Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/231

Rh, and after that diviners and magi. But because that Word was full of such correspondences as remotely signified celestial and spiritual things, and therefore began to be falsified by many, by the Divine providence of the Lord in process of time it disappeared and was finally lost, and another Word was given written by correspondences less remote, and this through the prophets among the children of Israel. In this Word however many names of places are retained which were in the land of Canaan and round about in Asia, which signify similar things as in the ancient Word. It was for this reason that Abraham was commanded to go into that land, and that his posterity from Jacob were led into it.

It is evident too from Moses that there was a Word among the ancients, by whom it is mentioned and some quotation is made from it (Numb. xxi. 14, 15, 27-30); and that the historical parts of that Word were called the The Wars of Jehovah, and the prophetical parts Enunciations. From the historical parts of that Word Moses has quoted this: "Wherefore it is said in The book of the Wars of Jehovah, what He did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, and at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab" (Numb, xxi. 14, 15). By the wars of Jehovah in that Word, as in ours, are meant and described the Lord's conflicts with the hells and His victories over them when He should come into the world. The same conflicts are also meant and described in many places in the historical parts of our Word, as in the wars of Joshua with the nations of the land of Canaan, and in the wars of the judges and of the kings of Israel. From the prophetical parts of that Word Moses has taken this passage:—"Wherefore say the Enunciators, Go unto Heshbon; let the city of Sihon be built and strengthened; for a fire is gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it hath consumed Ar of Moab, the possessors of the high places of Arnon. Woe unto thee, Moab! thou art undone, people of Chemosh! He hath given his sons that escaped and his daughters into captivity unto Sihon, king of the Amorites; we have slain them with darts. Heshhon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medebah" (Numb. xxi. 27-30). The translators render it, They that speak in Proverbs, but they should be called Enunciators, and their compositions Prophetical Enunciations; as it is evident from the signification of the word Moshalim in the Hebrew tongue that they were not merely Proverbs, but also Prophetical Enunciations; as in Numb, xxiii. 7, 18, xxiv. 3, 15, where it is said that Balaam uttered his Enunciation, which was also a prophecy concerning the Lord. His enunciation is called Moshal, in the singular number. It may be added that the