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Deuteronomy 32

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1 Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth!

2 My doctrine shall drop as rain, My speech flow down as dew, As small rain upon the tender herb, And as showers on the grass.

3 For the name of Jehovah will I proclaim: Ascribe greatness unto our God!

4 [He is] the Rock, his work is perfect, For all his ways are righteousness; A ùGod of faithfulness without deceit, Just and right is he.

5 They have dealt corruptly with him; Not his children's is their spot: -- A crooked and perverted generation!

6 Do ye thus requite Jehovah, Foolish and unwise people? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established thee?

7 Remember the days of old, Consider the years of generation to generation; Ask thy father, and he will shew thee; Thine elders, and they will tell thee.

8 When the Most High assigned to the nations their inheritance, When he separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel.

9 For Jehovah's portion is his people; Jacob the lot of his inheritance.

10 He found him in a desert land, And in the waste, howling wilderness; He compassed him about, he watched over him, He preserved him as the apple of his eye.

11 As the eagle stirreth up its nest, Hovereth over its young, Spreadeth out its wings, Taketh them, beareth them on its feathers,

12 So Jehovah alone did lead him, And no strange ùgod [was] with him.

13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he ate the produce of the field; And he made him suck honey out of the crag, And oil out of the flinty rock;

14 Cream of kine, and milk of sheep, With the fat of lambs, And rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, With the fat of kidneys of wheat; And thou didst drink pure wine, the blood of the grape.

15 Then Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked -- Thou art waxen fat, Thou art grown thick, And thou art covered with fatness; -- He gave up +God who made him, And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

16 They moved him to jealousy with strange gods, With abominations did they provoke him to anger.

17 They sacrificed unto demons who are not +God; To gods whom they knew not, To new ones, who came newly up, Whom your fathers revered not.

18 Of the Rock that begot thee wast thou unmindful, And thou hast forgotten ùGod who brought thee forth.

19 And Jehovah saw it, and despised them, Because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters.

20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faithfulness.

21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is no ùGod; They have exasperated me with their vanities; And I will move them to jealousy with that which is not a people; With a foolish nation will I provoke them to anger.

22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And it shall burn into the lowest Sheol, And shall consume the earth and its produce, And set fire to the foundations of the mountains.

23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; Mine arrows will I spend against them.

24 They shall be consumed with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, And with poisonous pestilence; And the teeth of beasts will I send against them, With the poison of what crawleth in the dust.

25 From without shall the sword bereave them, and in the chambers, terror -- Both the young man and the virgin, The suckling with the man of gray hairs.

26 I would say, I will scatter, I will make the remembrance of them to cease from among men,

27 If I did not fear provocation from the enemy, Lest their adversaries should misunderstand it, Lest they should say, Our hand is high, and Jehovah has not done all this.

28 For they are a nation void of counsel, And understanding is not in them.

29 Oh that they had been wise! they would have understood this, They would have considered their latter end!

30 How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Were it not that their Rock had sold them, And Jehovah had delivered them up?

31 For their rock is not as our rock: Let our enemies themselves be judges.

32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, And of the fields of Gomorrah: Their grapes are grapes of poison, Bitter are their clusters;

33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, And the cruel venom of vipers.

34 Is not this hidden with me, Sealed up among my treasures?

35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, For the time when their foot shall slip. For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things that shall come upon them make haste.

36 For Jehovah will judge his people, And shall repent in favour of his servants; When he seeth that power is gone, And there is none shut up or left.

37 And he shall say, Where are their gods, Their rock in whom they trusted,

38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, [And] drank the wine of their drink-offering? Let them rise up and help you, That there may be a protection over you.

39 See now that I, I am HE, And there is no god with me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal, And there is none that delivereth out of my hand,

40 For I lift up my hand to the heavens, and say, I live for ever!

41 If I have sharpened my gleaming sword, And my hand take hold of judgment, I will render vengeance to mine adversaries, And will recompense them that hate me.

42 Mine arrows will I make drunk with blood, And my sword shall devour flesh; [I will make them drunk] with the blood of the slain and of the captives, With the head of the princes of the enemy.

43 Shout for joy, ye nations, with his people, For he avengeth the blood of his servants, And rendereth vengeance to his enemies, And maketh atonement for his land, for his people.

44 And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea the son of Nun.

45 And when Moses had ended speaking all these words to all Israel,

46 he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words that I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to take heed to do, all the words of this law.

47 For it is no vain word for you, but it is your life, and through this word ye shall prolong your days on the land whereunto ye pass over the Jordan to possess it.

48 And Jehovah spoke to Moses that same day, saying,

49 Go up into this mountain Abarim, mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is opposite Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession,

50 and die on the mountain whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy peoples, as Aaron thy brother died on mount Hor, and was gathered unto his peoples;

51 because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye hallowed me not in the midst of the children of Israel.

52 For thou shalt see the land before [thee]; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 507

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507. And all green grass was burnt up, signifies that all true knowledge [scientificum] was destroyed by the cupidities of the same loves. This is evident from the signification of "grass," as being knowledge [scientificum] (of which presently); also from the signification of "green," as being truth and living from truth, because as green grass serves as food for animals, so true knowledge serves for spiritual nourishment for man; for whatever is produced in fields, in gardens, and in plains, and serves for nourishment either for man or beast, has a correspondence with such things as serve for the nourishment of the spirit and mind, and such nourishment is called spiritual nourishment. Like things appear in the spiritual world, from the correspondence of spiritual things with natural things; and as the Word in the letter is natural, and is written by correspondences, it is here said that "the third part of the trees and all green grass were burnt up," which means in the spiritual sense that all perception and knowledge of truth and good, as well as all true knowledge [scientificum] are destroyed, by these two corporeal, terrestrial, and merely natural loves.

[2] By true knowledge [scientifica] is meant all knowledge by which spiritual truth is confirmed, and which has life from spiritual good. For by knowledges [scientifica] a man may become wise or he may become insane. A man becomes wise by knowledges when he uses them to confirm the truths and goods of the church, which are spiritual truths and goods; and he becomes insane by knowledges when he uses them to invalidate and refute the truths and goods of the church. When they are used to confirm the truths and goods of the church they are called true knowledges, as also living knowledges; but when they are used to invalidate and refute the truths and goods of the church they are called false knowledges, and also dead knowledges. Knowledges [scientiae] are only means to uses, and they are such as the uses are that spring from them. They are living knowledges when man by means of them acquires for himself intelligence and wisdom. All intelligence and wisdom is from truths that are from heaven; such intelligence and wisdom, because it is from heaven, that is, from the Lord through heaven, is living, because it is the very spiritual life of man; but from falsities there can be no intelligence and wisdom, and if it is supposed to exist in anyone, yet it is dead, because it is from hell.

[3] This has been said to make known that "green grass" signifies true knowledge [scientificum], which is living, but "grass burnt up" signifies false knowledge, which is dead. When truth and good, which come from heaven, find no receptacle in the cognitions and knowledges with man, but evils and falsities which are from hell are received, then knowledges [scientifica] are not living but dead, and correspond to grass withered and burnt up. It is similar with man himself, for a man is such a man as the cognitions and knowledges are alive in him; for from living knowledges [scientiae] he has intelligence, but from knowledges not living he has no intelligence; and if they are dead in consequence of the confirmation of falsities by them there is insanity and folly.

[4] Such a man, from correspondence, is compared in the Word to "grass," and is also called "grass" in the following passages. In Isaiah:

The inhabitants have become as the herb of the field, as the greenness of the tender herb, as the grass of the housetops and as a field scorched before it is grown up (Isaiah 37:27; 2 Kings 19:26).

In David:

The wicked are cut down in haste as the grass, and wither as the greenness of the herb (Psalms 37:2).

In the same:

As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field so he flourisheth (Psalms 103:15).

In the same:

The haters of Zion shall be as the grass of the housetops, which withereth before it is plucked up (Psalms 129:6).

In Isaiah:

The glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and they shall see. The voice said, Cry; and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its holiness is as the flower of the field; the grass hath dried up and the flower hath fallen off because the breath of Jehovah hath blown upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass hath dried up, the flower hath fallen off; but the Word of our God shall stand up forever (Isaiah 40:5-8).

This is said of the Lord's coming, and of the revelation of Divine truth from Him at that time, which is meant by "the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and they shall see." That there will then be no true knowledge [scientificum] and no spiritual truth with men, is signified by "all flesh is grass, all its holiness is as the flower of the field; the grass hath dried up, the flower hath fallen off," "grass" meaning true knowledge, and "the flower of the field" spiritual truth. That man is such is meant by "all flesh is grass," and by "surely the people is grass; the grass is dried up;" "all flesh" meaning every man, and "people" those who are in truths, here those who are in falsities.

[5] In the same:

I am He that comforteth you; who art thou, that thou fearest man that dieth, and a son of man that is given for grass? (Isaiah 51:12).

These words signify that all things are from the Lord, and nothing from self-wisdom and self-intelligence. "Man" means man in respect to wisdom, and the "son of man" the same in respect to intelligence; that this latter is mere knowledge [scientifia] is meant by "is given for grass."

[6] In the same:

I will pour out My spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up in the midst of the grass (Isaiah 44:3, 4).

The "spirit of Jehovah" signifies the Divine truth, and "blessing" signifies its multiplication and fructification; intelligence thence through true knowledges (scientifica) is signified by "springing up in the midst of the grass."

[7] In David:

Jehovah who causeth the grass to spring forth for the beast, and herb for the service of man (Psalms 104:14).

In the same:

Jehovah who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to spring forth upon the mountains, who giveth to the beast his food (Psalms 147:8, 9).

In Moses:

My doctrine shall flow down as the rain, My Word shall drop as the dew, as the mist on the grass, and as the drops on the herb (Deuteronomy 32:2).

In these passages "grass" signifies true knowledge [scientificum], and "the herb of the field" spiritual truth; for "the herb of the field" means what springs up in a field at first, that is, when it has just been plowed, therefore it is called "herb for the service of man." It is said "grass for the beast," and "as food for the beast," because "beast" signifies in the Word the affection of the natural man, and to this, true knowledge is for food and nourishment.

[8] In Job:

Behold the behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox (Job 40:15).

"Behemoth" has the same meaning as "beast" in the Word, namely, the natural affections that belong to man, therefore it is said, "behold behemoth, which I have made with thee." His spiritual pasture is true knowledge; this is meant by "he eateth grass as an ox."

[9] That "green" signifies what is living can be seen without further explanation; for any vegetable subject while it is growing, that is, while it lives as it were, is green, but when it is no longer growing, or is as it were dying, its greenness perishes; therefore "green" or "to be green" signifies living or to be living; as can be seen also from the following passages (Jeremiah 11:16; 17:8; Ezekiel 17:24; 20:47; Hosea 14:8; Psalms 37:35; 52:8; 92:10) and elsewhere.

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