Arcana Coelestia (Elliott): AC 6712

6712. From all this one may now see what anyone belonging to the Church should make the origin of the neighbour reside in, and that the closer a person is to the Lord the more he is the neighbour. One may also see that because the Lord is present within the good of charity, a person is the neighbour according to the nature of the good and so of the charity in him.

EXODUS 2

And a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi .

And the woman conceived and bore a son; and she saw that he was good,^a and hid him three months.

And she could not hide him any longer; and she took for him a box made of rush, and coated it with bitumen and pitch, and put the child in it, and put [him] in the weed at the bank of the river.

And his sister stood at a distance, to know what would happen to him.

And the daughter of Pharaoh went down to wash at the river; and her maidservants were going along the side of the river. And she saw the box in the middle of the weed, and sent her servant-girl; and she took it.

And she opened it, and saw him, the child; and behold, the boy was crying. And she took pity on him, and said, This is one of the children of the Hebrews.

And his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call you a woman, a wet nurse, from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?

And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and called the child's mother.

And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take to yourself this child and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. And the woman took the child and nursed him.

And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he was a son to her. And she called his name Moses, and said, Because I drew him out of the water.

And it happened in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brothers, and saw their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, one of his brothers.

And he looked this way and that, and saw that there was no man; and he struck the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

And he went out the second day, and behold, two Hebrew men were quarrelling; and he said to the one in the wrong, Why are you striking your companion?

And he said, Who set you up as a man-prince and a judge over us? Do you intend ^b to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian? And Moses was afraid, and said, Surely the matter is known!

And Pharaoh heard of this matter and sought to kill Moses. And Moses fled from before Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he dwelt next to a well.

And the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

And the shepherds came and drove them away; and Moses rose up and helped them, and watered their flock.

And they came to Reuel their father, and he said, Why have you hastened to come today?

And they said, An Egyptian man delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds; and he even drew water for us, and watered the flock.

And he said to his daughters, And where is he? Why is it that you left the man? Call him, and let him eat bread.

And Moses was willing to dwell with the man; and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.

And she bore a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, I am a stranger in a foreign land.

And it happened in [the course of] these many days, that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of their hard service, and cried out; and their cry came up to God because of their hard service.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God saw the children of Israel, and God knew [them].

Notes

^a i.e. a beautiful child
^b lit. say

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