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Ezekiel 28

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1 The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of god, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art man, and not god, though thou didst set thy heart as the heart of god;-

3 behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from thee;

4 by thy wisdom and by thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures;

5 by thy great wisdom [and] by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches;-

6 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast set thy heart as the heart of God,

7 therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.

8 They shall bring thee down to the pit; and thou shalt die the death of them that are slain, in the heart of the seas.

9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou art man, and not God, in the hand of him that woundeth thee.

10 Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah.

11 Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

12 Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

13 Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee; in the day that thou wast created they were prepared.

14 Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth: and I set thee, [so that] thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee.

16 By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

17 Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I have cast thee to the ground; I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee.

18 By the multitude of thine iniquities, in the unrighteousness of thy traffic, thou hast profaned thy sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of thee; it hath devoured thee, and I have turned thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

19 All they that know thee among the peoples shall be astonished at thee: thou art become a terror, and thou shalt nevermore have any being.

20 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

21 Son of man, set thy face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it,

22 and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, O Sidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

23 For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall fall in the midst of her, with the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

24 And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are round about them, that did despite unto them; and they shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

25 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob.

26 And they shall dwell securely therein; yea, they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and shall dwell securely, when I have executed judgments upon all those that do them despite round about them; and they shall know that I am Jehovah their God.

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 364

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364. Verse 4. And there went forth another horse that was red, signifies the understanding of the Word destroyed in respect to good. This is evident from the signification of "horse," as being the intellect (of which above, n. 355. Here because the states of those who are of the church where the Word is are treated of, "horse" signifies the intellect of the men of the church in relation to the Word. It is also evident from the signification of "red" [ruber] or "reddish" [rufus], as being of what nature a thing is in relation to good, so here, of what quality the understanding of the Word is in relation to good. That "reddish" [rufus] here signifies this understanding destroyed in respect to good, can be seen from what immediately follows in this verse, for it is said, "to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the earth, that they should slay one another, and to him was given a great sword," which signifies a consequent extinction of all truth. Since the horses that John saw were distinguished by colors, for the first appeared "white," the second "red," the third "black," and the fourth "pale," and colors signify the quality of a thing, let something first be said here about colors.

In the heavens colors of every kind appear, and they draw their origin from the light there; and as that light immensely excels in brightness and splendor the light of the world, so also do the colors there; and as the light there is from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, and is the Divine Proceeding, and as consequently that light is spiritual, so all colors signify things spiritual. And as the Divine Proceeding is Divine good united to Divine truth, and as Divine good in heaven is presented to view by a flamy light, and Divine truth by a bright white light, so there are two colors that are the fundamentals of all colors there, namely, the red color and the white color; the red color has its origin from the flamy light that goes forth from Divine good, and the white color from the bright white light that goes forth from Divine truth; consequently so far as colors are derived from red they signify good, and so far as they are derived from white they signify truth. (But these things can be seen better from what is told about colors, from experience, in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that most beautiful colors are seen in the heavens, n. 1053, 1624; colors in the heavens are from the light there, and are modifications and variations of light, n. 1042, 1043, 1053, 1624, 3993, 4530, 4742, 4922; thus they are the appearances of truth and good, and signify such things as are of intelligence and wisdom, n. 4530, 4677, 4922, 9466; consequently the precious stones that were of various colors in the breastplate of the ephod, or in the Urim and Thummim, signified all things of truth from good in heaven and in the church, and therefore the breastplate in general signified Divine truth shining forth from the Divine good, n. 9823, 9865, 9868, 9905; and responses were thence given by variegations and resplendences of light, and at the same time by tacit perception, or by a living voice out of heaven, n. 3862, [9905]; colors so far as they are derived from red signify good, and so far as they are from bright white signify truth, n. Arcana Coelestia 9467. Of the Light of Heaven, whence and what it is, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 126-140, 275.)

[2] It is to be known, moreover, that "red" color not only signifies what the quality of a thing is in relation to good, but also what the quality of a thing is in relation to evil; for that color not only exists from the flamy light that is from the sun of heaven, as was said above, but it also exists from something flamy in hell, which is from the fire there, which fire is like a coal fire. Therefore the red in heaven is a wholly different red from the red in hell; the red in heaven is shining and living, while the red in hell is horribly obscure and dead; moreover, the red of heaven gives life, while the red of hell brings death; the reason is that the fire from which red is derived is in its origin love; heavenly fire is from heavenly love, and infernal fire from infernal love; consequently "fire" in the Word signifies love in both senses (See Arcana Coelestia 4906, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7575, 10747; and in the work on Heaven and Hell n. 134, 566-575); therefore the "red" existing thence signifies the quality of the love in both senses. Moreover, this red, that is, the "red" of this horse is, in the original Greek, from a word that means fire. All this, together with the description of this horse in this verse, makes clear why it is that a "red horse" signifies the understanding of the Word destroyed in respect to good.

That "horse" signifies something connected with the subject can be clearly seen from this, that horses were seen when "the seals were opened," and it was said that "they went forth," for horses could not go forth out of a book, but those things could be manifested which are signified by "horses." That "horse" signifies the intellect, and "color" its quality, has been made familiar to me from experience; for spirits who were meditating from the understanding upon some subject have several times been seen by me to be riding upon horses, and when I asked them whether they were riding, they said that they were not, but that they stood meditating upon some subject; which made clear that riding upon a horse is an appearance representing the operation of their understanding.

[3] There is also a place called the assembly of the intelligent and wise, to which very many resort for meditation, and when anyone is coming to it horses of various colors and variously caparisoned, and also chariots, with some riding and others sitting in the chariots, appear to him; and then also when they are asked whether they are riding upon horses, or are carried in chariots, they say that they are not, but that they are going along meditating; from this also it was clear what is signified by "horses" and by "chariots." (But about this see more in the small work on The White Horse.) From this it can now be seen why John saw horses when the seals of the book were opened, and also what they signify. These horses were seen, because all the spiritual things of the Word are presented in the sense of its letter by means of such things as correspond, that is, as represent and thence signify; and this in order that the Divine may be there in ultimates and consequently in fullness, as has been several times said above.

[4] That "reddish" [rufus] or "red" [ruber] signifies the quality of a thing in relation to good, can be seen also from the following passages in the Word. In Moses:

Who washeth his vesture in wine, and his covering in the blood of the grapes. His eyes are redder than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk (Genesis 49:11-12).

These words are in the prophecy of Israel the father respecting Judah, and "Judah" here means the Lord in relation to the good of love, and in a relative sense the Lord's celestial kingdom. What the particulars here signify in the spiritual sense may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia, where they are explained. Divine wisdom which is from Divine good is signified by "his eyes are redder than wine;" and Divine intelligence which is from Divine truth by "his teeth are whiter than milk."

[5] In Lamentations:

The Nazarites were whiter than snow, they were brighter than milk, their bones were more ruddy than pearls (Lamentations 4:7).

The Nazarites represented the Lord in respect to the Divine Human (See above, n. 66, 196, at the end), therefore they signified also, in a relative sense, the good of celestial love, because this good immediately proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human. The representative of this in the church is thus described, the truth of that good is signified by "they were whiter than snow, and brighter than milk," and the good of truth by "their bones were more ruddy than pearls;" for "bones" signify truths in their ultimate, thus truths in the whole complex, for in ultimates all things are together and in fullness; that these truths are from good, and also are goods, is signified by their being "ruddy."

[6] In Zechariah:

I saw four chariots coming out from between mountains of copper. In the first chariot were red horses; in the second chariot black horses; in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot grisled horses, stout (Zechariah 6:1-3).

That here, too, "red horses" signify the quality of the understanding in the beginning in relation to good, "black horses" the quality of the understanding in the beginning in relation to truth, "white horses" the quality of the understanding afterwards in relation to truth, "grisled horses" what is the quality of the understanding afterwards in relation to truth and good, and "stout" what it is consequently in respect to the power to resist falsities and evils, may be seen above (n. 355b), where the signification of "horse" is treated of. Nearly the like is meant in the same prophet by:

The red horse, upon which a man rode, standing among the myrtle-trees (Zechariah 1:8).

Because "red" [ruber] or "reddish" [rufus] signifies the quality of a thing in relation to good:

Red rams' skins were used for a covering over the tent (Exodus 25:5; 26:14; 35:7).

And therefore also:

The water of separation, used in cleansing, was made from a red heifer burned (Numbers 19:1-10);

"red heifer" signifying the good of the natural man, and the "water of separation" made from it when burned signifying the truth of the natural man; and this was commanded because all cleansing is effected by means of truths; moreover, the particulars of the process of slaying the heifer, and of preparing the water for cleansing by it, involve spiritual things.

[7] Because "red" signifies the quality of a thing in relation to good, those names also and the things that derive their names from this same word in the original tongue signify the good from which they are. The word red in the original is adam, from which is the name Adam, and also the name Edom; from this also man is called adam, the ground adama, and the ruby odam; thus these names and things are from red. "Adam" signifies the Most Ancient Church, a church that was in the good of love; "Man" has a like signification, also "ground" in the spiritual sense when celestial good is treated of. That "Edom" was named from red, see Genesis 25:30; and for this reason it signifies the truth of the good of the natural man. That the ruby is also named from red may be seen in Exodus 28:17; 39:10; Ezekiel 28:13; for this reason "ruby" signifies the truth of celestial good. (That "Adam" signifies the Most Ancient Church, which was a celestial church, or a church in the good of love to the Lord, see Arcana Coelestia 478, 479; that "Man" signifies the church in respect to good, n. 4287, 7424, 7523; that "ground" also has a like signification, n. 566, 10570; that "Edom," because he was named from red, signifies the truth of good of the natural man, n. 3300, 3322; and that "ruby" signifies the truth of celestial good, n. 9865) As "red" signifies the quality of a thing in relation to good, so in a contrary sense it signifies the quality of a thing in relation to evil, which is the opposite to good, consequently good destroyed. In this sense "red" is mentioned in the following passages. In Isaiah:

Although your sins have been as scarlet, they shall become white like snow; although they have been red as purple, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18).

And in Nahum:

The shield of his mighty ones is made red, the men of valor are in crimson; in a fire of torches are his chariots. The chariots raged in the streets, they ran to and fro in the broad ways; the appearance of them 1 is like torches (Nahum 2:3-4).

In this sense also the dragon is called red (Revelation 12:3, of which in what follows).

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1. The photolithograph has "his."

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

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Apocalypse Explained # 575

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575. Verse 17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those that sat on them, signifies the falsifications of the Word by reasonings from fallacies. This is evident from the signification of "horses," as being the understanding of the Word (See above, n. 355, 364, 372, 373, 381, 382); here its falsifications, because it is said that "he saw the horses in vision" (of which presently); also from the signification of "those that sat on them," as being those who understand the Word (respecting which see the passages above cited), but here it means reasonings from fallacies respecting the meaning of the Word, because the sensual man and its reasoning from fallacies are treated of (See above, n. 569), and because it is said that he saw them "in vision," and not as before "in the spirit;" to see "in vision" signifying here to see from fallacies.

[2] Visions, which and from which a man or the spirit of man sees, are of a twofold kind; there are real visions and visions that are not real; real visions are visions of such things as really appear in the spiritual world, corresponding altogether with the thoughts and affections of angels, consequently they are real correspondences. Such were the visions that the prophets had who prophesied truths; such also were the visions that appeared to John, and that are described throughout Revelation. But visions that are not real have the same appearance in the external form as real visions, but not in the internal form; they are produced by spirits by means of phantasies. Such visions those prophets had who prophesied vain things or lies. All such visions, because they are not real are fallacies, and thus they also signify fallacies. And as "the horses and those that sat on them" were seen by John in such visions, they signify reasonings from fallacies, and thence falsifications of the Word.

[3] As the prophets, by whom the Word was written, had real visions, and others who were also called prophets had visions that were not real, but their visions were vain and are called "lies," it is important that it should be known what visions are. All things that really appear in the spiritual world are correspondences, for they correspond to the interiors of angels, which are the things of their minds, that is, of their affection and of their thought therefrom, and therefore such things are signified by them. For the spiritual, which is of the affection and the consequent thought of the angels, clothes itself with such forms as appear in the three kingdoms of the natural world, the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral, and all these forms are correspondences, such as appeared to the prophets, and which signify the things to which they corresponded. But in the spiritual world there can be appearances also that are not correspondences; and these are produced by spirits, especially evil spirits, by means of phantasies, for by means of phantasies such spirits can present to the view palaces, and houses full of decorations, also decorated garments; they can also induce upon themselves beautiful faces, and other like appearances; but as soon as the phantasy ceases all these things vanish, because they are external in which there is nothing internal. As such visions are from phantasies they signify fallacies because they deceive the senses and fallaciously present to view things like real things. Because such fallacies are here signified, it is said, "I saw horses in vision." As reasonings from fallacies are here treated of, what fallacies are is to be told.

[4] There are many fallacies in natural, in civil, in moral, and in spiritual affairs; but as fallacies in spiritual things are the fallacies here meant, I wish to show by some examples what and of what nature fallacies in spiritual things are. The sensual man is in fallacies, because all the ideas of his thought are from the world and enter through the bodily senses; from these, therefore, he thinks and draws conclusions respecting spiritual things. Moreover, the sensual man does not know what the spiritual is, and believes that there can be nothing above nature, or if there is, that it is natural and material. He cannot at all comprehend that anything can exist in the spiritual world like the objects in the natural world, that is, that there can appear there paradises, shrubberies, flower beds, grass plots, palaces, houses. Sensual men declare that such things are phantasies, although they know that like things were seen by the prophets when they were in the spirit. They do not believe that such things exist in the spiritual world, because they suppose anything that cannot be seen with the eyes or perceived by some sense of the body is a nonentity.

[5] Those who judge from fallacies cannot at all apprehend that man after death has a complete human form, and that angels have that form; they deny therefore that men after death are human forms; they say that they are something breathlike, without eyes, ears, or mouth, consequently without sight, hearing, or speech, flitting about in the air, and waiting for the resurrection of the body, that they may see, hear, and speak. This they say and believe because they think from the fallacies of the bodily senses. They who reason and draw conclusions from the fallacies of the senses attribute all things to nature, and scarcely anything to the Divine; if they attribute creation to the Divine, they imagine, nevertheless, that all things were transferred into nature, and that all the effects that appear flow from nature alone, and nothing from the spiritual world; as when they see the wonderful things that pertain to silk-worms, butterflies, bees, the wonderful things in the generation of all animals from eggs, and innumerable other like things, they imagine nature to be the sole artificer of these things, and are unable to think at all about the spiritual world and its influx into the natural, and about the existence and subsistence of such wonderful things as being from that source; and yet the truth is that the Divine flows in continually through the spiritual world into the natural, and produces such things, and that nature was created to serve for the clothing of these things that proceed and flow in from the spiritual world. But to specify all the fallacies in respect to spiritual things pertaining to the sensual man of the church, would be too lengthy; some of them may be seen mentioned in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 53).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.