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Joel 3

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1 For in those days and in that time, when I let the fate of Judah and Jerusalem be changed,

2 I will get together all the nations, and make them come down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will take up with them the cause of my people and of my heritage Israel, whom they have sent wandering among the nations, and of my land which has been parted by them.

3 And they have put the fate of my people to the decision of chance: giving a boy for the price of a loose woman and a girl for a drink of wine.

4 And further, what are you to me, O Tyre and Zidon and all the circle of Philistia? will you give me back any payment? and if you do, quickly and suddenly I will send it back on your head,

5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, putting in the houses of your gods my beautiful and pleasing things.

6 And the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem you have given for a price to the sons of the Greeks, to send them far away from their land:

7 See, I will have them moved from the place where you have sent them, and will let what you have done come back on your head;

8 I will give your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah for a price, and they will give them for a price to the men of Sheba, a nation far off: for the Lord has said it.

9 Give this out among the nations; make ready for war: get the strong men awake; let all the men of war come near, let them come up.

10 Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong.

11 Come quickly, all you nations round about, and get yourselves together there: make your strong ones come down, O Lord.

12 Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as judge of all the nations round about.

13 Put in the blade, for the grain is ready: come, get you down, for the wine-crusher is full, the vessels are overflowing; for great is their evil-doing.

14 Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining.

16 And the Lord will be thundering from Zion, and his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will be shaking: but the Lord will be a breastplate for his people and a strong place for the children of Israel.

17 And you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, living in Zion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem will be holy, and no strange person will ever again go through her.

18 And it will come about in that day that the mountains will be dropping sweet wine, and the hills will be flowing with milk, and all the streams of Judah will be flowing with water; and a fountain will come out from the house of the Lord, watering the valley of acacia-trees.

19 Egypt will be a waste and Edom a land of destruction, because of the evil done to the children of Judah, because they have let blood be drained out in their land without cause.

20 But Judah will be peopled for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21 And I will send punishment for their blood, for which punishment has not been sent, for the Lord is living in Zion.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 51

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51. Having in His right hand seven stars. (1:16) This symbolizes all concepts of goodness and truth in the Word, which exist therefore in angels in heaven and in people in the church.

When angels are below the heavens, a great number of what look like little stars appear around them, and likewise around spirits who, when they lived in the world, acquired concepts of goodness and truth for themselves from the Word, or truths of life and doctrine. These little stars appear fixed, however, in the case of those who possess genuine truths from the Word, but wandering in the case of those who possess falsified truths.

(Regarding these little stars, and the stars appearing in the sky there, I could relate marvelous things, but that is not the subject of this work.)

It is apparent from this that stars symbolize concepts of goodness and truth from the Word.

The Son of Man's having them in His right hand means, symbolically, that they come from the Lord alone through the Word. Seven symbolically means all, as may be seen in no. 10 above.

[2] That stars symbolize concepts of goodness and truth from the Word may be seen also from the following passages:

(I will) turn the earth into a wasteland... ...the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. (Isaiah 13:9-10)

The earth that will be turned into a wasteland is the church, in which, having been laid waste, concepts of goodness and truth in the Word are not seen.

When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens... All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you, and bring darkness upon your land. (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

Darkness upon the land is the darkness of falsities in the church.

The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. (Joel 2:10; 3:15)

...after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven... (Matthew 24:29, cf. Mark 13:24)

The stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs... (Revelation 6:13)

...a star (fell) from heaven to the earth. (Revelation 9:1)

Stars falling from heaven do not mean stars, but concepts of goodness and truth perishing.

[3] This is still more apparent from the statement that a dragon swept down a third of the stars from heaven, in Revelation 12:4, and the statement that a he-goat cast down some of the stars and trampled them, in Daniel 8:8-11. That is why the next verse in Daniel goes on to say that it cast truth to the ground (Daniel 8:12).

Stars also symbolize concepts of goodness and truth in the following passages:

(Jehovah) counts... the stars; He gives all of them names. (Psalms 147:4)

Praise (Jehovah), all you stars of light! (Psalms 148:3)

The stars from their courses fought... (Judges 5:20)

From this it is apparent what is meant by the following statement in Daniel:

The intelligent shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, ...those turning many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:3)

The intelligent are people concerned with truths, and those turning many to righteousness are those concerned with goodness.

  
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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.