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English: Darby Version
1 And the wordthe word of JehovahJehovah came unto me, saying,
2 And thou, son of manson of man, wilt thou judgejudge, wilt thou judgejudge the bloodybloody citycity? Yea, cause her to knowknow all her abominations,
3 and saysay, Thus saithsaith the LordLord JehovahJehovah: A citycity that sheddeth bloodblood in her midstmidst, that her timetime may comecome, and maketh idolsidols against herself to defile herself.
4 Thou art become guilty by thy bloodblood which thou hast shed, and hast defiled thyself with thine idolsidols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy daysdays to drawdraw nearnear, and art comecome unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproachreproach unto the nationsnations, and a mocking unto all countries.
5 Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall mockmock thee, who art infamous [and] fullfull of tumult.
6 Behold, the princes of IsraelIsrael have been in thee to shed bloodblood, each according to his power.
7 In thee have they made light of father and motherfather and mother; in the midstmidst of thee have they dealt by oppressionoppression with the strangerstranger; in thee have they vexed the fatherlessfatherless and the widow.
8 Thou hast despiseddespised my holyholy things, and hast profaned my sabbathssabbaths.
9 In thee there have been slanderous men to shed bloodblood; and in thee have they eateneaten upon the mountainsmountains; in the midstmidst of thee they have committed lewdness;
10 in thee have they discovered their fathersfathers' nakednessnakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was uncleanunclean in her separationseparation.
11 And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour'sneighbour's wifewife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-lawdaughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sistersister, his fatherfather's daughter.
12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed bloodblood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast overreached thy neighbours by oppressionoppression, and hast forgottenforgotten me, saithsaith the LordLord JehovahJehovah.
13 And behold, I have smittensmitten mine hand at thine overreaching which thou hast done, and at thy bloodshed which hath been in the midstmidst of thee.
14 Shall thy heartheart endure, shall thy handshands be strong, in the daysdays that I shall deal with thee? I JehovahJehovah have spokenspoken, and will do [it].
15 And I will scatterscatter thee among the nationsnations, and dispersedisperse thee through the countries, and will consume thy filthinessfilthiness out of thee.
16 And thou shalt be polluted through thyself in the sightsight of the nationsnations, and thou shalt knowknow that I [am] JehovahJehovah.
17 And the wordthe word of JehovahJehovah came unto me, saying,
18 Son of manSon of man, the househouse of IsraelIsrael is become drossdross to me: they are all copper, and tintin, and ironiron, and lead, in the midstmidst of the furnace: they are become the drossdross of silversilver.
19 Therefore thus saithsaith the LordLord JehovahJehovah: Because ye are all become drossdross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midstmidst of JerusalemJerusalem.
20 [As] they gather silversilver, and copper, and ironiron, and lead, and tintin, into the midstmidst of the furnace, to blow the firefire upon it, to melt it, so will I gather you in mine angeranger and in my furyfury, and I will lay you on and melt you.
21 Yea, I will collect you, and blow upon you the firefire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midstmidst thereof.
22 As silversilver is melted in the midstmidst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midstmidst thereof: and ye shall knowknow that I JehovahJehovah have poured out my furyfury upon you.
24 Son of manSon of man, saysay unto her, Thou art a landland that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day ofday of indignation.
25 There is a conspiracy of her prophetsprophets in the midstmidst of her like a roaring lionlion ravening the prey; they devourdevour soulssouls; they take away treasure and precious thingsprecious things; they increaseincrease her widows in the midstmidst of her;
26 her priestspriests do violence to my law, and profane my holyholy things: they putput no difference between the holyholy and profane, neither do they make knownknown [the difference] between the uncleanunclean and the cleanclean, and they hide their eyeseyes from my sabbathssabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27 Her princesprinces in the midst of her are like wolveswolves ravening the prey, to shed bloodblood, to destroy soulssouls, to get dishonest gaingain.
28 And her prophetsprophets have daubed for them with untempereduntempered [mortarmortar], seeingseeing vanityvanity and divining lieslies unto them, saying, Thus saithsaith the Lordthe Lord JehovahJehovah! and JehovahJehovah hath not spokenspoken.
29 The people of the landland use oppressionoppression and practise robbery; and they vex the poorpoor and needyneedy, and oppressoppress the strangerstranger wrongfully.
30 And I sought for a manman among them, that should make up the fencefence, and standstand in the breachbreach beforebefore me for the landland, that I should not destroy it; but I foundfound none.
31 And I will pour outpour out mine indignation upon them; I will consume them in the firefire of my wrath: their ownown wayway will I recompense upon their headhead, saithsaith the LordLord JehovahJehovah.
Arcana Coelestia 374, 376, 488, 2906, 3400, 3703, 4735, ...4745, 4844, 4926, 6441, 7051, 8298, 8711, 8899, 9127, 9200, 9210, 9960, 10011
Apocalypse Revealed 209, 496, 764
The Lord 4, 28
Apocalypse Explained 148, 238, 355, 540, 577, 644, 1121
One Breach in the Wall: Gender Issues
A City Set on a Hill-the Stronghold of Jerusalem
Exodus 23:9
Leviticus 10:10, 18:6, 7, 15, 19:13, 16, 25:37
Deuteronomy 27:16, 25, 32:18, 22
2 Kings 14:26, 21:2, 9, 16, 24:3, 4
Psalms 9:17, 79:4, 94:5, 6, 106:39, 119:119
Proverbs 1:31, 17:23, 30:14
Isaiah 1:17, 21, 22, 23, 17:10, 28:15, 22, 59:16
Jeremiah 5:7, 6:13, 28, 8:13, 9:1, 11:9, 22:17, 23:14
Ezekiel 5:10, 6:10, 7:3, 8, 9, 9:10, 13:5, 6, 10, 19, 16:2, 17:24, 18:6, 20:4, 20, 21:19, 23:27, 32, 34, 35, 38, 24:6, 9, 11, 33:25, 26, 36:19, 44:23, 24, 45:8
Amos 8:4, 6
Micah 3:1, 10, 11, 6:12
Zephaniah 3:3, 4
Malachi 1:6, 2:7, 8
In general, we tend to be very aware of how knowing what's true leads to doing what is good. That starts as children, with parents...
'Word,' as in Psalms 119:6-17, stands for doctrine in general. 'The Word,' as in Psalms 147:18, signifies divine good united with divine truth. 'Word,' as...
The Lord, in some places, calls Himself 'the son of God,' at other times, 'the son of man (ἄνθρωπος).' This is always according to the...
It's easy to see the connection between judging and truth. In a court of law, the judge's whole purpose is to find the truth. In...
Cities of the mountain and cities of the plain (Jer. 33:13) signify doctrines of charity and faith.
In a general sense, men represent things of the intellect – facts, ideas, knowledge, everything from the deepest truths to the most pernicious falsities about...
saith
Bloods signify evil, in Ezek. 16:9.
midst
'Middle' denotes what is primary, principal, or inmost.
Time is an aspect of the physical world, but according to Swedenborg is not an aspect of the spiritual world. The same is true of...
"Drawing" is used a number of different ways in the Bible, generally in the sense of pulling, leading or moving: People most commonly draw water,...
'Near,' in the Word, signifies presence and conjunction. 'To be near' signifies being on internal levels. Near,' as in Genesis 19:20, signifies truth bordering upon...
To revile something – or "reproach," as it is often translated – represents making a direct and deliberate attack on what is spiritually true, in...
'Nations' signify people who are in the good of love and charity from the Lord. Two nations in the womb,' as in Genesis 25:23, signify...
'To mock' or 'scorn' relates to people in truth but not in good.
'To satiate' relates to the extent of a person's will, for good or evil.
Father and mother
In the spiritual sense by father and mother is meant God and the church.
Father, son, mother, and daughter, as in Luke 12:51, 53: By father against son, and by son against the father, is understood evil against truth,...
'Oppression' signifies destruction of truth by falsities.
'Sons of the stranger' signify counterfeit truths, or falsities. 'Our sons' signify the doctrines of truth, and 'our daughters,' the doctrines of good, as in...
fatherless
'Orphans' signify people who are in a state of innocence and charity, and desire to know and to do what is good but are not...
despised
We tend to think of "despising" something or someone as just a strong way of expressing dislike, but there is a further shade of meaning...
Sabbaths
In Isaiah 40:12 'to weigh the mountains in a balance, and the hills in scales,' signifies that the celestial aspects of love and charity are...
nakedness
'Unclothed' signifies being deprived of the truths of faith.
unclean
'Separation' of good from evil explained.
neighbour's
'The neighbor' is not only an individual person, but also people collectively, as a less or greater society, our country, the church, the Lord's kingdom,...
It is because of a celestial and angelic proprium, or selfhood, that the church is called 'a woman,' 'a wife,' 'a bride,' 'a virgin,' and...
'Sons' wives,' as in Genesis 6:18, signify truths joined to goods.
The Lord calls people who are in truth from the good of charity from Him 'sisters,' as in Matthew 12:50. 'Sister' denotes intellectual truth, when...
To forget, in the internal sense, signifies nothing else but removal and apparent privation.
'The smitten' signify people who are oppressed by the falsities of ignorance.
Scientists believe that one of the most crucial developments in the evolution of humans was bipedalism – walking on two legs. That left our hands...
Like "say," the word "speak" refers to thoughts and feelings moving from our more internal spiritual levels to our more external ones – and ultimately...
disperse
The meaning of "scatter" in the Bible is relatively literal, but it is used in regard to spiritual things, not natural ones. So to "scatter"...
filthiness
Uncleanness and scum, as in Ezekiel 24:11, signifies evil and falsity.
Dross
The dross, mentioned in Isaiah 1:22, signifies falsity.
'Tin,' as in Ezekiel 22:18, has respect to the literal sense of the Word, or the goods and truths of the natural self.
'An iron pan,' as in Ezekiel 4:3, signifies the truth that was falsified and adulterated among the Jewish people.
Jerusalem first comes to or attention in II Samuel, chapter 5 where King David takes it from the Jebusites and makes it his capital. In...
Just as natural fire can be both comforting in keeping you warm or scary in burning down your house, so fire in the spiritual sense...
'Wrath,' as in Genesis 49:7, signifies aversion from truth. 'Great wrath,' as in Revelation 12:12, signifies hatred against the new church.
Fury is a receding from good, and anger is a receding from truth.
'Day of vengeance' signifies a state of damnation.
'A lion' signifies the good of celestial love and the truth from that good.
The nature of the soul is a deep and complicated topic, but it can be summarized as "spiritual life," who we are in terms of...
precious things
In Jeremiah 20:4-5, 'wealth,' 'labor,' 'precious things,' and 'all the treasures of the kings of Judah' signify the knowledges of faith.
'Produce' denotes fruit derived from the good of charity, and truth of faith.
'To put' has reference to order, arrangement, application, and influx.
To be "pure" in the Bible means - unsurprisingly - to be devoid of evil. Thus all the washing for purification prescribed in the Laws...
'Pairs of hands, eyes, etc.' relate to the will and understanding, or to good and truth. The right side to the will or good, and...
Captains and Rulers (Jer. 51:23) signifies principal evils and falsities. Captains and Rulers (Ezek 33:6) signifies principal truths. See Chief Captains.
'A wolf' signifies eagerness to seize, but also eagerness to rescue and deliver the good.
'Lucre or gain' signifies every thing false derived from evil which perverts the judgment.
Untempered
Untempered mortar,' as in Ezekiel 13:11, signifies the confirmation of falsity by fallacies, which makes falsity appear true. 'Stones of hail' are falsities.
'Vanity' signifies evil and the falsity of evil. 'Vanities of strangers' signifies falsities of religion.
When people lie or speak falsely in the Bible, It represents what Swedenborg calls "falsity of faith" and the resulting "evil of faith." This is...
the Lord
The Bible refers to the Lord in many different ways, which from the text seem indistinguishable and interchangeable. Understood in the internal sense, though, there...
The poor, maimed, lame, and blind,' as in Luke 14:21, signify the uninstructed Gentiles who were in lives of good.
'Poor' signifies someone who is not in truths, and people who are ignorant of good and truth, but desire instruction.
'A hedge,' as mentioned in Matthew 21:33, signifies preservation from falsities of evil which are from hell.
'To stay with,' as in Genesis 32:4, relates to the life of truth when accompanied by good, and in this instance, it means to take...
'To rupture' or 'breach' denotes the infraction and perversion of truth.
To not to be found any more, signifies not to rise again.
Pour out
Pouring out the vials upon the earth, which contained the plagues,' in Revelation 16:1, signifies influx of the reformed into the church, or into people...
In many cases, the spiritual meaning of "own," both as a verb and as an adjective, is relatively literal. When people are described as the...
In John 14:6, 'the way is doctrine,' 'the truth' is every thing pertaining to doctrine, and 'the life' is the essential good which is the...
Významy biblických slov
In general, we tend to be very aware of how knowing what's true leads to doing what is good. That starts as children, with parents telling us not to hit each other and to use good manners, small truths that pretty much force us to behave decently. That continues in adulthood: You don't really want to get up and go to work, but you know you have to, so you do.
So we tend to think of truth as something thrust upon us by external forces, something we have to obey. If you think about it, though, that's really not the case. The love we have for our families, and our desire to care for them, leads to the idea that we have to get up and go to work. Our desire to make people happy around us leads to the idea that we should use good manners. They feel like external ideas, but we only follow them because of internal ideas we have, which come from our desires for good things.
Swedenborg takes that idea to its logical conclusion, regarding every expression of love, even the most elemental, as truth. This is a concept that stretches beyond our normal range of thought. It's easy us to see the statement "I love you" as a "truth," but in this deeper concept the look in our eyes, the warmth of our hugs, the tenderness of a touch is "truth" as well. Put simply, truth is love given form, and the more pure the form, the higher the truth.
With that idea, consider the love that the Lord has (or to say it better, the love that the Lord IS). It's the love that led to the creation of the universe and of reality itself, the love that inevitably led to the creation of humankind, the love that flows to each of us constantly, trying constantly to lead us to acceptance and to heaven. What is the truth flowing from that love; what is its expression? It blows the imagination to think about it, a truth that lies in every particle in the universe, that is intimately tied to every thought had every moment by everyone who has ever lived and will ever live, plans for each of us that extend to eternity and account for every choice we could ever make. To think of it another way, try to imagine the look in the Lord's eyes when He gazes on us, the sound of His voice when he speaks to us, an expression that would convey love greater than we can imagine.
Swedenborg calls this "Divine Truth." And when the Bible uses the term "the Word," that's what it means.
With that in mind, consider the beautiful but cryptic statements of John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." God's love has always been and will always be, infinite and perfect. That means the expression of God's love – His truth – has also always been and will always be, infinite and perfect. It is His form; it is Him.
Swedenborg tells us that the Lord has shared this truth with us in various ways since the beginning of humanity. The earliest people, those of the Most Ancient Church, got it automatically, flowing into the inner parts of their minds through heaven. Later, in the Ancient Church, people understood it through nature, seeing the Lord's love expressed in mountains, trees, rivers and movements of the the sun, moon and stars. By using natural language as a container for spiritual language, the Lord expressed that truth within the Bible, inside its stories, laws and prophecies. Then, with humanity at its lowest point, He gave the world His truth in human form as Jesus, so that by accepting and loving Him as Jesus we can open ourselves to His love. Finally, Swedenborg says that his written works - which he says came from the Lord - are themselves a container for Divine Truth, both in speaking plainly about heaven and by unlocking the truth as it is contained in the Bible.
Despite those varied containers and modes of expression, however, the Word itself – the Divine Truth; the Lord's love expressed – has never changed and will never change, as perfect and infinite as the love it holds.
(Odkazy: John 1:1)