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Ezekiel 16

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1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

3 and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto Jerusalem: Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of the Canaanite: thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.

4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water for cleansing; thou wast not rubbed with salt at all, nor swaddled at all.

5 No eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, from abhorrence of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

6 And I passed by thee, and saw thee weltering in thy blood, and I said unto thee, in thy blood, Live! yea, I said unto thee, in thy blood, Live!

7 I caused thee to multiply, as the bud of the field; and thou didst increase and grow great, and thou camest to fulness of beauty; [thy] breasts were fashioned, and thy hair grew: but thou wast naked and bare.

8 And I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, and behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness; and I swore unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord Jehovah, and thou becamest mine.

9 And I washed thee with water, and thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil;

10 and I clothed thee with embroidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I bound thee about with byssus, and covered thee with silk.

11 And I decked thee with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck;

12 and I put a ring on thy nose, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.

13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was byssus, and silk, and embroidered work. Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil; and thou becamest exceedingly beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

14 And thy fame went forth among the nations for thy beauty; for it was perfect through my magnificence, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord Jehovah.

15 But thou didst confide in thy beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy whoredoms on every one that passed by: his it was.

16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and madest for thyself high places decked with divers colours, and didst play the harlot thereupon: [the like] hath not come to pass, and shall be no more.

17 And thou didst take thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of males, and didst commit fornication with them.

18 And thou tookest thine embroidered garments, and coveredst them; and thou didst set mine oil and mine incense before them.

19 And my bread which I had given thee, the fine flour and the oil and the honey wherewith I fed thee, thou didst even set it before them for a sweet savour: thus it was, saith the Lord Jehovah.

20 And thou didst take thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hadst borne unto me, and these didst thou sacrifice unto them, to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter,

21 that thou didst slay my children and give them up in passing them over to them?

22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, when thou wast weltering in thy blood.

23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord Jehovah),

24 that thou didst also build unto thee a place of debauchery, and didst make thee a high place in every street:

25 thou didst build thy high place at every head of the way, and madest thy beauty to be abhorred, and thou didst open thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiply thy whoredom.

26 And thou didst commit fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and didst multiply thy whoredom to provoke me to anger.

27 And behold, I stretched out my hand over thee, and diminished thine appointed portion; and I gave thee over unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, who were confounded at thy lewd way.

28 And thou didst commit fornication with the Assyrians, because thou wast insatiable; yea, thou didst commit fornication with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.

29 And thou didst multiply thy whoredom with the land of merchants, Chaldea, and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.

30 How weak is thy heart, saith the Lord Jehovah, seeing thou doest all these [things], the work of a whorish woman, under no restraint;

31 in that thou buildest thy place of debauchery at the head of every way, and makest thy high place in every street! And thou hast not been as a harlot, in that thou scornest reward,

32 O adulterous wife, that taketh strangers instead of her husband.

33 They give rewards to all harlots; but thou gavest thy rewards to all thy lovers, and rewardedst them, that they might come unto thee on every side for thy whoredoms.

34 And in thee is the contrary from [other] women, in thy whoredoms, in that none followeth thee to commit fornication; and whereas thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, so art thou contrary.

35 Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah.

36 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thy money hath been poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy fornications with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thine abominations, and because of the blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them;

37 therefore, behold, I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all that thou hast loved, with all that thou hast hated, -- I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

38 And I will judge thee with the judgments of women that commit adultery and shed blood; and I will give thee up to the blood of fury and jealousy;

39 and I will give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thy place of debauchery, and shall break down thy high places; and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

40 And they shall bring up an assemblage against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.

41 And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women; and I will cause thee to cease from being a harlot, and thou also shalt give no more any reward.

42 And I will appease my fury against thee, and my jealousy shall depart from thee; and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast raged against me in all these [things], behold, therefore, I also will recompense thy way upon [thy] head, saith the Lord Jehovah, and thou shalt not commit this lewdness besides all thine abominations.

44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall speak in a proverb against thee, saying, As the mother, [so is] her daughter!

45 Thou art the daughter of thy mother that loathed her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

46 And thine elder sister is Samaria that dwelleth at thy left hand, she and her daughters; and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

47 And thou hast not walked in their ways, nor done according to their abominations; but as though that were a very little, thou hast been more corrupt than they in all thy ways.

48 [As] I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters!

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and careless ease was in her and in her daughters, but she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me, and I took them away when I saw [it].

51 And Samaria hath not sinned according to the half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters by all thine abominations which thou hast done.

52 Thou also, who hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own confusion, because of thy sins in which thou hast acted more abominably than they: they are more righteous than thou. So be thou ashamed also, and bear thy confusion, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.

53 And I will bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them;

54 that thou mayest bear thy confusion, and mayest be confounded for all that thou hast done, in that thou comfortest them.

55 And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; thou also and thy daughters, ye shall return to your former estate.

56 Yea, Sodom thy sister was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,

57 before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise thee on every side.

58 Thy lewdness and thine abominations, thou bearest them, saith Jehovah.

59 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the oath, and broken the covenant.

60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.

61 And thou shalt remember thy ways, and be confounded, when thou shalt receive thy sisters who are older than thou, together with those who are younger than thou; for I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by virtue of thy covenant.

62 And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I [am] Jehovah;

63 that thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and no more open thy mouth because of thy confusion, when I forgive thee all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 10540

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10540. 'And now, take off your finery' means the nature of their external which is such that it is without anything Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'finery', when the Church is the subject, as holy truth or that which is Divine in external things, dealt with above in 10536; and from the meaning of 'taking it off' as shedding it, thus being without it. The fact that that which is Divine in external things or holy truth is meant by 'finery' is clear from the following places: In Ezekiel,

I clothed you with embroidered cloth, and shod you with badger; and I swathed you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with finery, and put bracelets onto your hands and a chain onto your neck. And I put a jewel onto your nose, and earrings on your ears, and a crown of glory onto your head. Thus were you adorned with gold and silver; and your garments were fine linen, and silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, [honey,] and oil; therefore you became extremely beautiful, and attained to a kingdom. For this reason your fame 1 went out among the nations, regarding your beauty; for this was made perfect by My finery which I had put on you. Ezekiel 16:10-14.

[2] This refers to Jerusalem and means the Church which had been established by the Lord after the Flood and was succeeded by the Israelite and Jewish Church. The character of the latter is also described in the same chapter; but the character of that previous Ancient Church is described in the verses just quoted, its holy truths being described by the adornments spoken of there. Anyone may see that things such as have to do with the Church are meant by those specifically mentioned, and that each one means something particular. What other purpose does such a description of Jerusalem serve?

[3] Yet which aspect of the Church is meant by each one becomes clear solely from the internal sense. For this sense shows what exactly in the spiritual world corresponds to each item in the description. The following is made clear by that sense,

'Embroidered cloth' means true factual knowledge, 9688.

'Fine linen' means intellectual truth from the Divine, 5319, 9469, 9596, 9744.

'Bracelets' means the power of truths, 3103, 3105.

'A neck-chain' means the flowing in of truth derived from good, and the consequent joining together of interior things and exterior ones, 5320.

'A nose-jewel' means the perception of truth, and 'earrings' obedience to truths, 4551, 10402.

'A crown of glory' means spiritual good, or the good of truth, good being meant by 'a crown', 9930, and that which is spiritual by 'glory', 9815.

'Gold and silver' means goodness and truth in general, 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 9874.

'Fine flour, honey, and oil' means truths and forms of good, external and internal ones, truth from good being meant by 'fine flour', 9995, external good by 'honey', 10530, and internal good by 'oil', 886, 4582, 4638, 9474, 9780, 10254, 10261.

'Beauty' means the outward form taken by truth derived from good, 3080, 3821, 4985, 5199.

And 'Jerusalem', about which those things are said, means the Church, see 402, 2117, 3654. From all this it is evident what 'finery' means, namely holy truth in its entirety.

[4] All the finery of the daughters of Zion which is itemized in Isaiah has a like meaning,

On that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, and of the networks, and of the crescents, and of the perfume containers 2 , and of the chainlets, and of the bracts 3 , and the tiaras, and the garters, and the sashes, and the perfume boxes 4 , and the charms; the rings, and the nose-jewels, the changes of clothes, and the robes, and the veils, and the pin-cases, the mirrors, and the muslin, and the turbans, and the linen garments. And it will happen, that instead of fragrance there will be rottenness, and instead of a girdle, a falling apart, and instead of well-set hair 5 , baldness, and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth, burning instead of beauty. Your people will fall by the sword, and [so will] your strength in war. Isaiah 3:18-25.

Those who confine themselves to the literal sense inevitably think that all these items with which the daughters of Zion are said to be adorned must be understood literally, and that it was because of that finery and the pride and arrogance it would create that the people of that kingdom would perish, since it says, your people will fall by the sword, and your strength in war. But those who raise their minds to some extent above the literal statement can see that such things should not be understood literally.

[5] From various places in the Word they can see that 'the daughters of Zion' should not be taken to mean the daughters of Zion but such things as are aspects of the Church, which are also meant by the daughters of Jerusalem, the daughters of Israel, the daughters of Judah, and many other daughters. Regarding 'daughters', that they mean the Church and aspects of the Church, see 6729, 9055(end). Since therefore the Church and aspects of the Church are meant by 'the daughters of Zion' it follows that all their finery itemized in this chapter of Isaiah mean the Church's truths and forms of good, and that each item means some specific truth or form of good. For nothing that appears in the Word, not even one small expression, is devoid of meaning.

[6] And because that Church will be bereaved of its truths and forms of good, meant by all that finery, the prophecy goes on to say that instead of fragrance there will be rottenness, instead of a girdle a falling apart, instead of well-set hair baldness, instead of a robe a girding of sackcloth, burning instead of beauty, and also that the people will fall by the sword, as will [their] strength in war. For 'fragrance' or 'spice' means the perception of Divine Truth, 10199, 10291, and 'rottenness' the deprivation of it; 'a girdle' means a bond holding truths and forms of good in connection with one another, 9341(end), 9828, 9837, 'a falling apart instead of it' the disintegration and diffusion of them; 'well-set hair' means true factual knowledge, 2831 6 , 'baldness' being deprived of an intelligent understanding of truth and of a wise discernment of good, 9960; 'burning' means the destruction of these by the evils of self-love, 1297, 2446, 7852, 9055, 9141, 'beauty' the outward form that truth springing from good takes within the Church, thus the perfection of it, 3080, 3821, 4985, 5199; and 'the sword' by which the people will fall means falsity destroying truth and good, 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102, 8294. Having no 'strength in war' means having no resistance to evil and falsity, for 'war' is spiritual conflict, and temptation, 1659, 1664, 2686, 8273, 8295, 10455.

From all this it is now evident that 'finery' in general means the Divine Truth which the Church possesses.

[7] The like is meant by 'finery' in the second Book of Samuel,

O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in twice-dyed pleasantly 7 , who put gold finery on your clothing. 2 Samuel 1:24.

These words appear in David's lamentation over Saul, which he entitled in verse 18 of that chapter, To teach the children of Judah the bow. 'The bow' in this verse means doctrine consisting of truth engaged in conflict against falsities of evil, 2686, 2709, 6422. This being so, 'daughters of Israel' means the Church's affections for truth, 2362, 3963, 6729, 6775, 6788, 8994; 'being clothed in twice-dyed pleasantly' means being endued with the Church's interior truths, which spring from good, 4922, 9468; 'putting gold finery on clothing' means giving truths that spring from good a beautiful appearance, good being meant by 'gold', see in the places referred to in 9874, and truth in general by 'clothing' or 'garment', in the places referred to above in 10536(end). The reason why David's lamentation over Saul has to do with doctrine consisting of truth, meant by 'the bow', engaged in conflict against falsity of evil is that 'the king' or the royal office held by Saul means Divine Truth in respect of protection and of judgement, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148.

[8] The like is meant by 'finery' in other places: In David,

Give to Jehovah the glory of His name; bow down to Jehovah in the finery of holiness. Psalms 29:2.

'In the finery of holiness' means with the authentic truths of the Church. Similarly in Isaiah,

Your sons will make haste. Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather together. I am the Living One, said Jehovah; you will put them all on as finery, and gird them round yourself like a bride. Isaiah 49:17-18.

These words too refer to Zion, by which the celestial Church is meant, 'sons' who 'will make haste' meaning this Church's truths. (For the meaning of 'sons' as truths, see 489, 491, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257, 9807.) This explains why it says that Zion will put them all on as finery and gird them round herself like a bride; such can be said of the Church's truths, but not of the sons of Zion.

[9] Since almost everything in the Word also has a contrary meaning, so do those objects constituting finery. In the contrary sense they mean truths that have been falsified, as in Jeremiah,

You who have been laid waste, what will you do? If you clothe yourself in twice-dyed, if you adorn yourself with gold finery, if you widen your eyes with stibium 8 , in vain will you make yourself beautiful. Jeremiah 4:29, 30.

And in Hosea,

I will visit on her 9 the days of the baals to whom she burned incense, and put on her nose-jewel and her finery, and went after her lovers and forgot Me. Hosea 2:13.

And in other places.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, name

2. Probably worn around the neck

3. i.e. thin metal plates worn as jewelry

4. literally, houses of the soul

5. literally, instead of the work of plaited [hair]

6. The Latin here rendered literally the work of plaited [hair] and idiomatically well-set hair is opus implexum. In 2831 the second of these words applies to the branches of trees and is consequently rendered entangled.

7. literally, with pleasant things

8. literally, break open the eyes with stibium. Stibium was a cosmetic used for blackening the eyelids and eyebrows, thereby making the eyes look brighter or more open.

9. i.e. I will punish her for

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 1659

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1659. THE INTERNAL SENSE

The details contained in this chapter appear as if they were not representative, for the subject is merely the wars between a number of kings, and Lot's reclamation by Abram, and, towards the end, Melchizedek; so that these details do not seem to possess a single heavenly arcanum within them. Yet like all such details, these conceal very deep arcana in the internal sense which follow in a continuous sequence from the things preceding them, and also link themselves in a similar sequence to those that follow.

[2] The descriptions which precede have dealt with the Lord and the instruction He received, and also with His External Man which was to be joined to the internal by means of knowledge and cognitions. But because His external Man was such, as has been stated, that from what was inherited from the mother it had within it things which prevented their becoming joined together, things which had first to be cast out by means of conflicts and temptations before His external Man could be united to the Internal - that is, His Human Essence to the Divine Essence - this chapter therefore deals with those conflicts themselves. The latter in the internal sense are represented and meant by the wars which it describes. Within the Church it is well known that Melchizedek represented the Lord, and that the Lord is thus meant in the internal sense when Melchizedek is spoken of. From this one may also conclude that not only such details regarding Melchizedek but all others are indeed representative, for not one small word can have been written in the Word that has not been sent down from heaven and consequently in which angels do not see heavenly things.

[3] In most ancient times furthermore many things were represented by wars, which people called 'The Wars of Jehovah'. The latter meant nothing other than the conflicts fought by the Church and by those who belonged to the Church, that is, their temptations, which are nothing else than battles and wars against the evils present within themselves and so against the devil's crew who activate evils and endeavour to destroy the Church and the member of the Church. That wars in the Word have no other meaning becomes quite clear from the fact that the Word cannot have as its subject anything other than the Lord, His kingdom, and the Church, since it is Divine, not human, and consequently heavenly, not worldly. This being so the wars described in the sense of the letter cannot have any other meaning in the internal sense. This may become clearer still from what follows.

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