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Ezekiel 41

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1 And he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle.

2 And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits.

3 Then went he inward, and measured each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the breadth of the entrance, seven cubits.

4 And he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy place.

5 Then he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side-chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side.

6 And the side-chambers were in three stories, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which belonged to the house for the side-chambers round about, that they might have hold [therein], and not have hold in the wall of the house.

7 And the side-chambers were broader as they encompassed [the house] higher and higher; for the encompassing of the house went higher and higher round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house [continued] upward; and so one went up [from] the lowest [chamber] to the highest by the middle [chamber].

8 I saw also that the house had a raised basement round about: the foundations of the side-chambers were a full reed of six great cubits.

9 The thickness of the wall, which was for the side-chambers, on the outside, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side-chambers that belonged to the house.

10 And between the chambers was a breadth of twenty cubits round about the house on every side.

11 And the doors of the side-chambers were toward [the place] that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about.

12 And the building that was before the separate place at the side toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and the length thereof ninety cubits.

13 So he measured the house, a hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls thereof, a hundred cubits long;

14 also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits.

15 And he measured the length of the building before the separate place which was at the back thereof, and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side, a hundred cubits; and the inner temple, and the porches of the court;

16 the thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the threshold, ceiled with wood round about, and [from] the ground up to the windows, (now the windows were covered),

17 to [the space] above the door, even unto the inner house, and without, and by all the wall round about within and without, by measure.

18 And it was made with cherubim and palm-trees; and a palm-tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces;

19 so that there was the face of a man toward the palm-tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm-tree on the other side. [thus was it] made through all the house round about:

20 from the ground unto above the door were cherubim and palm-trees made: thus was the wall of the temple.

21 As for the temple, the door-posts were squared; and as for the face of the sanctuary, the appearance [thereof] was as the appearance [of the temple].

22 The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before Jehovah.

23 And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors.

24 And the doors had two leaves [apiece], two turning leaves: two [leaves] for the one door, and two leaves for the other.

25 And there were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubim and palm-trees, like as were made upon the walls; and there was a threshold of wood upon the face of the porch without.

26 And there were closed windows and palm-trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch: thus were the side-chambers of the house, and the thresholds.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 9659

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9659. 'And there shall be eight boards and their bases [made] from silver' means support in every respect from good and through truth that springs from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'eight' as what is so in every respect, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'boards' as good that lends support, dealt with in 9634; and from the meaning of 'bases [made] from silver' as support provided through truth from good, dealt with in 9643.

[2] 'Eight' means in every respect because this number has the same meaning as two and four, being the product of these when multiplied together. 'Two' and 'four' mean being joined together, completely so, 5194, 8423, 8877, and consequently also mean what is complete, 9103, and therefore what is so in every respect; for what exists in completeness does so in every respect. Another reason why 'eight' means what exists in completeness and in every respect is that since 'a week' means a whole period from beginning to end, 2044, 3845, 'the eighth day' means a complete state, from which a new beginning then commences. This explains why males had to be circumcised on the eighth day, Genesis 17:12; 21:4, for circumcision was a sign of purification from foul kinds of love by means of the truth of faith, 2039, 2046 (end), 2799, 3412, 3413, 4462. The foreskin corresponded to the defilement of good by those kinds of love, 4462, 7045, 7225, and the knife of flint with which circumcision was carried out was a sign of the truth of faith by means of which purification was accomplished, 2039 (end), 2046 (end), 2799, 7044.

[3] What exists in completeness and in every respect is also meant by 'eight' following 'seven' in Micah,

When Asshur comes into our land and treads our palaces we will set up over him seven shepherds and eight princes of men (homo), and they will feed 1 the land of Asshur with the sword; and he will deliver [us] from Asshur. Micah 5:5-6.

'Asshur' stands for reasoning on the basis of one's own intelligence about the Church's forms of good and its truths. Deliverance totally or in every respect from consequent falsity is meant by 'eight princes of men' who will bring destruction, 'princes of men' being the leading truths that rise out of good.

[4] The fact that 'eight' means completeness and in every respect is also clear from an experience I had involving the admission and reception of some communities into heaven, about which see 2130. I saw as many as twelve communities received first, and after them as many as eight more; for people admitted and received into heaven are those who have been purified from earthly things, that is, from all love of them, and have gone on to receive instruction. The number eight on that occasion was a sign of that which was complete.

[5] 'Eight' has a similar meaning elsewhere in the Word, for example where it says that the portico of the gateway was 'eight cubits' long from the house, and that there were 'eight steps' up to the house, in Ezekiel 40:9, 31, 41. The description there is of the new house, by which the Lord's New Church is meant, truths leading to good and from good back to truths being meant by 'the portico' and 'the steps'.

[6] Anyone who does not know that spiritual realities or real things are implied by the numbers used in the Word cannot possibly see any such reality nor thus anything holy in the measures and numbers where the tabernacle, Solomon's temple, and after these the new house, new temple, and new land in Ezekiel, are described, when yet not a syllable in the Word is devoid of spiritual meaning. Let all who have intelligence weigh up in their mind what the measures and numbers in Chapters 40-48 of Ezekiel really mean, also the measures and numbers in John, at Revelation 21:17, where it says that the angel measured the wall of the new Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, and that this measure was that of a man (homo), that is, of an angel, and also in the following, besides many other places,

Let him who has intelligence reckon the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man (homo), that is, its number is six hundred and sixty-six. Revelation 13:18.

For more about all numbers in the Word, that they mean spiritual realities or real things, see 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 5291, 5335, 5708, 6175, 7973, and places where the specific meaning of certain numbers has been shown.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. i.e. destroy

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 2075

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2075. 'And will Sarah, a daughter of ninety years, give birth?' means that truth joined to good will achieve this. This is clear from the representation and meaning of 'Sarah' as truth joined to good, which is Divine truth, and from the meaning of the number 'ninety', or what amounts to the same, 'nine'. One is bound to be surprised that the number 'a hundred years', which was Abraham's age, means that the Rational belonging to the Lord's Human Essence was to be united to the Divine Essence, and that the number 'ninety years', which was Sarah's age, means that truth joined to good would achieve this. But as there is nothing in the Lord's Word that is not heavenly and Divine, the same must be true of the actual numbers which appear there. That all numbers used in the Word, as with all names used in it, mean real things has been shown in Volume One, in 482, 487, 488, 493, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 893, 1988.

[2] Now as regards the number nine meaning conjunction, more so the number ninety, which is the product of nine times ten, 'ten' meaning remnants by which conjunction is achieved - as shown by what has been said above at the end of 1988 - this is also made clear from the following representatives and meaningful signs. It was commanded that on the tenth day of the seventh month there was to be a day of atonement, and that this was to be a sabbath of rest; 1 and on the ninth day of the seventh month in the evening, from one evening to the next, they were to celebrate the sabbath, Leviticus 23:27, 32.

[3] In the internal sense these details mean conjunction through remnants, that is to say, 'nine' means conjunction and 'ten' remnants. The existence of a Divine arcanum lying concealed within these numbers is quite evident from the months and the days of the year which were to be held sacred, for example, every seventh day was to be a sabbath; every seventh month, as stated here, was to be a sabbath of rests; likewise every seventh year, and also every seven times seventh year, which was to mark the start of a jubilee year. The same applies to all other numbers in the Word, for example, to the number three which has almost the same meaning as seven; to the number twelve which means all things belonging to faith; and to the number ten which, the same as tenths, means remnants, 576; and so on. And in the verses from Leviticus quoted above, unless the numbers ten and nine embodied arcana it would by no means have been commanded that there should be this sabbath of rest 1 on the tenth day of the seventh month, and that they should celebrate it on the ninth day of the month. Such is the Word of the Lord in the internal sense, even though nothing of the sort is evident in the historical sense.

[4] The same applies to what is recorded about Jerusalem being besieged by Nebuchadnezzar in the ninth year of Zedekiah, and about its being breached on the ninth day of the month in the eleventh year, as follows in the Second Book of Kings,

In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel came against Jerusalem, and the city came under siege until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the month the famine was severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land; and the city was breached. 2 Kings 25:1, 3-4.

'The ninth year, the tenth month' and 'the eleventh year and ninth day of the month when there was a famine in the city and no bread for the people of the land' means in the internal sense that no conjunction by means of the things of faith and charity existed any longer. 'Famine in the city and no bread for the people of the land' means that no faith at all nor any charity at all was left. This is the internal sense of these words which is nowhere apparent in the letter. Matters like these shine out even less from the historical sections of the Word than from the prophetical because the historical incidents captivate the mind (animus), so much that belief in anything deeper there is scarcely possible. Yet all those incidents are representative and the words used to describe them in every case carry spiritual meanings. These matters are hard to believe but they are nevertheless true, see 1769 1772.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, a sabbath of a sabbath

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