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Ezekiel 32

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

2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou wast like a young lion among the nations, and thou wast as a monster in the seas; and thou didst break forth in thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.

3 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also spread out my net over thee with an assemblage of many peoples; and they shall bring thee up in my net.

4 And I will leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowl of the heavens to settle upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.

5 And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with the heap of thy [members];

6 and I will water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the water-courses shall be full of thee.

7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof black; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

8 All the bright lights of the heavens will I make black over thee, and bring darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord Jehovah.

9 And I will vex the heart of many peoples, when I bring [the news of] thy destruction among the nations, into the countries that thou hast not known.

10 And I will make many peoples amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid at thee, when I brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, each one for his life, in the day of thy fall.

11 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.

12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall: the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall spoil the pride of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.

13 And I will destroy all the beasts thereof, from beside the great waters; and the foot of man shall not trouble them any more, nor shall the cloven hoofs of beasts trouble them.

14 Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord Jehovah.

15 When I shall make the land of Egypt a desolation, and the country shall be left desolate of all that was in it, when I have smitten all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I [am] Jehovah.

16 It is a lamentation, and [thus] they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall say it in lamenting; they shall say it in lamenting over Egypt and over all her multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

17 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, her and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the lower parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.

19 Whom dost thou surpass in beauty? Go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.

20 They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword. The sword hath been given: draw her out, and all her multitudes.

21 The strong among the mighty, with them that helped him, shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol: they are gone down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

22 There is Asshur and all his assemblage, his graves round about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword;

23 their graves are set in the sides of the pit, and his assemblage is round about his grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, -- who caused terror in the land of the living.

24 There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised unto the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their confusion with them that go down to the pit.

25 They have set him a bed in the midst of the slain, with all his multitude: their graves are round about him, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though their terror was caused in the land of the living; and they have borne their confusion with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that are slain.

26 There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude, their graves round about them, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.

27 And they lie not with the mighty, [that are] fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war; and whose swords are laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

28 Thou also shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the sword.

29 There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, who in their might are laid with them that are slain by the sword: they lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.

30 There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, that are gone down with the slain -- ashamed of the terror which they caused through their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword, and bear their confusion with them that go down to the pit.

31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah.

32 For I have caused my terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1151

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1151. 'Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras' were just so many nations with whom such worship existed, and who in the internal sense mean just so many differing types of doctrine which were one and the same as the forms of ritual which they observed devoutly. This is quite clear from the Word where these nations are mentioned in various places, for those nations everywhere mean external worship, sometimes external worship corresponding to internal, sometimes the contrary The reason the latter is sometimes meant is that all Churches everywhere altered in the course of time, and altered indeed into something contrary. The fact that the nations named here mean nothing other than external worship, and therefore their doctrinal teachings, which were forms of ritual, becomes clear, as has been stated, from other parts of the Word, chiefly in the Prophets.

[2] Magog, Meshech, Tubal, and Gomer are referred to in Ezekiel as follows,

Son of man, set your face 1 towards Gog, the land of Magog, the prince, the head of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince, the head of Meshech and Tubal; and I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you back, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company, with shield and buckler, all of them wielding swords: Persia, Cush, and Put with them; Gomer and all on his flanks; Bethtogarmah, the uttermost parts of the north, and all on his Ranks. In the latter years you will come upon the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, upon the mountains of Israel, which have been made a waste. Ezekiel 38:2-6, 8.

The subject in the whole of this chapter is a Church that became corrupted and which at length focused the whole of worship in external things or religious observances once charity, meant by 'the mountains of Israel', had been destroyed. Here 'Gog and the land of Magog, the prince and head of Meshech and Tubal' is worship confined to external things. Anyone may see that Gog and Magog are not the subject, for the Word of the Lord does not deal with worldly things, but embodies Divine matters.

[3] In the same prophet,

Prophesy against Gog and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince, the head of Meshech and Tubal; and I will bring you back, and will split you into six, and make you come up from the uttermost parts of the north and bring you on to the mountains of Israel. On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all on your flanks, and the peoples that are with you. Ezekiel 39:1-2, 4.

The subject in the whole of this chapter is likewise external worship separated from internal and made idolatrous. Such worship is meant here by 'Gog, Meshech and Tubal' who are also used to mean the matters of doctrine which people adopt and then confirm from the literal sense of the Word, and in so doing falsify truths and destroy internal worship. For, as has been stated, those same nations also mean contrary things.

[4] In John,

When the thousand years have come to an end, Satan will be loosed from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth. Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. They went up over the breadth 2 of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, [and] the beloved city. Revelation 20:7-9.

Here also 'Gog and Magog' has a similar meaning. External worship separated from internal, that is, separated from love to the Lord and from love towards the neighbour, is nothing but idolatrous worship which 'surrounds the camp of the saints and the beloved city'.

[5] Meshech and Tubal are referred to in Ezekiel as follows,

Meshech and Tubal are there, and all their crowd; round about it are its graves; all of them are uncircumcised, pierced by the sword, for they spread their terror in the land of the living. Ezekiel 32:26.

This refers to Egypt, that is, to factual knowledge by means of which people wish to inquire into spiritual things. 'Meshech and Tubal' stands for doctrinal teachings, which were forms of ritual, which are called 'uncircumcised' when love does not exist. Consequently they are 'pierced by the sword, and a terror in the land of the living'.

[6] Javan is referred to in Joel,

You have sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Javanites, 3 to remove them far away from their border. Joel 3:6.

'The sons of Judah' stands for things on the celestial side of faith, 'the sons of Jerusalem' for those on the spiritual side, and so for things that are internal. 'The sons of the Javanites' stands for worship in external things that is separated from internal worship; and because this worship is so far removed from that which is internal it is said that they 'removed them far away from their border'.

[7] 'Javan and Tubal' in Isaiah stands for true external worship itself,

One is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they will come and see My glory, and I will set a sign among them And I will send survivors from them to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the islands far off that have not heard My fame and have not seen My glory; and they will declare My glory among the nations. Isaiah 66:18-19.

This refers to the Lord's kingdom and His Coming. 'Tubal and Javan' stands for those whose worship is external corresponding to internal and who are to be informed about internal things.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, faces

2. literally, the plain

3. i.e. the Greeks

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