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Soudců 15

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1 Stalo se pak po několika dnech, v čas žně pšeničné, že chtěje navštíviti Samson ženu svou, a přinésti s sebou kozlíka, řekl: Vejdu k ženě své do pokoje. A nedopustil mu otec její vjíti.

2 I řekl otec její: Domníval jsem se zajisté, že ji máš v nenávisti, protož dal jsem ji tovaryši tvému. Zdaliž není sestra její mladší pěknější než ona? Nechať jest tedy tvá místo oné.

3 I řekl jim Samson: Nebuduť já potom vinen Filistinským, když jim zle učiním.

4 Odšed tedy Samson, nalapal tři sta lišek, a vzav pochodně, obrátil jeden ocas k druhému, a dal vše jednu pochodni mezi dva ocasy do prostředka.

5 Potom zapálil ty pochodně, a pustil do obilí Filistinských, a popálil, jakž sžaté tak nesžaté, i vinice i olivoví.

6 I řekli Filistinští: Kdo je to učinil? Jimž odpovědíno: Samson zeť Tamnejského, proto že vzal ženu jeho a dal ji tovaryši jeho. Tedy přišedše Filistinští, spálili ji ohněm i otce jejího.

7 Tedy řekl jim Samson: Ač jste učinili tak, však až se lépe vymstím nad vámi, teprv přestanu.

8 I zbil je na hnátích i na bedrách porážkou velikou, a odšed, usadil se na vrchu skály Etam.

9 Pročež vytáhli Filistinští, a rozbivše stany proti Judovi, rozložili se až do Lechi.

10 Muži pak Juda řekli: Proč jste vytáhli proti nám? I odpověděli: Vytáhli jsme, abychom svázali Samsona, a učinili jemu tak, jako on nám učinil.

11 Tedy vyšlo tři tisíce mužů Juda k vrchu skály Etam, a řekli Samsonovi: Nevíš-liž, že panují nad námi Filistinští? Pročež jsi tedy nám to učinil? I odpověděl jim: Jakž mi učinili, tak jsem jim učinil.

12 Řekli také jemu: Přišli jsme, abychom tě svázali a vydali v ruku Filistinským. Tedy odpověděl jim Samson: Přisáhněte mi , že vy se na mne neoboříte.

13 Tedy mluvili jemu, řkouce: Nikoli, jediné tuze svížíce, vydáme tě v ruku jejich, ale nezabijeme tě. I svázali ho dvěma provazy novými, a svedli jej s skály.

14 Kterýž když přišel až do Lechi, Filistinští radostí křičeli proti němu. přišel pak na něj Duch Hospodinův, a učiněni jsou provazové, kteříž byli na rukou jeho, jako niti lněné, když v ohni hoří, i spadli svazové s rukou jeho.

15 Tedy našel čelist osličí ještě vlhkou, a vztáh ruku svou, vzal ji a pobil ní tisíc mužů.

16 Protož řekl Samson: Čelistí osličí hromadu jednu, nýbrž dvě hromady, čelistí osličí zbil jsem tisíc mužů.

17 A když přestal mluviti, povrhl čelist z ruky své, a nazval to místo Ramat Lechi.

18 Žíznil pak velice, i volal k Hospodinu a řekl: Ty jsi učinil skrze ruce služebníka svého vysvobození toto veliké, nyní pak již žízní umru, aneb upadnu v ruku těch neobřezaných.

19 Tedy otevřel Bůh skálu v Lechi, i vyšly z ní vody, a napil se; i okřál, a jako ožil. Protož nazval jméno její studnice vzývajícího, kteráž jest v Lechi až do dnešního dne.

20 Soudil pak Izraele za času Filistinských dvadceti let.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Judges 15

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

Judges 15: Samson defeats the Philistines.

At the beginning of this chapter, we learn that the one who gave Samson’s wife to another man was his father-in-law, who thought that Samson truly hated her. He then offered Samson her younger sister instead, saying, “Is she not better? Take her.”

Samson, enraged, took three-hundred foxes and tied them tail-to-tail in pairs, with a lit torch between them. He then released them in the Philistines’ standing grain, vineyards and olive groves to burn up their crops, as revenge for the loss of his wife. In retaliation, the Philistines went and burned her and her father. In a final act of vengeance, Samson killed very many of the Philistines, then went to dwell in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

The Philistines went to Judah, stating their intent to arrest Samson, and the men of Judah passed on the message to him. Samson made the Judeans promise not to kill him themselves, but only to bind him with two new ropes before giving him to the Philistines as a prisoner.

When the Philistines came, Samson broke apart the ropes, and killed a thousand of them with the jawbone of a donkey. Then he threw the jawbone away, and complained to the Lord that he was thirsty. The Lord answered his cry for help by splitting the ground where the jawbone fell, so that Samson could drink the water that flowed from it.

The final verse of this chapter tells us that Samson judged Israel twenty years.

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Samson’s marriage to a Philistine woman speaks to the appealing, or even enticing, nature of ‘faith alone’ spirituality, represented by the Philistines. We must stay on our guard, to ensure that we are not caught up in thinking that faith alone will save us. The father offers Samson his wife’s younger sister, saying she is even better, but Samson had already learned to be wary by that point.

The foxes, tied together with their tails lit on fire, vividly describes the twisted and destructive nature of faith alone, and the way it consumes our potential to lead a fruitful life. The Word often depicts the state of a nation or religion through a story illustrating its true nature (True Christian Religion 130)

The cycle of revenge between Samson and the Philistines represents our personal struggles during temptation and our wish to regenerate. Our whole effort during regeneration is to resist sins that might lure us in, and to maintain our intention to live the Word (see Swedenborg’s work, Divine Providence 83[6]). The men of Judah who bind Samson represent our love for the Lord and for everything of the Lord, although this seems contradictory on a surface level. In this case, being ‘bound up’ means to be bound in our commitment to the Lord, so that we are restrained from doing evil (see Swedenborg’s work, Heaven and Hell 577[4]).

Samson stands for the power of the Word acting in our lives to assert what is true, to protect what must be upheld, and to defend against evils. He uses the jawbone of a donkey because a jawbone allows us to eat food (spiritually, nourishment from the Word), and also to proclaim the Lord’s truths. This gives us the power to expose and reject the belief that spirituality consists of faith alone (see Swedenborg’s work, Arcana Caelestia 9049[6]).

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 4799

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4799. Spirits from another planet which will be described elsewhere were once present with me, whose faces were different from those of people belonging to our own planet. Their faces protruded, especially around the lips; and in addition to this, they were flexible. When I spoke to them about their normal lifestyle and about the nature of their associations with one another, they said that they spoke to one another in particular by means of the production of variations of their faces, chiefly by variations around the lips, and that they expressed their affections by means of those parts of the face which are around the eyes, so that their companions could thereby have a full understanding not only of what they were thinking but also of what their wishes were. They also tried to demonstrate this to me by entering my own lips, round about which they tried to produce various folds and twists. But I could not receive these variations because my lips had not been trained since I was a small child to make such movements there. Nevertheless I was able to ascertain what they said through their communication of their thought to me. Yet the possibility of speech in general being expressed by means of the lips becomes clear to me from the manifold series of muscle fibres which exist in the lips and have become twisted together. If these were unravelled, so that they acted without any entanglements and freely, they would be able to produce many variations there that are unknown to those with whom those muscle fibres lie squashed together.

[2] The reason the speech of the spirits there was as described is that they are incapable of presence, that is, of thinking one thing and expressing another with their face; for they live with one another with such openness that they do not conceal anything whatever from fellow spirits. Indeed these know instantly what they are thinking and what their wishes are, also what kind of people they are, as well as what deeds they have done; for the acts done by those who live in that openness are lodged in their conscience, and therefore others can, when they first see them, discern what their inner countenances or dispositions of mind are.

[3] The spirits showed me that they do not strain their faces but let them move freely, unlike those people who since their youth have become accustomed to put on a presence, that is to say, to speak and act in a different way from how they think and desire. The faces of the latter are kept taut, ready to produce the kind of variation which their artfulness tells them to produce. Anything a person wishes to conceal causes his face to be made taut; and this ceases to be taut and expands when something seemingly open and sincere can be fraudulently displayed there.

[4] While I was reading about the Lord in the New Testament Word, the spirits from another planet were with me as well as certain Christians. I perceived that inwardly these Christians cherished offensive ideas opposed to the Lord, and also that they wished in some quiet way to communicate these. Those from another planet were astonished that they were like this, but I was allowed to tell them that in the world they had not been such in their utterances, but had been in their hearts. There even exist, I added, people like them who nevertheless preach about the Lord. When these do so it is with a pseudo-religious zeal by which they move the common people to emit groans and sometimes to shed tears; yet they communicate nothing at all of what is in their hearts. On hearing all this the spirits from another planet were astounded that such a dichotomy between interior things and exterior ones could exist, that is, between thought and speech. They said they were totally unacquainted with that kind of dichotomy, and that it was impossible for them to utter anything with the lips or to express anything in the face other than that which matched the affections of the heart; and that if it were other than this, they would be torn asunder and would perish.

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