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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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Apocalypse Explained # 649

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649. Verse 7. And when they shall have finished their testimony, signifies in the end of the church, when the Divine of the Lord is no longer acknowledged, and thence there is no longer any good of love or truth of doctrine. This is evident from the signification of "testimony," as being the acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord, and thence of the good of love and truth of doctrine (of which presently), and from the signification of "to finish it," as being to bring to an end; and as this comes to an end at the end of the church; "to finish" here signifies the end of the church; and as there is then no longer any acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord, there is therefore no good of love or truth of doctrine.

[2] That this is the signification of "testimony," can be seen from what has been thus far said about "the two witnesses," namely, that by them the good of love and charity and the truth of doctrine and faith are meant, because these are what especially testify concerning the Lord, for they are from the Lord, and are His with man; therefore "their testimony" signifies preaching concerning these. That "testimony" here signifies the acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord is evident from what follows in Revelation:

That the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10).

For unless a man acknowledges this from the heart, and believes it from spiritual faith, he can have no ability to receive the good of love or the truth of doctrine.

[3] At the end of the church indeed the Lord is preached, and from doctrine a Divine is also attributed to Him like the Divine of the Father; yet scarcely anyone thinks of His Divine, for the reason that they place it above or outside of His Human; therefore they do not look to the Lord when they look to His Divine, but to the Father as to another, and yet the Divine that is called the Father is in the Lord, as He Himself teaches in John 10:30, 38; 14:7. For this reason men think of the Lord in the same way as they think of a common man, and from that thought their faith flows, however much they may say with the lips that they believe in His Divine. Let anyone explore, if he can, the idea of his thought about the Lord, whether it be not such. But when it is such man cannot be conjoined to the Lord by faith and love, nor through conjunction receive any good of love or truth of faith. This, then, is why there is at the end of the church no acknowledgment of the Lord, that is, of the Divine in the Lord and from the Lord. It is believed that there is an acknowledgment of the Divine of the Lord, because such is the doctrine of the church; but so long as His Divine is separated from His Human, His Divine is yet not acknowledged interiorly but only exteriorly, and to acknowledge exteriorly is to acknowledge with the mouth only and not with the heart, or in speech only and not in faith.

[4] That this is so can be seen from Christians in the other life, where the thoughts of the heart are manifested. When they are permitted to speak from doctrine and from what they have heard from preaching they attribute a Divine to the Lord, and call it their belief; but when their interior thought and faith are explored they have no other idea of the Lord than as of a common man who has no Divine. It is man's interior thought that is the source of his faith; and as such is the thought and consequent faith of man's spirit, there is plainly no acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord and from the Lord in the Christian world at the end of the church. In other words, there is an external acknowledgment of the Divine of the Lord, but no internal, and an external acknowledgment is of the natural man alone, while internal acknowledgment is of his very spirit; and after death the external acknowledgment is put to sleep, while the internal is the acknowledgment of his spirit. From this it can in some measure be seen how what follows is to be understood, namely, "the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall overcome and kill the two witnesses," and their "bodies shall be seen upon the street of the city that is called Sodom and Egypt," and afterwards that "the spirit of life entered into them."

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

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Jeremiah 12:4

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4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.