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Lamentations 5

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1 Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.

2 Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.

3 We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.

4 We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.

5 Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.

6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.

7 Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.

8 Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.

9 We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.

10 Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.

11 They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.

12 Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.

13 The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.

14 The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.

15 The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.

16 The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.

17 Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;

18 Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.

19 You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.

20 Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?

21 Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.

22 But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 3069

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3069. 'And I will drink' means instruction from them in truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'drinking' as receiving instruction. References to 'drinking' occur in various places in the Word, and whenever the subject is the goods and truths of faith, instruction in these and reception of them is meant, as in Isaiah,

The new wine will mourn, the vine will languish, all the merry-hearted will sigh; they will not drink wine with singing, strong drink will be bitter to those drinking it. Isaiah 24:7, 9.

'Not drinking wine with singing' stands for not receiving instruction from the affection for truth and not receiving any consequent delight. 'Strong drink being bitter to those drinking it' stands for repugnance. In the same prophet,

It will be as when a thirsting man dreams, and behold, he is drinking; and he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and the soul is craving. Isaiah 29:8.

'Thirsting' stands for desiring instruction, 'drinking' for receiving it, but in things that are valueless.

[2] In Jeremiah,

Our waters we drink for silver, our timbers come for a price. Lamentations 5:4.

'Drinking waters for silver' stands for receiving instruction but not for nothing, and also attributing truth to oneself. Truth is a free gift and so does not come from oneself but from the Lord, as these words in Isaiah declare,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy! Isaiah 55:1.

And in John,

Jesus said, If anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. John 7:37-38.

Here 'drinking' means being given instruction and accepting it. In Luke,

They will say, We ate in Your presence and we drank, and You taught in our streets. But the Lord will say, I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity! Luke 13:26-27.

Here 'eating and drinking in the Lord's presence' stands for giving instruction in, and proclaiming, the good and truth of faith, doing so from cognitions drawn from the Word, which is meant by 'You taught in our streets'. But because they did it for selfish reasons - for the sake of personal honour and gain, thus not out of any affection for good and truth, and so possessed cognitions of truth and yet led evil lives - it is said, 'I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity!'

[3] In the same gospel, where Jesus was talking to the disciples,

That you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom. Luke 22:30.

It is evident to anyone that in the Lord's kingdom they do not eat and drink, and that no table is there, thus that something different is meant by 'eating and drinking at the Lord's table in His kingdom', that is to say, enjoying a perception of good and truth. So also with what the Lord says in Matthew,

I tell you that I shall not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it [new] with you in My Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:28, 29.

'Drinking' stands for giving living instruction in truths and imparting a perception of good and truth. That which the Lord said -

Do not be anxious for your soul, what you are going to eat or what you are going to drink, nor for your body, what you are going to put on. Matthew 6:25, 31; Luke 12:29 - is indicative of spiritual things, that so far as all things of faith are concerned, goodness and truth are imparted by the Lord. In John,

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but he who drinks from the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water leaping up into eternal life. John 4:7-14. 'Drinking' clearly stands for being given instruction in goods and truths, and the acceptance of them.

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