Bible

 

Ezekiel 31

Studie

   

1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third [month], on the first of the month, [that] the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom art thou like in thy greatness?

3 Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature: and his top was amidst the thick boughs.

4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high; its streams ran round about his plantation, and it sent out its rivulets unto all the trees of the field.

5 Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of great waters, when he shot forth.

6 All the fowl of the heavens made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all the great nations.

7 Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: because his root was by great waters.

8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the cypresses were not like his boughs, and the plane-trees were not as his branches: no tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

9 I had made him fair by the multitude of his branches; and all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

10 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast lifted up thyself in stature, ... and he hath set his top amidst the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height,

11 I have given him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.

12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off and have left him; upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken in all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

13 Upon his fallen [trunk] do all the fowl of the heavens dwell, and all the beasts of the field are upon his branches:

14 to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, nor set their top amidst the thick boughs, and that none of them that drink water stand up in his height by himself; for they are all given over unto death in the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

15 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day when he went down to Sheol, I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed; and I made Lebanon black for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol, with them that go down into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.

17 They also went down into Sheol with him unto them that were slain with the sword, and [that were] his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden, unto the lower parts of the earth; thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

   

Komentář

 

Height

  

In Ezekiel 19:11, this signifies the pride of self-intelligence from knowledges, particularly in the Jewish church. (Apocalypse Explained 727[3]) 'Height' can also signify the good and truth of the church in every degree.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Revealed 907; Arcana Coelestia 9489)

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) # 41

  
/ 60  
  

41. The successive states of this Church-which are: rise or morning; progression into light, and day; vastation or evening, and consummation or night - it is not permitted to follow up with a description in the same manner as we before described the states of the Most Ancient Church, because the states of that Church cannot be so collected from our Word; for the posterity of Noah, through his three sons, is recorded only in a summary, in one or two pages; and, moreover, that Church was spread through many kingdoms, and in each kingdom it differed, and hence that Church underwent and ran through the states mentioned in a different manner.

[2] That THE FIRST AND SECOND STATE THEREOF in the regions round about the Jordan and about Egypt, was like the "garden of Jehovah," is evident from the words:

The plain of Jordan... was... like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, where thou comest unto Zoar (Gen. 13:10).

And that the like was the case with Tyre, appears from the following:

Thou prince of Tyre,... full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in... the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering;... thou was perfect in thy ways, from the day that thou wast created until perversity was found in thee. (Ezek. 28:12-15).

That Asshur was like a "cedar in Lebanon," appears from the following:

Behold, Asshur is a cedar in Lebanon, beautiful in branch, lofty in height;... all the birds of the heavens nested in his branches, and under his branches did every beast of the field bring forth its young, and in his shadow dwelt all great nations:... No tree in the garden of God was equal to him in beauty,... and all those trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him (Ezek. 31:3-9).

That wisdom flourished in Arabia, is evident from the queen of Sheba's journey to Solomon (1 Kings 10:1-13); also from the three wise men who came to the new-born Jesus, a star going before them (Matt. 2:1-12).

[3] THE THIRD AND FOURTH STATE OF THAT CHURCH, which was that of its vastation and consummation, is described in various places in the Word, both in its historical and prophetical parts. The consummation of the nations round about the Jordan, or round about the land of Canaan, is described by the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim (Gen. 19); the consummation of the Church of the nations within the Jordan, or in the land of Canaan, is described in Joshua and in the Book of Judges by the expulsion of some and the extermination of others. The consummation of that Church in Egypt, is described by the drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea (Exod. 14). And so on.

  
/ 60  
  

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