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Ezekiel 2

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1 And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee.

2 And the Spirit entered into me when he spoke unto me, and set me upon my feet; and I heard him that spoke unto me.

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious, which have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me unto this very day;

4 and these children are impudent and hard-hearted: I am sending thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah.

5 And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear -- for they are a rebellious house -- yet shall they know that there hath been a prophet among them.

6 And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, and be not afraid of their words; for briars and thorns are with thee, and thou dwellest among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, and be not dismayed at their faces; for they are a rebellious house.

7 And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear; for they are rebellious.

8 And thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.

9 And I looked, and behold, a hand was put forth toward me; and behold, a roll of a book therein.

10 And he spread it out before me; and it was written within and without; and there were written in it lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

   

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Tongs and snuff-dishes

  

'Tongs and snuff-dishes' in Exodus 25:38 signify things in the natural degree that serve to purify and clean.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 9572)

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Arcana Coelestia # 2327

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2327. 'And bowed down with his face towards the ground' means humiliation. This becomes clear without explanation. The reason why in the past, especially in the representative Churches, people would bow so far down that their faces touched the ground, was that 'the face' meant man's interiors, 358, 1999. And they did so down 'to the ground' because 'the dust of the ground' meant that which is profane and condemned, 278. In doing this they represented the fact that of themselves they were profane and condemned. They therefore prostrated themselves face downwards on the ground, indeed they wallowed in dust and ashes, and also cast dust or ashes over their heads, as becomes clear from Lamentations 2:10; Ezekiel 27:30; Micah 1:10; Joshua 7:6; Revelation 18:19; and elsewhere.

[2] By these actions they represented a state of true humility, which can in no way exist unless people acknowledge that of themselves they are profane and condemned, and so of themselves are incapable of looking towards the Lord where everything is Divine and Holy. To the extent therefore that a person acknowledges his own condition he can possess true humility, and when engaged in worship can have real devotion. For all worship must contain humility, and if separated from it no adoration and so no worship at all is present.

[3] The reason a state of humility is vital to worship itself is that insofar as the heart is humbled self-love and all resulting evil come to an end; and insofar as these come to an end good and truth, that is, charity and faith, flow in from the Lord. For what above all else stands in the way of their being received is self-love. Indeed within self-love there lies contempt for all others in comparison with oneself; there lies hatred and revenge if one is not venerated most highly; and there lies mercilessness and cruelty within it, and thus the worst evils of all into which good and truth cannot possibly be introduced, since they are completely opposite.

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