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Ne ubij!
Apocalypse Revealed # 457
457. Still did not repent of the works of their hands. This symbolically means, nor did they refrain from their native proclivities, which are evils of every kind, as being sins.
The works of a person's hands symbolize a person's native proclivities, which are evils and their attendant falsities, because the hands symbolize in summary the things that emanate from a person; for the forces of the mind and consequently of the body are directed into the hands and terminate there. Consequently the hands in the Word symbolize power. For the same reason the works of a person's hands symbolize his native proclivities, which are evils and falsities of every kind. Evils are the native proclivities of his will, and the attendant falsities the native proclivities of his intellect.
We are told regarding the people who are the subject here that they did not repent, because people who make faith alone the totality of religion say to themselves, "What need do I have of repentance, when through faith alone our sins are forgiven and we are saved? What do our works contribute to this? I know that I was born in sin and that I am a sinner. If I confess this and pray that my faults not be imputed to me, then I have repented. What need do I have of anything more?"
Thus the person then gives no thought to sin, even to the point of not knowing what sins are. Consequently the delight and gratification they afford continually carry him along in them and into them, the way a favorable wind and current carry a ship onto rocks when both captain and crew are asleep.
[2] In the natural sense of the Word, the works of a person's hands mean carved images, cast images, and idols; but in its spiritual sense, they symbolize evils and falsities of every kind, which are a person's native proclivities. As, for example, in the following passages:
...do not provoke Me to anger by the work of your hands...; (if you were) to provoke Me to anger by the work of your hands to your own hurt..., I will repay them according to their work and according to the deeds of their hands. (Jeremiah 25:6-7, 14)
...the children of Israel have provoked Me... to anger by the work of their hands... (Jeremiah 32:30, cf. 44:8)
I will utter My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, because they... bowed themselves to the works of their hands. (Jeremiah 1:16)
In that day... people's eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel, and... not to the altars, the work of their hands, and... what their fingers have made... (Isaiah 17:7-8, cf. 31:7; 37:19, Jeremiah 10:9)
[3] The work of a person's hands is his own doing, thus evil and falsity, and this can be clearly seen from the fact that it was for this reason that the Israelites were forbidden to built an altar or temple out of hewn stones, or to use an iron tool on those stones; for they symbolized the work of a person's hands:
If you make Me an altar of stones, you shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you use your chisel on it, you will profane it. (Exodus 20:25)
Joshua built... an altar of... stones, on which he did not use an iron tool. (Joshua 8:30-31)
The temple (at Jerusalem)...was built of whole stone, and no hammer or axe or any iron tool was heard... while it was being built. (1 Kings 6:7)
[4] Everything that the Lord does is likewise called the work of His hands, and these are His inherent attributes, which in themselves are goods and truths. As, for example, in the following places:
The works of (Jehovah's) hands are truth and judgment. (Psalms 111:7)
Your mercy, O Jehovah, endures forever; do not cease the works of Your hands. (Psalms 138:8)
Thus said Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "Seek from Me signs concerning My children; concerning the work of My hands, command Me." (Isaiah 45:11)
Your people are all just..., the offshoot of My planting, the work of My hands... (Isaiah 60:21)
...O Jehovah, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter, and all we the work of Your hands. (Isaiah 64:8)
1 Kings 6
1
It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of Yahweh.
2
The house which king Solomon built for Yahweh, its length was sixty cubits, and its breadth twenty [cubits], and its height thirty cubits.
3
The porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was its length, according to the breadth of the house; [and] ten cubits was its breadth before the house.
4
For the house he made windows of fixed lattice work.
5
Against the wall of the house he built stories all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the temple and of the oracle; and he made side rooms all around.
6
The nethermost story was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad; for on the outside he made offsets [in the wall] of the house all around, that [the beams] should not have hold in the walls of the house.
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The house, when it was in building, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
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The door for the middle side rooms was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the middle [story], and out of the middle into the third.
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So he built the house, and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.
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He built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.
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The word of Yahweh came to Solomon, saying,
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"Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.
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I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel."
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So Solomon built the house, and finished it.
15
He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar: from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir.
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He built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls [of the ceiling]: he built [them] for it within, for an oracle, even for the most holy place.
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The house, that is, the temple before [the oracle], was forty cubits [long].
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There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.
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He prepared an oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.
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Within the oracle was [a space of] twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in its height; and he overlaid it with pure gold: and he covered the altar with cedar.
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So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he drew chains of gold across before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.
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The whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished: also the whole altar that belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold.
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In the oracle he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.
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Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing to the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.
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The other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubim were of one measure and one form.
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The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub.
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He set the cherubim within the inner house; and the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.
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He overlaid the cherubim with gold.
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He carved all the walls of the house around with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, inside and outside.
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The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and outside.
31
For the entrance of the oracle he made doors of olive wood: the lintel [and] door posts were a fifth part [of the wall].
32
So [he made] two doors of olive wood; and he carved on them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold on the cherubim, and on the palm trees.
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So also made he for the entrance of the temple door posts of olive wood, out of a fourth part [of the wall];
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and two doors of fir wood: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.
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He carved [thereon] cherubim and palm trees and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work.
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He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone, and a course of cedar beams.
37
In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of Yahweh laid, in the month Ziv.
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In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all its parts, and according to all its fashion. So was he seven years in building it.
