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Daniel 8

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1 In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared unto me, [even] to me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

2 And I saw in the vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was in the fortress of Shushan, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai.

3 And I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns; and the two horns were high; and one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.

4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward, and no beast could stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; and he did according to his will, and became great.

5 And as I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west over the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

6 And he came to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran upon him in the fury of his power.

7 And I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged with him, and smote the ram, and broke his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him; and he cast him down to the ground, and trampled upon him; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

8 And the he-goat became exceeding great; but when he was become strong, the great horn was broken; and in its stead came up four notable ones toward the four winds of the heavens.

9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which became exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the beauty [of the earth].

10 And it became great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down [some] of the host and of the stars to the ground, and trampled upon them.

11 (And he magnified [himself] even to the prince of the host, and from him the continual [sacrifice] was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

12 And a time of trial was appointed unto the continual [sacrifice] by reason of transgression.) And it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised and prospered.

13 And I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that one who spoke, How long shall be the vision of the continual [sacrifice] and of the transgression that maketh desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden down under foot?

14 And he said unto me, Until two thousand and three hundred evenings [and] mornings: then shall the sanctuary be vindicated.

15 And it came to pass, when I Daniel had seen the vision, I sought for the understanding of it, and behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.

16 And I heard a man's voice between [the banks of] the Ulai; and he called and said, Gabriel, make this [man] to understand the vision.

17 And he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was afraid, and fell on my face; and he said unto me, Understand, son of man; for the vision is for the time of the end.

18 Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep stupor, with my face toward the ground. And he touched me, and set me up where I had stood.

19 And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be at the end of the indignation: for at the set time the end shall be.

20 The ram that thou sawest having the two horns: they are the kings of Media and Persia.

21 And the rough goat is the king of Greece; and the great horn that was between his eyes is the first king.

22 Now that being broken, whereas four stood up in its stead, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not with his power.

23 And at the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors shall have come to the full, a king of bold countenance, and understanding riddles, shall stand up.

24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy marvellously, and shall prosper, and shall practise, and shall destroy the mighty ones, and the people of the saints.

25 And through his cunning shall he cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he will magnify [himself] in his heart, and by prosperity will corrupt many; and he will stand up against the Prince of princes: but he shall be broken without hand.

26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which hath been told is true; but close thou up the vision, for it is for many days [to come].

27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick [certain] days: then I rose up, and did the king's business. And I was astonished at the vision, but none understood [it].

   

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Rise

  

It is common in the Bible for people to "rise up," and it would be easy to pass over the phrase as simply describing a physical action. But in fact it represents an elevation in spiritual state, moving to a more internal frame of mind closer to the Lord. Often it has to do with understanding a new or important idea; we "rise up" to a state of greater perception and enlightenment. Obviously context is crucial to the exact meaning of the phrase in a given passage -- it matters greatly who it is that is rising up, and why.

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Apocalypse Revealed #920

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920. 21:24 And the nations that are saved shall walk in its light. This symbolically means that all those people who live a good life and believe in the Lord will live in the New Church in accordance with Divine truths and will see those truths inwardly in themselves as the eye sees its objects.

The nations symbolize people who live a good life, and also people who live an evil life (no. 483). Here they symbolize people who live a good life and believe in the Lord, because they are called nations that are saved. To walk in light means, symbolically, to live in accordance with Divine truths and to see them inwardly in oneself as the eye sees objects. For the objects of spiritual sight, which are those of the inner intellect, are spiritual truths, and people who possess that intellect see them in a manner analogous to the way the eyes see natural objects. The light here symbolizes a perception of Divine truth from an inner enlightenment in those people from the Lord (no. 796), and to walk symbolizes to live (no. 167). From this it is apparent that to walk in the light of the New Jerusalem symbolically means to perceive and see Divine truths from an inner enlightenment and to live in accordance with them.

[2] But we need to illustrate this, because people do not know who are meant by the nations here, and by the kings mentioned next in this verse. The nations symbolize people who are impelled by the goodness of love received from the Lord, a goodness we call celestial goodness; and kings symbolize people who are impelled by truths of wisdom springing from a spiritual goodness received from the Lord, as we will see in the next number. People impelled by a celestial goodness from the Lord all have Divine truths engraved on their life. Therefore they walk, that is to say, live, uprightly in accordance with them, and they also see them inwardly in themselves, as the eye sees its objects. On this subject, see what we said in nos. 120-123 above.

All of the heavens have been distinguished into two kingdoms: the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom. The goodness of the celestial kingdom we call celestial goodness, which is the goodness of love for the Lord, and the goodness of the spiritual kingdom we call spiritual goodness, and it is the goodness of wisdom, which in its essence is truth. Regarding these two kingdoms, see nos. 647, 725, 854 above.

[3] It is the same with the church, and those people are celestial there who live in accordance with the precepts of justice because they are Divine laws, as a civic-minded person lives in accordance with the precepts of justice because they are civil laws. But the difference between them is that, by his living in accordance with those precepts or laws, the celestial person is a citizen of heaven, to the extent that he inwardly regards civil laws that are laws of justice as also Divine laws.

Those people who are here symbolized by the nations, who have, as we said, Divine truths engraved on them, are the people meant in Jeremiah:

I will put My law in the midst of them and write it on their hearts..., and no more shall anyone teach his companion or anyone his brother, saying, "Know Jehovah," for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them... (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.