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约珥书 2

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1 你们要在锡安吹角,在我吹出大声。国中的居民都要发颤;因为耶和华的日子将到,已经临近。

2 那日是黑暗、幽冥、密、乌黑的日子,好像晨光铺满岭。有一队蝗虫(原文是民)又大又强;从来没有这样的,以直到万也必没有。

3 他们前面如烧灭,面如火焰烧尽。未到以前,伊甸园;过去以,成了荒凉的旷野;没有一样能躲避他们的。

4 他们的形状如,奔跑如兵。

5 顶蹦跳的响声,如车辆的响声,又如焰烧碎秸的响声,好像强盛的民摆阵预备打仗。

6 他们一来,众民伤恸,脸都变色。

7 他们如勇士奔跑,像战士爬城;各都步行,不乱队伍。

8 彼此并不拥挤,向前各行其,直闯兵器,不偏左右。

9 他们蹦上城,蹿上,爬上房屋进入窗户如同盗贼。

10 他们一来,动,日月昏暗,宿无光。

11 耶和华在他军旅前发声,他的队伍甚;成就他命的是强盛者。因为耶和华的日子而可畏,谁能当得起呢?

12 耶和华:虽然如此,你们应当禁食、哭泣、悲哀,一心归向我。

13 你们要撕裂心肠,不撕裂衣服。归向耶和华─你们的;因为他有恩典,有怜悯,不轻易发怒,有丰盛的慈爱,并且後悔不降所说的灾。

14 或者他悔,留下馀福,就是留下献给耶和华─你们的素祭和奠祭,也未可知。

15 你们要在锡安吹角,分定禁食的日子,宣告严肃会。

16 聚集众民,使会众自洁:招聚老者,聚集孩童和吃奶的;使新郎出离洞房,新妇出离内室。

17 事奉耶和华的祭司要在廊子和祭坛中间哭泣,耶和华啊,求你顾惜你的百姓,不要使你的产业受羞辱,列邦管辖他们。为何容列国的人:他们的在哪里呢?

18 耶和华就为自己的发热心,怜恤他的百姓。

19 耶和华应允他的百姓:我必赐给你们五谷、新酒,和油,使你们饱足;我也不再使你们受列国的羞辱;

20 却要使北方来的军队远离你们,将他们赶到乾旱荒废之:前队赶入东,後队赶入西;因为他们所行的大恶(原文作事),臭气上升,腥味腾空。

21 地土啊,不要惧;要欢喜快乐,因为耶和华行了大事。

22 田野的走啊,不要惧;因为,旷野的草发生,树木结果,无花果树、葡萄也都效

23 锡安的民哪,你们要快乐,为耶和华─你们的欢喜;因他赐你们合宜的秋雨,为你们降甘霖,就是秋雨、春雨,和先前一样。

24 禾场必满了麦子,酒醡与油醡必有新酒和油盈溢。

25 我打发到你们中间的军队,就是蝗虫、蝻子、蚂蚱、剪,那些年所的,我要补还你们。

26 你们必多而得饱足就赞美为你们行奇妙事之耶和华─你们的名。我的百姓必永远不至羞愧

27 你们必知道我是在以色列中间,又知道我是耶和华─你们的;在我以外并无别。我的百姓必永远不致羞愧

28 ,我要将我的灵浇灌凡有血气的。你们的儿女要预言;你们的老年人要做异梦,少年人要见异象。

29 在那些日子,我要将我的灵浇灌我的仆人和使女。

30 下,我要显出奇事,有血,有,有烟柱。

31 日头要变为黑暗月亮要变为血,这都在耶和华而可畏的日子未到以前。

32 到那时候,凡求告耶和华名的就必得;因为照耶和华的,在锡安耶路撒冷必有逃脱的人,在剩下的人中必有耶和华所召的。

   

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Horse

  
white horse

In Ezekiel 26:11, this signifies the love of learning or intellectual things. (Arcana Coelestia 3727)

In Revelation 6:2, this signifies the love of understanding the Word. (Apocalypse Revealed 298)

In Zechariah 12:4, this signifies that the intellectual should be filled with falsities. (Arcana Coelestia 2383[2])

In general, 'a horse' signifies knowledge or understanding of the Word. In an opposite sense it signifies the understanding of the Word falsified by reasonings, and likewise destroyed from self-derived intelligence. 'A dead horse' signifies no understanding of truth from the Word.

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Apocalypse Revealed # 419

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419. CHAPTER 9

1. Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth, and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

2. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.

3. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

5. And it was given them not to kill them, but to torment them for five months, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.

6. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

7. The locusts in appearance were like horses prepared for battle, and on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.

8. They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth.

9. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle.

10. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails, and their power was to hurt men five months.

11. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but who in Greek has the name Apollyon.

12. One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

13. Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

14. saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

15. And the four angels were released, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, to kill a third of mankind.

16. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million, and I heard the number of them.

17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision and those who sat on them, having breastplates that were fiery, hyacinthine and sulfurous; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.

18. By these three a third of mankind was killed - by the fire and smoke and brimstone coming out of their mouths.

19. Their power was in their mouth [and in their tails]; for their tails were like serpents, having heads, and with them they do harm.

20. But the rest of mankind, who were not killed in these plagues, still did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

21. And they did not repent of their murders or their enchantments or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING

The Contents of the Whole Chapter

An examination and disclosure of the state of life of those people in the Protestant Reformed church who are called learned and wise because of their defense of faith divorced from charity and of justification and salvation by it alone. This is the subject of verses 1-12.

An examination and disclosure of the state of life of those people in that church who are not so learned and wise, who are caught up in faith alone and live as they please. This is the subject of verses 13-19.

Finally, concerning people in that church who know only that faith is the whole means by which a person is saved, and nothing more beyond that. Verses 20, 21.

The Contents of the Individual Verses:

Verse ContentsSpiritual Meaning
1. Then the fifth angel sounded,An examination and disclosure of the state of life of those people in the Protestant Reformed Church who are called learned and wise because of their defense of faith divorced from charity and of justification and salvation by it alone.
and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth,Spiritual Divine truth flowing in from heaven into the church with them, examining and exposing them.
and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.Their hell opened.
2. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace,Falsities accompanying the lusts of the natural self springing from those people's evil loves.
and the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.Therefore the light of truth became thick darkness.
3. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth,From them issued falsities of the lowest sort, such as are found in the case of people who have become sensual and who view and judge everything in accordance with the senses and their fallacies.
and to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.Their power to persuade that their falsities are true.
4. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.The Lord's Divinely providing that they be unable to take away any truth or good of faith, or any affection for or perception of these, from any others than people lacking in charity and so having no faith,
5. And it was given them not to kill them, but to torment them for five months,and that they also be unable to take away their faculty for understanding and willing truth and good, but be able only for a short time to induce a mental numbness,
and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.and this owing to their persuasiveness.
6. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.They wish the intellect to be closed and the will stopped up in matters of faith, which extinguishes spiritual light and life, but that this is impossible.
7. The locusts in appearanceThe appearance and likeness of those people who affirmed in themselves a faith divorced from charity,
were like horses prepared for battle,who because of their ability to reason appeared to themselves to be battling from an understanding of truth founded on the Word.
and on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold,They seemed to themselves to be conquerors.
and their faces were like the faces of men.They seemed to themselves to be wise.
8. They had hair like women's hair,They seemed to themselves to have an affection for truth.
and their teeth were like lions' teeth.Matters of the senses, which constitute the lowest elements of the natural self's life, appeared to them to have power over all else.
9. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron,Their arguments based on fallacies, with which they battled and prevailed, appeared to them too strong to be refuted.
and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle.Their reasonings, as though founded on doctrinal truths from the Word fully understood, which they had to ardently defend.
10. They had tails like scorpions,The Word's truths falsified, by which they induce a mental numbness.
and there were stings in their tails, and their power was to hurt men five months.Their clever falsifications of the Word, by which for a short time they darkened and enchanted the intellect, and so deceived and captivated it.
11. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but who in Greek has the name Apollyon.Those caught up in falsities springing from lusts, who by a total falsification of the Word destroyed the church, are in a satanic hell.
12. One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.Further lamentations over the state of the church.
13. Then the sixth angel sounded,An examination and exposure of the state of life among those people in the Protestant Reformed Church who were not so wise, and yet who placed the whole of religion in faith, thinking of it alone and living as they pleased.
and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14. saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet,A command by the Lord out of the spiritual heaven to those who were to examine and expose it,
"Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."to remove from them external bonds, to enable the interiors of their minds to appear.
15. And the four angels were released,When the external bonds were removed, the interiors of their minds became apparent.
who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, to kill a third of mankind.Their being in a perpetual effort to take away spiritual light and life from the people of the church.
16. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million,Their reasonings concerning faith alone, with which they had filled the interiors of the minds, springing from nothing but an abundance of falsities accompanying evil.
and I heard the number of them.Their character perceived.
17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision and those who sat on them,The discovery then that the reasonings of the interiors of their minds concerning faith alone were fanciful and illusory, and that they themselves were insane because of them.
having breastplates that were fiery, hyacinthine and sulfurous;Their fanciful and illusory arguments springing from a hellish love and their own inherent intelligence, and from the attendant lusts.
and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions;Their delusions with respect to faith alone, as though they had power.
and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.Interiorly regarded, their thoughts and discourses contained nothing else, and issuing from them was nothing but a love of self and the world, a conceit in their own intelligence, and from these two the lusts attendant on evil and falsity.
18. By these three a third of mankind was killed - by the fire and smoke and brimstone coming out of their mouths.It is because of these that the people of the church perish.
19. Their power was in their mouthThey prevailed only by their discourse affirming faith.
[and in their tails,] for their tails were like serpents, having heads, and with them they do harm.The reason being that they are sensual and turned upside down, speaking truths with their mouths, but falsifying them by the postulate which forms the chief tenet of their religion, and thus deceiving others.
20. But the rest of mankind, who were not killed in these plagues,Those people in the Protestant Reformed Church who were not as spiritually dead as the former were because of their illusory reasonings and love of self, a conceit in their own intelligence, and the attendant lusts, and yet who made faith alone the chief tenet of their religion.
still did not repent of the works of their hands,Nor did they refrain from their native proclivities, which are evils of every kind, as being sins.
so as not to worship demons,Thus they were caught up in the evils of their lusts, and acted in concert with their like in hell.
and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood,Thus they engage in worship founded on nothing but falsities,
which can neither see nor hear nor walk.which do not have in them any spiritual or truly rational life.
21. And they did not repent of their murders or their enchantments or their sexual immorality or their thefts.The heretical belief in faith alone induces in their hearts stupidity, backsliding, and intransigence, so that they give no thought to the Ten Commandments, not even to any sin as something to be shunned because it is on the side of the Devil and against God.

THE EXPOSITION

Then the fifth angel sounded. (9:1) This symbolizes an examination and disclosure of the state of life of those people in the Protestant Reformed Church who are called learned and wise because of their defense of faith divorced from charity and of justification and salvation by it alone.

That this is the subject in what follows now up to verse 12, is clear from the several particulars, understood in their spiritual sense.

To sound a trumpet means, symbolically, to examine and expose the state of the church and consequent life in people for whom religion is faith alone, as may be seen in no. 397 above.

  
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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.