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Ezekiel 7

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1 Og HE ENs Ord kom til mig således

2 Du, Menneskesøn, sig: Så siger den Herre HE EN til Israels Land: Enden kommer, Enden kommer over Landet vidt og bredt!

3 Nu kommer Enden over dig, og jeg sender min Vrede imod dig og dømmer dig efter dine Veje og gengælder dig alle dine Vederstyggeigheder.

4 Jeg viser dig ingen Medynk eller Skånsel, men gengælder dig dine Veje, og dine Vederstyggeligheder skal blive i din Midte; og du skal kende, at jeg er HE EN.

5 siger den Herre HE EN: Ulykke følger på Ulykke; se, det kommer!

6 Enden kommer, Enden kommer; den er vågnet og tager Sigte på dig; se, det kommer!

7 Turen kommer til dig, som bor i Landet; Tiden er inde, Dagen er nær, en Dag med ædsel og ikke med Frydeskrig på Bjergene.

8 Nu udøser jeg snart min Harme over dig og udtømmer min Vrede på dig, dømmer dig efter dine Veje og gengælder dig alle dine Vederstyggeligheder.

9 Jeg viser dig ingen Medynk eller Skånsel, men gengælder dig dine Veje, og dine Vederstyggeligheder skal blive i din Midte; og I skal kende, at jeg, HE EN, er den, som slår.

10 Se, Dagen! Se, det kommer; Turen kommer til dig"! iset blomstrer, Overmodet grønnes.

11 Vold rejser sig til et is over Gudløshed; der bliver intet tilbage af dem, intet af deres larmende Hob, intet af deres Gods, og der er ingen Herlighed iblandt dem.

12 Tiden er inde, Dagen er nær; Køberen skal ikke glæde sig og Sælgeren ikke sørge, thi Vrede kommer over al den larmende Hob derinde.

13 Thi Sælgeren skal ikke vende tilbage til det solgte, om han end bliver i Live; thi Synet om al den larmende Hob derinde tages ikke tilbage, og ingen skal styrke sit Liv ved sin Misgerning.

14 Man støder i Hornet og gør alt rede, men ingen drager i krig; thi min Vrede kommer over al den larmende Hob derinde.

15 Sværd ude og Pest og Hunger inde! De, der er i Marken, omkommer for Sværd, og dem, der er i Byen, fortærer Hunger og Pest.

16 Og selv om nogle af dem undslipper og når op i Bjergene som Kløfternes Duer, skal de alle dø, hver for sin Misgerning.

17 Alle Hænder er slappe, alle Knæ flyder som Vand.

18 De klæder sig i Sæk, og ædsel omhyller dem; alle Ansigter er skamfulde, alle Hoveder skaldede.

19 Deres Sølv kaster de ud på Gaden, deres Guld regnes for Snavs; deres Sølv og Guld kan ikke redde dem på HE ENs Vredes Dag; de kan ikke stille deres Hunger eller fylde deres Bug dermed, thi det var dem Årsag til Skyld.

20 I dets strålende Pragt satte de deres Stolthed, og deres vederstyggelige Billeder, deres væmmelige Guder, lavede de deraf: derfor gør jeg det til Snavs for dem.

21 Jeg giver det som Bytte i de fremmedes Hånd og som ov til de mest gudløse på Jorden, og de skal vanhellige det.

22 Jeg vender mit Åsyn fra dem og man skal vanhellige mit Kleodie, ansmænd skal trænge ind og vanhellige det.

23 Gør Lænkerne rede! Thi Landet er fuldt af Blodskyld og Byen af Vold.

24 Jeg henter de værste af Folkene, og de skal tage Husene i Eje; jeg gør Ende på de mægtiges Stolthed, og deres Helligdomme skal vanhelliges.

25 Der opstår Angst; man søger edning, men finder den ikke.

26 Uheld følger på Uheld, ygte på ygte; man skal tigge Profeten om et Syn, Præsten kommer til kort med Vejledning og de Ældste med åd.

27 Kongen sørger, Fyrsten hyller sig i ædsel, og Landboernes Hænder lammes af Forfærdelse. Jeg gør med dem efter deres Færd og dømmer dem, som de fortjener; og de skal kende, at jeg er HE EN.

   


The Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie Mellon University

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Sacred Scripture # 35

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35. 28 shows that the Old Testament prophets represented the Lord in respect to the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word, and that because of this they were addressed as “children of humanity.” It follows from this that by the various things they suffered and endured they represented the violence done to the literal meaning of the Word by Jews. Isaiah, for example, took the sackcloth off his waist and the sandals off his feet and went naked and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20:2-3). Similarly, Ezekiel the prophet took a barber’s razor to his head and his beard, burned a third of the hair in the middle of the city, struck a third with a sword, and scattered a third to the wind; also, he bound a few hairs in his hems and eventually threw a few into the midst of a fire and burned them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

Since the prophets represented the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word (as just noted), and since the head means wisdom from the Word, the hair and the beard mean the outermost form of truth. It is because of this meaning that inflicting baldness on yourself was a sign of immense grief and being discovered to be bald was an immense disgrace. This and this alone is why the prophet shaved off his hair and his beard - to represent the state of the Jewish church in regard to the Word. This and this alone is why two she-bears tore apart forty-two boys who called Elisha bald (2 Kings 2:23-25)-because as just noted the prophet represented the Word, and his baldness signified the Word without an outermost meaning.

We shall see in §49 below that the Nazirites represented the Lord’s Word in its outermost forms, which is why they were commanded to let their hair grow and not to shave any of it. In Hebrew, “Nazirite” actually means “hair.” It was commanded also that the high priest was not to shave his head (Leviticus 21:10) and that the fathers of their families as well were not to do so (Leviticus 21:5).

That is why they regarded baldness as such an immense disgrace, as we can tell from the following passages:

There will be baldness upon all heads, and every beard will be cut off. (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:37)

There will be shame upon all faces and baldness on all heads. (Ezekiel 7:18)

Every head was made bald and every shoulder hairless. (Ezekiel 29:18)

I will put sackcloth around all waists and baldness upon every head. (Amos 8:10)

Make yourself bald and cut off your hair because of your precious children; make yourself still more bald, because they have left you and gone into exile. (Micah 1:16)

Here making yourself bald and making yourself still more bald means distorting truths of the Word in its outermost forms. Once they have been distorted, as was done by Jews, the whole Word is ruined, because the outermost forms of the Word are what it rests on and what holds it up. In fact, every word in it is a base and support for the Word’s heavenly and spiritual truths.

Since a head of hair means truth in its outermost forms, in the spiritual world everyone who trivializes the Word and distorts its literal meaning looks bald; but those who respect and love it have good-looking hair. On this, see §49 below.

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