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以西结书 5

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1 人子啊,你要拿一把快刀,当作剃刀,用这刀剃你的发和你的胡须,用天平将须发平分。

2 围困城的日子满了,你要将分之一在城中用火焚烧,将分之一在城的四围用刀砍碎,将分之一任吹散;我也要拔刀追赶。

3 你要从其中取几根包在衣襟里,

4 再从这几根中取些扔在中焚烧,从里面必有出来烧入以色列全家。

5 耶和华如此:这就是耶路撒冷。我曾将他安置在列邦之中;列国都在他的四围。

6 他行恶,违背我的典章,过於列国;干犯我的律例,过於四围的列邦,因为他弃掉我的典章。至於我的律例,他并没有遵行。

7 所以耶和华如此:因为你们纷争过於四围的列国,也不遵行我的律例,不谨守我的典章,并以遵从四围列国的恶规尚不满意,

8 所以耶和华如此:看哪,我与你反对,必在列国的眼前,在你中间,施行审判;

9 并且因你一切可憎的事,我要在你中间行我所未曾行的,以後我也不再照着行。

10 在你中间父亲儿子,儿子要父亲。我必向你施行审判,我必将你所剩下的分散四方(方:原文是)。

11 耶和华:我指着我的永生起誓,因你用一切可憎的物、可厌的事玷污了我的圣所,故此,我定要使你人数减少,我眼必不顾惜你,也不可怜你。

12 你的民分之一必遭瘟疫,在你中间必因饥荒消灭;分之一必在你四围倒在刀下;我必将分之一分散四方(方:原文是),并要拔刀追赶他们。

13 我要这样成就怒中所定的;我向他们发的忿怒止息了,自己就得着安慰。我在他们身上成就怒中所定的那时,他们就知道我─耶和华的是出於热心;

14 并且我必使你在四围的列国中,在经过的众人眼前,成了荒凉和羞辱。

15 这样,我必以怒气和忿怒,并烈怒的责备,向你施行审判。那时,你就在四围的列国中成为羞辱、讥刺、警戒、惊骇。这是我─耶和华的。

16 那时,我要将灭人、使人饥荒的恶,就是射去灭人的,射在你们身上,并要加增你们的饥荒,断绝你们所倚靠的粮食;

17 又要使饥荒和恶兽到你那里,叫你丧子,瘟疫和流血的事也必盛行在你那里;我也要使刀临到你。这是我─耶和华的。

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 323

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323. With sword, with famine, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. This symbolically means, by doctrinal falsities, by evil practices, by self-love, and by lusts.

To be shown that a sword symbolizes truths fighting against evils and falsities and destroying them, and in an opposite sense, falsity fighting against goods and truths and destroying them, see nos. 52, 108, 117 above. Accordingly, because the subject is the destruction of all good in the church, a sword here symbolizes doctrinal falsities.

That a famine symbolizes evil practices - this we will confirm below.

Death symbolizes a person's self-love because death symbolizes the extinction of spiritual life, and thus natural life divorced from any spiritual life, as shown in no. 321 above, and this life is the life of a person's self-love; for this life causes a person to love nothing but himself and the world, and so to love also evils of every kind, evils which, because of that life's love, are delightful to him.

That beasts of the earth symbolize lusts arising from the love will be seen in no. 567 below.

Here we will say something about the symbolic meaning of famine. A famine symbolizes the privation and rejection of concepts of truth and goodness, springing from evil practices. It symbolizes as well an ignorance of concepts of truth and goodness, owing to an absence of these in the church. And it symbolizes also a desire to know and understand them.

[2] I. That a famine symbolizes the privation and rejection of concepts of truth and goodness, springing from evil practices, and thus symbolizes evil practices, can be seen from the following passages:

They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, so that their corpses become food for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth. (Jeremiah 16:4)

These two things shall befall you...: devastation and ruin, and famine and sword... (Isaiah 51:19)

Behold, I am visiting punishment upon them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine. (Jeremiah 11:22)

...deliver up her children to famine, and cause them to flow down upon the hands of the sword..., that their men may be put to death... (Jeremiah 18:21)

...I will send on them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and will make them like rough figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence. (Jeremiah 29:17-18)

I will send upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, till they are consumed from the land... (Jeremiah 24:10)

...I proclaim liberty to you..., to the sword, to pestilence, and famine! And I will deliver you for turmoil to all nations. (Jeremiah 34:17)

...because you have defiled My sanctuary..., a third of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine...; and a third shall fall by the sword... When I send against them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for destruction... (Ezekiel 5:11-12, 16-17)

The sword is outside, and the pestilence and famine within. (Ezekiel 7:15)

...for all the evil abominations... they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. (Ezekiel 6:11-12)

...I will send My four evil judgments on Jerusalem - the sword, famine and wild beast, and pestilence - to cut off man and beast from it. (Ezekiel 14:13, 15, 21)

And so, too, elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 14:12-13, 15-16; 42:13-14, 16-18, 22; 44:12-13, 27, Mark 13:8, Luke 21:11. Sword, famine, pestilence and beasts in these places have similar symbolic meanings to those of the sword, famine, death, and beasts of the earth in the present verse. For the Word has a spiritual meaning in it in every single constituent, in which a sword means the destruction of spiritual life by falsities, in which famine means the destruction of spiritual life by evils, in which a beast of the earth means the destruction of spiritual life by the lusts accompanying falsity and evil, and in which pestilence and death means a complete destruction and thus damnation.

[3] II. That famine, or hunger, symbolizes an ignorance of concepts of truth and goodness, owing to an absence of these in the church, is clear as well from various passages in the Word, as in Isaiah 5:13; 8:19-22, Lamentations 2:19; 5:8-10, Amos 8:11-14, Job 5:17, 20, and elsewhere.

III. That famine or hunger symbolizes a desire to know and understand the church's truths and goods is apparent from the following: Isaiah 8:21; 32:6; 49:10; 58:6-7; Matthew 5:6; 25:35, 37, 44; Luke 1:53; John 6:35; and elsewhere.

  
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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.