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Ezekiel 31

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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.

   

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People (nation)

  

The Bible generally uses two different terms for large groups: “people” and “nations.” When it uses “nation,” it is talking about a group with the desire for good as its ultimate underlying motivation; when it uses the term “people” it is talking about a group whose deep motivation is to seek true ideas and concepts. As with all symbolism in the Bible, this can be also used in a negative sense, to describe groups with the lust for evil or those driven by false concepts. It can also be used in the abstract, with “nation” representing desires for good themselves and “people” representing true ideas themselves. In a way, these meanings make sense if we look at the two words themselves. “People” brings to mind a collection of individuals, and that is somewhat how it is with ideas -- you can have many of them that inter-relate, but also stand somewhat on their own, individually. “Nation” is a more unified term, reflecting the way that a desire for good tends to unify other feelings.

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 8278

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8278. 'The depths have covered them' means that falsities resulting from evil desires have overwhelmed them. This is clear from the meaning of 'the depths' as falsities which exist as a result of evil desires. In the Word 'depths' is used to mean waters and large amounts of waters in deep places, 'waters' in the good sense meaning truths and in the contrary sense falsities, 739, 790, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, and deep places' meaning the hells. So it is that 'depths' means falsities resulting from evil desires, as well as meaning the hells. The fact that 'depths' is used in the Word to mean waters in deep places and to mean large amounts of waters is clear in Ezekiel,

The waters caused the cedar to grow, the depth made it high, so that it went with its rivers around the place of its planting, and he sent out his lines of water to all the trees of the field. Ezekiel 31:4.

In David,

He split the rocks in the wilderness, and caused them to drink the great depths. He brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to descend as streams. Psalms 78:15-16.

In Moses,

... a good land, a land of rivers of water, springs, and depths gushing out of valley and mountain. Deuteronomy 8:7.

In these places 'depths' stands for waters in large amounts; and waters in large amounts or 'depths' stands for the truths of faith in abundance. 'Causing them to drink great depths from the rock' stands for the truths of faith never failing, for 'rock' is faith derived from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect of faith. 'Depths gushing out of valley and mountain' stands for the truths of faith coming out of love. This also explains why the blessings of Joseph included the blessings of the deep Lying beneath, Genesis 49:25; Deuteronomy 33:13

[2] The fact that 'the depths' 1 means falsities resulting from evil desires as well as meaning the hells is clear in Isaiah,

Awake as in the days of antiquity, the generations of long ago. Do You not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep, and make the deep places of the sea a road, in order that the redeemed may go across? Isaiah 51:9-11.

In the same prophet,

... Jehovah who divided the waters before them, who led them through the depths; as a horse in the wilderness they did not stumble. Isaiah 63:12-14.

In Ezekiel,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, When I make you a city laid desolate, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall cause the deep to come up against you, and many waters have covered you ... Ezekiel 26:19.

In John,

I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. To him was given the key of the pit of the abyss; and he opened the pit of the abyss. Revelation 9:1-2, 11.

In the same author,

The beast that comes up from the abyss will make 2 war with them. Revelation 11:7.

Yet again in the same author,

The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will come up out of the abyss and go away to perdition. Revelation 17:8.

In these places 'the depths', 'the deep', or 'the abyss' stands for the hells, and so also for the falsities resulting from evil desires, since these desires exist in the hells and constitute them.

[3] Since these things are meant by 'the depths', temptations are also meant by them, for temptations are brought about by falsities and evils which the hells have introduced. This further meaning occurs in Jonah,

The waters surrounded me, even to [my] soul, the deep closed around me. Jonah 2:5. In David,

Deep is calling to deep at the noise of Your waterspouts; all Your breakers and Your waves have passed over me. Psalms 42:7.

You who have shown me many severe troubles, 3 turn back and revive me, and cause me to turn back and come up from the depths of the earth. Psalms 71:20.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. In the quotations that follow the same Latin word is rendered variously - the depths, the deep, or the abyss.

2. Reading faciet (will make), which Swedenborg has in his rough draft and also in another place where he quotes this verse, for fecit (has made)

3. literally, many and evil distresses

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