mean the purification from evils that comes first in all worship. The preparation of the anointing oil means the essential nature of the love in worship, and the preparation of the incense the essential nature of worship arising from it.

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