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Micah 7

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1 Ve mig! Det går mig som ved ved Frugthøst, ved Vinhøstens Efterslæt: Ikke en Drue at spise, ej en Figen, min Sjæl har Lyst til!

2 De fromme er svundet af Landet, ikke et Menneske er sanddru. De lurer alle på Blod og jager hverandre med Net.

3 Deres Hænder er flinke til ondt, Fyrsten kræver, Dommeren er villig for Betaling; Stormanden nævner, hvad han begærer; og derefter snor de det sammen.

4 Den bedste er som en Tornebusk, den ærlige værre end en Tjørnehæk. Dine Vægteres Dag, din Hjemsøgelse kommer, af ædsel rammes de nu.

5 Tro ikke eders Næste, stol ikke. på en Ven, vogt Mundens Døre for hende. du favner!

6 Thi Søn agter Fader ringe, Datter står Moder imod Svigerdatter Svigermoder, en Mand har sine Husfolk til Fjender.

7 Men jeg vil spejde efter HE EN, jeg bier på min Frelses Gud; min Gud vil høre mig.

8 Glæd dig ej over mig, min Fjende! Thi jeg faldt, men står op; om end jeg sidder i Mørke, er HE EN mit Lys.

9 Jeg vil bære HE ENs Vrede - jeg synded jo mod ham - indtil han strider for mig og skaffer mig et; han fører mig ud i Lys, jeg skal skue hans etfærd.

10 Min Fjende skal se derpå og fyldes med Skam, han, som spørger mig: "Hvor er HE EN din Gud?". Mine Øjne skal med Skadefryd se ham, når han trampes ned som Skarn på Gaden.

11 En Dag skal dine Mure bygges, En Dag skal Grænsen vides ud,

12 en Dag skal man komme til dig lige fra Assur til Ægypten, lige fra Ægypten til Floden, fra Hav til Hav, fra Bjerg til Bjerg.

13 Men Jorden og de, som bor derpå, lægges øde til Løn for deres Værk.

14 Vogt med din Stav dit Folk, din Ejendoms Hjord, som bor for sig selv i Skoven, i Frugthavens Midte; lad dem græsse i Basan og Gilead som i gamle Dage!

15 Giv os Undere at skue, som da du drog ud af Ægypten;

16 lad Folkene se det og blues ved al deres Vælde, lægge HåndMund, lad Ørene døves på dem!

17 Lad dem slikke Støv som Slangen, som Jordens Kryb, rædde komme frem af deres Borge til HE EN vor Gud og ængstes og frygte for dig!

18 Hvo er en Gud som du, der tilgiver Brøde, bærer over med Synd hos din Ejendoms est, ej evigt gemmer på Vrede, men gerne er nådig?

19 Han vil atter forbarme sig over os, træde vor Brøde under Fod, du vil kaste alle vore Synder i Havets Dyb!

20 Du vil vise Jakob Trofasthed, Abraham Nåde, som du svor vore Fædre til i fordums Dage.

   


The Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie Mellon University

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Apocalypse Revealed # 649

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649. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth." This symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Word's Divine truth into the works of charity and faith among people belonging to the Christian Church.

This is the spiritual meaning of these words, inasmuch as the two angels symbolize the heavens of the Lord's spiritual and celestial kingdoms (nos. 647, 648), and the heavens do nothing of themselves, but from the Lord. For the angels in the heavens are only recipient vessels. Consequently in the spiritual sense nothing else is symbolized but the Lord's operation, here His operation into the church in the Christian world and into the works of charity and faith among the people in it. The vine, indeed, symbolizes that church, as we shall see after this in number 651, and grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize works of charity. This is the symbolism of grapes and clusters of grapes because they are the fruits of the vine in a vineyard, and fruits in the Word symbolize good works.

[2] The angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the grapes because, as we said before, the angel who came out from the altar symbolizes the heavens of the celestial kingdom, or heavens characterized by the goodness of love, while the angel who came out of the temple symbolizes the heavens of the spiritual kingdom, or heavens characterized by truths of wisdom; and the goodness of love does nothing by itself, but only through the truth of wisdom, and the truth of wisdom does nothing by itself, but only in response to the goodness of love. The reality of this is something we showed many times in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom. That is why the angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth.

That now is why this description symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Divine truth of His Word.

[3] That grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize goods and the works of charity can be seen from the following passages:

Woe is me! ...I have become like the gatherings of summer, like the gleanings of vintage grapes; there is no cluster to eat; first-ripe fruit my soul desires. The holy man has perished from the earth, and the upright among men. (Micah 7:1-2)

Their grapes are grapes of gall, they have bitter clusters. (Deuteronomy 32:32)

My beloved had a vineyard... He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2, 4)

They look to other gods, they love flagons of grapes. (Hosea 3:1)

...every tree is known by its own fruit. ...people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. (Luke 6:44)

...in the midst of the land... it shall be... like the gleanings of grapes when the grape harvest is done. (Isaiah 24:12-13)

If the gatherers of the grapes come to you, they will not leave any gleanings. (Jeremiah 49:9, cf. Obadiah verses 4, 5)

The plunderer has fallen on... your grape harvest. (Jeremiah 48:32-33)

You will be troubled, you complacent ones, for the grape harvest is failing, the gathering will not come. (Isaiah 32:9-10)

And so on elsewhere where the fruit of the vineyard and the fruit of the vine are mentioned.

Some goods are the goods of a celestial love, and some are the goods of a spiritual love. The goods of a celestial love are those of love toward the Lord, and the goods of a spiritual love are those of a love for the neighbor. The latter goods are called goods of charity and are those meant by the fruits of the vineyard, which are grapes and clusters of grapes. But the goods of love toward the Lord are meant in the Word by the fruits of trees, primarily olives.

[4] "For her grapes are ripe." This symbolically means, because the Christian Church has reached its last state.

The ripening of the vineyard's grapes has the same symbolic meaning as the drying of the harvest above, but a harvest is mentioned in reference to the church in general, while a vineyard is mentioned in reference to the church in particular. The drying of the harvest symbolizes the last state of the church, as may be seen in no. 645 above, and so likewise does the ripening of the grapes of the vineyard.

A vineyard symbolize the church which has the Word's Divine truth and where the Lord is thereby known, since wine symbolizes the interior truth that comes from the Lord through the Word. The vineyard here accordingly symbolizes the Christian Church.

That wine symbolizes truth springing from the goodness of love, thus from the Lord, may be seen in no. 316 above.

  
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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.