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Ezekiel 31

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1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third [month], in the first [day] of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom art thou like in thy greatness?

3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.

4 The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: the rivers thereof ran round about its plantation; and it sent out its channels unto all the trees of the field.

5 Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot [them] forth.

6 All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow dwelt all great nations.

7 Thus was it fair in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.

8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir-trees were not like its boughs, and the plane-trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto it in its beauty.

9 I made it fair by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.

10 Therefore thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because thou art exalted in stature, and he hath set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;

11 I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness.

12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

13 Upon his ruin all the birds of the heavens shall dwell, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches;

14 to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, [even] all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

15 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the rivers thereof; and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with them that descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the nether parts of the earth.

17 They also went down into Sheol with him unto them that are slain by the sword; yea, they that were his arm, [that] dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 108

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108. Whenever the most ancient people compared man to a garden they would also compare wisdom and everything connected with it to rivers. Yet they did not merely compare but actually called them such since it was characteristic of their speech to do so. At a later time the Prophets in a similar way sometimes compared them, and sometimes actually called them, by these names, as in Isaiah,

Your light will rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness will be as the daylight; and you will be like a watered garden and like a spring of waters whose waters fail not. Isaiah 58:10-11.

This refers to people who receive love and faith. Also,

Like valleys that are planted, like gardens beside a river, like aloes 1 Jehovah has planted, like cedars beside the waters. Numbers 24:6.

This refers to people who are regenerate. In Jeremiah,

Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah. He will be like a tree planted beside the waters, which will send out its roots above the stream. Jeremiah 17:7-8.

An instance of regenerate people not being compared to, but actually being called, a garden and a tree beside the rivers occurs in Ezekiel,

The waters caused it to grow, the depth of the waters made it grow tall, the river leading around the place of its planting, and he sent out his lines of water to all the trees of the field. It became beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, for its root was towards many waters. The cedars did not overshadow it in the garden of God, the fir trees were not equal to its branches, and the plane trees were not like its boughs. No tree in the garden of God was equal to it in its beauty. I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden which are in the garden of God envied it. Ezekiel 31:4, 7-9.

From these quotations it is clear that when the most ancient people likened man, or what is the same, the things that are in man, to a garden, they also added the waters and rivers by which it was watered, and that by 'waters and rivers' they understood the things which would cause growth.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The word used in 1st Latin edition means tents, but in other places where Swedenborg quotes this text a word meaning aloes occurs. In Hebrew the spelling, though not the pronunciation, of the two words is identical.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.