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Jozue 6

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1 Jericho pak velmi pilně zavříno bylo pro strach synů Izraelských, a žádný nevycházel ven, ani tam nevcházel.

2 I řekl Hospodin k Jozue: Aj, dal jsem v ruku tvou Jericho, a krále jeho s silnými muži jeho.

3 Protož obcházeti budete město všickni muži bojovní, okolo města chodíce, jednou za den; tak učiníš po šest dní.

4 Kněží pak sedm ať nesou sedm trub z rohů beraních před truhlou; dne pak sedmého obejdete město sedmkrát, a Kněží troubiti budou v trouby.

5 A když zdlouha troubiti budou na roh beraní, jakž nejprvé uslyšíte hlas trouby, zkřikne všecken lid křikem velikým, i oboří se zed městská na místě svém, a vejde lid do města, jeden každý proti místu, kdež stál.

6 Tedy povolav Jozue, syn Nun, kněží, řekl jim: Vezměte truhlu smlouvy, a sedm kněží ať vezmou sedm trub beraních před truhlou Hospodinovou.

7 Řekl také lidu: Jděte a obejděte město, a zbrojní ať jdou před truhlou Hospodinovou.

8 A když to oznámil Jozue lidu, sedm kněží, nesouce sedm trub beraních, šli před truhlou Hospodinovou, a troubili v trouby; truhla také smlouvy Hospodinovy brala se za nimi.

9 Zbrojní pak šli před kněžími, kteříž troubili na trouby, a ostatní šli za truhlou, jdouce a v trouby troubíce.

10 (Lidu pak byl přikázal Jozue, řka: Nebudete křičeti, ani slyšán bude hlas váš, ani vyjde slovo z úst vašich až do dne toho, v němž řeknu vám: Křičte, i budete křičeti.)

11 Tedy obešla truhla Hospodinova město vůkol jednou, a navrátili se do stanů a zůstali v nich.

12 Opět povstal Jozue ráno a kněží nesli truhlu Hospodinovu.

13 Sedm pak kněží, nesouce Sedm trub beraních, předcházeli truhlu Hospodinovu, jdouce, a troubili v trouby; a zbrojní šli před nimi, a ostatní šli za truhlou Hospodinovou, když kněží šli, v trouby troubíce.

14 I obešli město druhého dne opět, a navrátili se do stanů. Tak činili po šest dní.

15 V den pak sedmý vstali, jakž zasvitávalo, a obešli město týmž způsobem sedmkrát; toliko toho dne obešli město sedmkrát.

16 Stalo se pak, když po sedmé obcházeli, a kněží v trouby troubili, řekl Jozue lidu: Křičtež již, dalť jest Hospodin vám město.

17 A budiž to město proklaté, ono i všecky věci, kteréž v něm jsou, Hospodinu; toliko Raab nevěstka ať jest živa, ona i všickni, kteříž by s ní byli v domě, nebo skryla posly, kteréž jsme byli poslali.

18 Avšak vystříhejte se od proklatého, abyste i vy nebyli učiněni proklatí, berouce z proklatých věcí, a uvedli byste stany Izraelské v prokletí, a zkormoutili byste je.

19 Všecko pak stříbro a zlato, a nádoby měděné a železné, svaté bude Hospodinu; na poklad Hospodinu složeno bude.

20 Tedy křičel lid, když zatroubili v trouby. Nebo když slyšel lid hlas trub, křičeli i oni křikem velikým, i obořila se zed na místě svém. Tedy všel lid do města, jeden každý proti místu, kdež stál. I vzali je.

21 A pohubili ostrostí meče jako proklaté všecko, což bylo v městě, od muže až do ženy, od dítěte až do starce, a až do vola, dobytčete i osla.

22 Dvěma pak mužům, kteříž shlédli zemi, řekl Jozue: Vejděte do domu ženy nevěstky, a vyveďte ji odtud, i všecky věci, kteréž má, jakož jste jí přisáhli.

23 I všedše mládenci špehéři, vyvedli Raab a otce jejího, i matku její a bratří její i všecko, což měla, a všecku rodinu její vyvedli, a nechali jich vně za stany Izraelskými.

24 Město pak spálili ohněm, i všecko, což v něm bylo, stříbro však a zlato a nádoby měděné a železné složili na poklad v domě Hospodinově.

25 Raab také nevěstku, a dům otce jejího i všecko, což měla, živé zůstavil Jozue; a bydlila v lidu Izraelském až do tohoto dne, nebo skryla posly, kteréž poslal Jozue k shlédnutí Jericha.

26 Toho času vydal klatbu Jozue, řka: Zlořečený buď před Hospodinem muž ten, kterýž by povstal, aby stavěl město Jericho. V prvorozeném svém založí je, a v nejmenším postaví brány jeho.

27 Byl pak Hospodin s Jozue, a rozhlásila se pověst o něm po vší zemi.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Joshua 6

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth

Joshua 6: The Fall of Jericho

Here, the first conflict for Israel in Canaan presents itself: the taking of the city of Jericho, which stands directly and obstinately in the path of the Israelites, preventing them from moving forward. This conflict embodies the whole essence and scope of all the rest of the conquests in the Joshua story, which in the inner meaning is to overcome and rule the things in our lives which oppose what God wants for us.

Jericho is to be taken with a siege, and God gives Joshua a procedure to follow: You shall march round the city once a day for six days in absolute silence. Seven priests shall carry seven rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march round the city seven times, and then the priests shall blow their trumpets. All the people are to shout with a huge shout, and then the walls of the city will fall down flat. And all the people are to go up and take the city.

This is quite unlike any other siege, where walls have to be scaled and fire catapulted in to burn things, but... this is a spiritual siege. The siege of Jericho represents how we are to lay siege to, or deal effectively with, our own evils and tendencies. It is the description blueprint for the battle between good and evil, which is our battle too. (See Doctrine of Faith 50).

In the Bible, Jericho is sometimes called the ‘city of palm trees’, giving a lovely idea of it. Its name means “a place of fragrance”, or, “his (the Lord’s) sweet breath”. It sounds perfect, but this has been usurped by invaders and takers who are now in complete possession of this sweet city and who will hold on for all they're worth (Apocalypse Explained 502[11]). This is really an account of the influence of hell in human life, and especially our unregenerate lives, when we are open to whatever feels self-gratifying.

Jericho, we hear, is shut up tight. It is not going to be an easy matter – because the work of regeneration never is – but this also describes hell’s fear; it is shut up tight because of the Israelites (Heaven and Hell 543). In us, when we become aware of a better way to live and we want to follow the Lord - whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light - hell will soon hit back in some devious imperceptible way to hold on to what it has got. It is scared of losing us.

This takes us to the siege and its tactics. The march once a day around the city for six days, carrying the ark, is to see every part of our situation from every angle, and it is also to parade our worship and adoration of the Lord (by parading the ark). The time period, six days, is always to do with the work involved in our regeneration as we see evil and shun it, pray to God, stand back and determine. (Arcana Caelestia 10373)

The seventh day involves seven marches round the city, then the trumpets and the shouts. This is the culmination, the Sabbath. For us, it is the avowal that we know the Lord is now ruling our will and our life and there will be no turning back or weakness of giving in. Jericho is now taken! The command is that every living thing in the city is to be completely destroyed because we must be unrelenting against all the things in our lives that go against God.

The gold, the silver, and the vessels of brass and iron, were put into the treasury of the house of Jehovah. The "gold and silver" represent the knowledges of spiritual truth and good, and "the vessels of brass and iron" represent knowledges of natural truth and good. In the profane hands of the idolaters of Jericho, those knowledges could be tools to serve dire falsities and evils. In the house of Jehovah, they could be serviceable knowledges, applied to good ends - hence their being salvaged. (See Heaven and Hell 487)

The prostitute Rahab (who had hidden Israel’s spies and confessed the Lord’s power) and all her family are brought out and given safekeeping. For us, this is the acknowledgement of the truth that we are sinful (as she was) and that if it were not for the Lord we would plunge into who knows what. But now we know and confess the power and truth of God. And then, the Israelites burn the city with fire and Joshua pronounces a curse on anyone who ever rebuilds this city. We are to abhor evil for what it is and be faithful to the Lord our God.

The story of the destruction of Jericho is then the pattern for all our resistance and resolve in seeing and overcoming evil, while confessing, as we do this, that the battle is the Lord’s. (Charity 166)

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Heaven and Hell # 487

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487. The only way to know the kinds and qualities of the spiritual pleasures into which natural pleasures turn after death is through a knowledge of correspondences. This teaches in general that there is nothing natural to which something spiritual does not answer, and it teaches specifically the identity and nature of whatever does so correspond. This means that people who are engaged in this knowledge can recognize and know their state after death provided they know their love and how it relates in its nature to the universally dominant love to which, as we have just stated, all loves go back.

However, people who are involved in self-love cannot know what their dominant love is because they love whatever is theirs and call their evils good. They also call false things true, the false notions that support them and that they use to rationalize their evils. If they were willing, though, they could still know [their dominant love] from other people who are wise, because these latter see what they themselves do not. This does not happen, though, in the case of people who are so enmeshed in their self-love that they have nothing but contempt for any teaching of the wise.

[2] On the other hand, people who are in heavenly love do accept instruction and do see the evils into which they were born when they are led into them. They see them from truths because truths make evils obvious. Anyone can in fact see what is evil and the distortion it causes by seeing from the truth that arises from what is good; but no one can see what is good and true from an evil standpoint. This is because the false notions that arise from evil are darkness and correspond to it. So people who are caught up in false notions that arise from evil are like blind people who do not see things that are in the light, and they avoid them the way owls avoid daylight. 1 On the other hand, the true perceptions that arise from good are light and correspond to light (see above, 126-134). So people who are focused on the true perceptions that arise from good are sighted and open-eyed and can differentiate between things that are in light and shade.

[3] I have been granted confirmation of this too by experience. The angels who are in the heavens both see and grasp the evil and false promptings that well up in them from time to time; and they can also see the evil and false promptings that engage the spirits in the world of spirits who are in touch with the hells, though the spirits themselves cannot see their own evil and false promptings. They do not grasp what the virtue of heavenly love is, what conscience is, what is honest and fair (except as it is to their own advantage), or what it means to be led by the Lord. They say these things do not exist and therefore make no difference whatever.

All this has been presented to encourage people to examine themselves and to identify their dominant love on the basis of their pleasures, so that according to their grasp of the knowledge of correspondences, they may know their state of life after death.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. [Swedenborg's footnote] By reason of correspondence, darkness in the Word means falsities, and dense darkness or gloom means falsities that stem from evil: Arcana Coelestia 1839, 1860, 7688, 7711. Heaven's light is darkness to evil people: 1861, 6832, 8197. People who are in the hells are said to be in darkness because they are engrossed in false notions that stem from evil; with some discussion: 3340, 4418, 4531. In the Word, "the blind" means people who are engrossed in false convictions and do not want to be taught: 2383, 6990.

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