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Ezekiel 23

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1 HE ENs Ord kom til mig således:

2 Meneskesøn! Der var to Kvinder, Døtre af en og samme Moder.

3 De bolede i deres Ungdom i Ægypten: der krammedes deres Bryster, der krænkede man deres Jomfrubarm.

4 Den ældste hed Ohola, hendes Søster Oholiba. Og de blev mine og fødte Sønner og Døtre. Ohola er Samaria, Oholiba Jerusalem.

5 Men i Stedet for at holde sig til mig bolede Ohola og var i Brynde for sine Elskere, Assurs Sønner, der nærmede sig hende

6 klædt i Purpur, Statholdere og Landshøvdinger, alle sammen smukke unge Mænd, yttere højt til Hest;

7 og hun gav dem sin bolerske Elskov, alle Assurs ypperste Sønner, og alle Vegne, hvor hun kom i Brynde, gjorde hun sig uren ved deres Afgudsbilleder.

8 Men sin Bolen med Ægypterne opgav hun ikke, thi de hade ligget hos hende i hendes Ungdom; de havde skændet hendes Jomfrubarm og udøst deres bolerske Attrå over hende.

9 Derfor gav jeg hende i hendes Elskeres, Assurs Sønners, Hånd, for hvem hun var i Brynde;

10 og de blottede hendes Blusel, tog hendes Sønner og Døtre og dræbte hende selv med Sværd, så hun fik Vanry blandt Kvinder; således fuldbyrdede de Dommen over hende.

11 Det så hendes Søster Oholiba, og dog kom hun i endnu værre Brynde og bolede endnu værre end Søsteren.

12 Hun kom i Brynde for Assurs Sønner, Statholdere og Landshøvdinger, der nærmede sig hende herligt klædt, yttere højt til Hest, alle sammen smukke unge Mænd.

13 Og jeg så, at hun blev uren; begge fulgte samme Vej.

14 Men hun drev sin Bolen videre endnu; thi da hun så Mænd afbildede på Muren, Billeder af Kaldæere, malet med rødt,

15 med Bælte om Lænd og nedhængende Hovedbind, alle at se til som Høvedsmænd, en Afbildning af Babels Sønner, hvis Hjemstavn Kaldæa er,

16 så kom hun i Brynde for dem, så snart hun fik Øje på dem, og hun sendte Bud til dem i Kaldæa:

17 Og Babels Sønner gik ind til hende, lå hos hende i Elskov og gjorde hende uren ved deres Bolen; og hun blev uren ved dem, til hun følte Lede ved dem.

18 Da hun havde åbenbaret sin bolerske Attrå og blottet sin Blusel, følte jeg Lede ved hende, som jeg var blevet led ved hendes søster.

19 Men hun drev sin Bolen videre endnu, idet hun kom sin Ungdoms Dage i Hu, da hun havde bolet i Ægypten,

20 og hun kom i Brynde ved dets Bolere, der havde Kød som Æsler og var gejle som Hingste;

21 og hun optog sin Ungdoms Skændsel, dengang Ægypterne krænkede hendes Jomfrubarm og krammede hendes unge Bryster,

22 Derfor, Oholiba, så siger den Herre HE EN: Jeg hidser dine Elskere på dig, dem, du følte Lede ved, og fører dem mod dig fra alle Kanter,

23 Babels Sønner og alle Kaldæerne, Pekod, Sjoa og Koa og med dem alle Assurs Sønner, alle sammen smukke unge Mænd, Statholdere og Landshøvdinger, Høvedsmænd og navnkundige Mænd, alle højt til Hest;

24 og de skal komme imod dig med en Vrimmel af Vogne og Hjul og en Hærskare af Folkeslag; store og små Skjolde og Hjelme skal de rette imod dig fra alle Kanter. Jeg overlader dem Dommen, og de skal dømme dig efter deres et.

25 Jeg retter min Nidkærhed imod dig, og de skal handle med dig i Vrede; din Næse og dine Ører skal de skære af, dit Afkom skal falde for Sværdet; de skal tage dine Sønner og Døtre, og dit Afkom skal fortæres af Ild;

26 de skal rive Klæderne af dig og tage alle dine Smykker;

27 jeg gør Ende på din Skændsel og din Bolen, som du hengav dig til i Ægypten, og du skal ikke mere løfte dit Blik til dem eller komme Ægypten i Hu.

28 Thi så siger den Herre HE EN: Se, jeg giver dig i deres Hånd, som du hader og ledes ved;

29 de skal handle med dig i Had og tage alt dit Gods og efterlade dig nøgen og bar, så din bolerske blussel blottes.

30 Det kan du takke din Skændsel og din Bolen for, thi du bolede med Folkene og gjorde dig uren med deres Afgudsbilleder.

31 Du vandrede i din Søsters Spor; derfor giver jeg dig hendes Bæger i Hånden.

32 siger den Herre HE EN: Du skal drikke af din Søsters Bæger, som er både dybt og bredt; du skal blive til Latter og Spot; Bægeret rummer meget;

33 det er fuldt af Beruselse og Stønnen, et Bæger med Gru og ædsel er din Søster Samarias Bæger.

34 Du skal drikke det ud til sidste Dråbe, gnave dets Skår og sønderrive dine Bryster, så sandt jeg har talet, lyder det fra den Herre HE EN.

35 Derfor, så siger den Herre HE EN: Fordi du glemte mig og kastede mig bag din yg, skal du bære Følgen af din Skændsel og Bolen.

36 Og HE EN sagde til mig: Menneskesøn! Vil du dømme Ohola og Oholiba, så forehold dem deres Vederstyggeligheder,

37 at de horede og har Blod på Hænderne; de horede med deres Afgudsbilleder, og til Føde for dem lod de Børnene, de fødte mig, gå igennem Ilden.

38 Fremdeles har de gjort mig dette: De har gjort min Helligdom uren og vanhelliget mine Sabbater;

39 endog samme Dag de havde slagtet deres Børn til Afgudsbillederne, kom de til min Helligdom og vanhelligede den. Sandelig, således gjorde de i mit Hus.

40 Ja, for Mænd, som kom langvejs fra, straks der var sendt dem Bud, badede du dig, sminkede du dine Øjne og tog dine Smykker på;

41 og du satte dig på et prægtigt Leje, og foran det dækkedes et Bord, på hvilket du satte min øgelse og min Olie.

42 Og det ligefrem larmede hos Søstrene; så mange Mænd kom der fra Ørkenen; og de lagde Spange om deres Arme og satte en herlig Krone på deres Hoved.

43 sagde jeg: Således har de horet, på Skøgevis har de bolet.

44 Man gik ind til dem som til en Skøge; således gik man ind til Ohola og Oholiba og øvede Skændsel.

45 Uvildige Mænd skal dømme dem efter Ægteskabsbryderskers og Morderskers et; thi de horede og har Blod på Hænderne.

46 Thi så siger den Herre HE EN: En Forsamling skal sammenkaldes imod dem, og de skal gives hen til at mishandles og udplyndres;

47 Forsamlingen skal stene dem og hugge dem sønder og sammen med Sværd; deres Sønner og Døtre skal man dræbe, og deres Huse skal man brænde.

48 Jeg gør Ende på Skændselen i Landet, og alle kvinder skal lade sig advare derved og ikke efterligne eders Skændsel.

49 Man skal lade eders Skændsel komme over eder, og I skal bære Følgen af de Synder, I gjorde med eders Afgudsbilleder; og I skal kende, at jeg er den Herre HE EN.

   


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Apocalypse Revealed # 434

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434. They had hair like women's hair. (9:8) This symbolically means that they seemed to themselves to have an affection for truth.

In the Word a man symbolizes an understanding of truth, and a woman an affection for truth, because a man is by birth a form of the intellect, and a woman a form of affection, as we say in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Marriage. 1 Hair in the Word symbolizes the lowest level of a person's life, which is the sensual level, as said in no. 424. It is on this level that it seems to these people that they have an affection for truth, when in fact they have an affection for falsity, since they believe it to be true.

That a woman symbolizes an affection for truth can be seen from many passages in the Word. So it is that the church is called a wife, woman, daughter, and virgin. The church, moreover, is a church by virtue of its love or affection for truth, for this is what gives rise to an understanding of truth.

[2] The church is called a woman in the following places:

...there were two women, the daughters of one mother, (who) committed harlotry in Egypt..., Oholah (being) Samaria, and Oholibah (being) Jerusalem. (Ezekiel 23:2-4)

...Jehovah has called you like a woman forsaken and afflicted in spirit, and a youthful woman... (Isaiah 54:6-7)

...Jehovah has created a new thing in the earth - a woman shall encompass a man. (Jeremiah 31:21-22)

The woman clothed with the sun, whom the dragon pursued (Revelation 12), symbolizes the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.

Women symbolize affections for truth, by virtue of which the church is a church, in many other places, as in the following:

The women of My people you cast out from its delightful house. (Micah 2:9)

(The families of the houses shall mourn by themselves,) and... women by themselves... (Zechariah 12:11-13)

Rise up, you women at ease, hear... my speech. (Isaiah 32:9)

Why do you do... evil..., to cut off from you man and woman...? (Jeremiah 44:7)

...I will scatter man and woman... (Jeremiah 51:22)

A man and woman, here and elsewhere, mean, symbolically in the spiritual sense, an understanding of truth and an affection for truth.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. A reference to a work by that title never published by the writer. Extant in manuscript are a brief outline, a relatively short preliminary draft, and two indices for a longer draft on the subject of marriage that has not been found. The content of the existing material makes clear that these manuscripts, including the missing longer draft, were written in preparation for Delights of Wisdom Relating to Married Love (or Conjugial Love), Followed By Pleasures of Insanity Relating to Licentious Love, which the writer published in 1768, two years after publishing the present work on the Apocalypse.

  
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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.

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Apocalypse Revealed # 424

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424. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth. (9:3) This symbolically means that 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.

Falsities that we term falsities of the lowest sort are those which occur on the lowest level of a person's life, called sensual, which we will speak of below. These falsities are symbolized in the Word by locusts. It should be known, however, that the locusts here did not look like the locusts found in fields, which hop about and devastate pastures and crops. Instead they looked like pygmies or midgets, as is apparent also from their description, as for instance, that they had crowns on their heads, faces like the faces of men, hair like women's hair, teeth like lions' teeth, breastplates of iron, and the angel of the bottomless pit as king over them.

Ancient peoples, too, called midgets locusts, as we can conclude from these verses:

(Those who spied out the land of Canaan said:) ."..we saw the Nephilim, the descendants of the Anakim..., and we were like locusts... in their sight." (Numbers 13:33)

(Jehovah) who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants like locusts... (Isaiah 40:22)

[2] However, because falsities of the lowest sort, such as existed in the people here, are in the Word symbolized by locusts, therefore in Nahum the people are called locusts, as well as being termed crowned and commanders:

...the fire will devour you..., it will eat you up like a locust's larva. Make yourself many like the locust's larva! Make yourself many like locusts! ...Your crowned ones are like locusts, and your commanders like great locusts... (Nahum 3:15-17)

Because falsities of the lowest sort devour the growing truths and goods of the church in a person, they are symbolized by locusts which devour the grasses in fields and the vegetation on farms, as is clear from the following passages:

You shall carry much seed out to the field, but... the locust shall consume it. (Deuteronomy 28:38)

What the caterpillar left, the locust will eat; what the locust left, the beetle grub will eat; and what the beetle grub left, the locust's larva will eat. (Joel 1:4)

I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the beetle grub, the locust's larva, and the caterpillar... (Joel 2:25)

[3] The locusts in Egypt have the same symbolic meaning, of which we read the following in Exodus:

Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and... the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt...; previously there had been no such locusts...; and they ate every herb... of the field... (Exodus 10:12ff.)

And afterward Moses stretched out his rod, and the locusts were cast into the Red Sea.

Further, in the book of Psalms:

He gave their produce to the locust's larva, and their labor to the locust. (Psalms 78:46, cf. 105:34-35)

The miracles in Egypt describe the devastation of the church, and this particular miracle, its devastation by falsities of the lowest sort. And when the inner levels of a person's life are closed, on which the lowest levels depend, the lowest levels become hellish. Therefore the locusts were cast into the Red Sea, which symbolizes hell.

[4] Since few people today know what we mean by the sensual level, or what the character of a sensual person is, and since this is what locusts symbolize, therefore we will introduce from our Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven) the following extracts regarding it:

The sensual level is the lowest of a person's mental life, attaching to and uniting with his five physical senses (nos. 5077 5767, 9212, 9216, 9331, 9730).

That person is called sensual who judges of everything in accordance with his physical senses, and who believes in nothing but what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, saying that if he can, it is real, and rejecting everything else (nos. 5094 7693).

The inner levels of that person's mind, which see in the light of heaven, are closed, so that he sees no truth on those levels which has to do with heaven and the church (nos. 6564, 6844, 6845).

A person like that thinks on the lowest levels, and not interiorly in any spiritual light (nos. 5089 5094, 6564, 7693).

In a word, people like that have a crude natural sight (nos. 6201 6310, 6564, 6844, 6845, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624).

Inwardly they are therefore hostile to matters having to do with heaven and the church, though it is possible for them to speak in favor of them outwardly, even ardently, according to the power they have by virtue of them (nos. 6201, 6316, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949).

The educated and learned who have deeply confirmed themselves in falsities, and still more those who are hostile to the Word's truths, are more sensual than others (no. 6316).

Sensual people reason keenly and skillfully, because their thinking is so near to speech as to almost reside in it, and to be, so to speak, on the lips, and because they place all intelligence in speech from the memory alone; moreover, some of them can cleverly defend falsities, and after they have done so, believe they are true (nos. 195 196, 5700, 10236).

They reason from fallacies of the senses and defend them, which they use to captivate and persuade the populace (nos. 5084 6948, 6949, 7693).

Sensual people are craftier and more malicious than others (nos. 7693, 10236).

Greedy people, adulterers, hedonists, and the deceitful are especially sensual, even though to the world they do not appear so (no. 6310).

The interiors of their minds are foul and filthy (no. 6201).

Through them they are in communication with the hells (no. 6311).

People residing in the hells are sensual, and the more so the deeper the hell (nos. 4623 6311).

The atmosphere of spirits in hell mixes with a person's sensual level from behind (no. 6312).

People who have based their reasoning on the evidence of the senses only, and so are hostile to the genuine truths of the church, were called by ancient peoples serpents of the tree of knowledge (nos. 195, 196, 197, 6398, 6399, 10313).

In addition, a person's sensual level and the sensual person are described (no. 10236), together with the extent of the sensual things in a person (no. 9731).

Sensual things ought to be held in last place, and not in first place, and in a wise and intelligent person they are held in last place, subject to more interior ones, while in a foolish person they are in first place and dominant; the latter are those properly called sensual (nos. 5077 5125, 5128, 7645).

If sensual things are in last place, they are the means by which a path is opened to understanding, and truths are refined by a process of abstraction (no. 5580).

These sensual things are the closest to the world, and they admit things that flow in from the world and, so to speak, sift them (no. 9726).

By these sensual things a person is in communication with the world, and by rational things with heaven (no. 4009).

Sensual things supply materials that are of service to the interior levels of the mind (nos. 5077 5081).

Some sensual things are of service to the intellectual faculty, and some are of service to the volitional faculty (no. 5077).

If a person does not raise his thought from sensual things, he is hardly wise (no. 5089).

A wise person thinks above the level of sensual things (nos. 5089, 5094).

When a person raises his thinking above the level of sensual things, he comes into a clearer sight, and finally into the light of heaven (nos. 6183 6313, 6315, 9407, 9730, 9922).

An elevation above the level of sensual things and withdrawal from them was something known to ancient peoples (no. 6313).

A person can be conscious in his spirit of things that occur in the spiritual world, if he can be withdrawn from sensual things by the Lord and elevated into the light of heaven (no. 4622). That is because it is not the body that thinks, but a person's spirit in the body, and to the extent that it dwells in the body, it thinks dimly and in a state of darkness; however, to the extent that it does not dwell in the body, it thinks clearly and in a state of light - but only as regards spiritual matters (nos. 4622, 6614, 6622).

The lowest level of the intellect is sensual knowledge, and the lowest level of the will is sensual delight (no. 9996).

The difference between sensual characteristics possessed in common with animals, and those not possessed in common with them (no. 10236).

Some sensual people are not evil, because their interior levels have not been closed: their state in the other life (no. 6311).

  
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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.