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Amos 7

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1 This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw that, when the growth of the late grass was starting, he made locusts; it was the late growth after the king's cutting was done.

2 And it came about that after they had taken all the grass of the land, I said, O Lord God, have mercy: how will Jacob be able to keep his place? for he is small.

3 The Lord, changing his purpose about this, said, It will not be.

4 This is what the Lord let me see: and I saw that the Lord God sent for a great fire to be the instrument of his punishment; and, after burning up the great deep, it was about to put an end to the Lord's heritage.

5 Then said I, O Lord God, let there be an end: how will Jacob be able to keep his place? for he is small.

6 The Lord, changing his purpose about this, said, And this will not be.

7 This is what he let me see: and I saw the Lord stationed by a wall made straight by a weighted line, and he had a weighted line in his hand.

8 And the Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A weighted line. Then the Lord said, see, I will let down a weighted line among my people Israel; never again will my eyes be shut to their sin:

9 And the high places of Isaac will be unpeopled, and the holy places of Israel will be made waste; and I will come up against the family of Jeroboam with the sword.

10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Beth-el, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos has made designs against you among the people of Israel: the land is troubled by his words.

11 For Amos has said, Jeroboam will be put to the sword, and Israel will certainly be taken away as a prisoner out of his land.

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, O seer, go in flight into the land of Judah, and there get your living by working as a prophet:

13 But be a prophet no longer at Beth-el: for it is the holy place of the king, and the king's house.

14 Then Amos in answer said to Amaziah, I am no prophet, or one of the sons of the prophets; I am a herdman and one who takes care of sycamore-trees:

15 And the Lord took me from the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, be a prophet to my people Israel.

16 Now then, give ear to the word of the Lord: You say, Be no prophet to Israel, and say not a word against the people of Isaac.

17 So this is what the Lord has said: Your wife will be a loose woman in the town, and your sons and your daughters will be put to the sword, and your land will be cut up into parts by a line; and you yourself will come to your end in an unclean land, and Israel will certainly be taken away a prisoner out of his land.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 9854

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9854. 'With the work of slender rope' means the mode of the joining together. This is clear from the meaning of 'slender rope' as that which serves to join things together. The reason why 'slender rope' means that which so serves to join things together is that such a cord is used to join one object to another. But in this instance it means the mode of the joining together, for the narrative is saying that the small chains of pure gold had to be made 'with the work' of slender rope. 'Slender rope' is used in the original language to describe a cord made from twisted and intertwined work, by which is meant in the internal sense a joining together such as that of truths within known facts and interlinking such facts, thus a joining together in the natural or external memory. The reason why this kind of joining together is meant is that the subject at this point is the joining together of truths through good in the last and lowest parts of the spiritual kingdom. For 'the ephod' and 'the breastplate', to which [the shoulder-pieces] were joined by means of the small chains made from 'the work of slender rope', mean the lowest levels of the spiritual kingdom, 9824. As regards what is intertwined or tangled, that it denotes factual knowledge, see 2831.

[2] In the next life also ropes appear, varying in the ways in which their strands are twisted together and varying in thickness; and they represent the varying modes by which things are joined together. This explains also why in the Word things which serve to join others together are meant by 'ropes', as in the following places: In Isaiah,

Woe to those who draw iniquity with ropes of vanity, and [whose] sin is like a cart rope! Isaiah 5:18.

'Ropes of vanity' are joinings together of falsities, through which iniquity or evil in life is brought in. In the same prophet,

Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feast. May your eyes see Jerusalem, a quiet dwelling-place, a tent which will not be overthrown. Its pegs will never be removed, and none of its ropes will be pulled away. Your ropes have been loosed; they will not strengthen their mast. Isaiah 33:20, 23.

'Pegs' and 'ropes' stand for the things which serve to join together heaven's truths and forms of good; for the dwelling-place and tent, which the ropes spoken of here belong to, are heaven, 9457, 9481, 9485, 9615, 9784.

[3] In the same prophet,

Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwelling-places; do not stop [them]. Lengthen your ropes, and make your pegs firm. Isaiah 54:2.

And in Jeremiah,

My tent has been laid waste, and all My ropes torn away. Jeremiah 10:20.

Here also 'ropes' stands for things that serve to join others together and make them firm. 'Tent' stands for the Church, which is the Lord's heaven on earth. In Hosea,

I drew them with ropes of human kindness, 1 with thick ropes of love. Hosea 11:4.

Here 'ropes' plainly stands for things which join others together; for love is spiritual togetherness. In Ezekiel,

Asshur and Kilmad, they were your traders with the treasures of garments tied by means of ropes. Ezekiel 27:23-24.

This refers to Tyre, by which cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth are meant, 1201. Outward joinings together of these are meant by 'garments tied by means of ropes'. In addition 'ropes' is also used in the Word to mean apportionments of inheritances and of the land, because ropes were used in measurements of them, as in Deuteronomy 32:9; Amos 7:17; Micah 2:4-5; Zechariah 2:1; Psalms 16:6; 78:55; 105:11; 140:5; and many times elsewhere.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, with ropes of man (homo)

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