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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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True Christian Religion # 635

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635. Lastly I will reveal this secret. Seven chapters of Revelation describe the termination of the present church, in terms similar to the devastation of Egypt. In both cases this was by similar plagues, each of which stands in the spiritual sense for some falsity advancing its devastation to the point of destruction. This church, therefore, which is at the present time lost, is also called Egypt as spiritually understood (Revelation 11:8). The plagues in Egypt were as follows.

The waters were turned to blood, so that all the fish died and the river stank (Exodus 7; similar language in Revelation 8:8; 16:3). Blood means Divine truth falsified (see Apocalypse Revealed 379, 404, 681, 687-688). The fish that died mean likewise truths in the natural man (Apocalypse Revealed 290, 405).

Frogs came forth upon the land of Egypt (Exodus 8). There is also a mention of frogs in Revelation 16:13. Frogs mean reasonings as a result of a longing for the falsification of truth (see Apocalypse Revealed 702).

In Egypt foul ulcers appeared upon men and beasts (Exodus 9); similar language in Revelation 16:2. Ulcers mean inward evils and falsities which can destroy the good and truth in the church (see Apocalypse Revealed 678).

In Egypt hail fell mixed with fire (Exodus 9); similar language in Revelation 8:7; 16:21. Hail means hellish falsity (see Apocalypse Revealed 399, 714).

Locusts were sent upon Egypt (Exodus 10); similar language in Revelation 9:1-11. Locusts mean falsities in outermost things (see Apocalypse Revealed 424, 430).

Oppressive darkness was brought upon Egypt (Exodus 10:21); similar language in Revelation 8:12. Darkness means falsities arising from ignorance, or from false ideas of religion, or from evil living (see Apocalypse Revealed 110, 413, 695).

The Egyptians finally perished in the sea of Suph 1 (Exodus 14). In Revelation the dragon and the false prophet perished in the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 19:20; 20:10). Both the sea of Suph and that lake have the same meaning, hell.

The reason why similar language is used of Egypt and of the church, the termination and end of which is described in Revelation, is that Egypt stands for the church, which in its beginnings was outstanding. So before its church was devastated, Egypt is equated with the Garden of Eden and the garden of Jehovah (Genesis 13:10; Ezekiel 31:8). It is also called 'the corner-stone of the tribes', and 'the sons of wise men and of the kings of ancient time' (Isaiah 19:11, 13). More about Egypt in its earliest state and in its devastation will be found in Apocalypse Revealed 503.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. Generally taken as 'the Red Sea', but the author keeps the Hebrew form.

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

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Apocalypse Revealed # 681

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681. And it became blood as though of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died. This symbolizes the infernal falsity in those people by which every truth in the Word was extinguished, and so also every truth in the church and in faith.

Blood as though of a dead man, or blood oozing and mixed with pus, symbolizes infernal falsity. For blood symbolizes Divine truth, and in an opposite sense, that truth falsified (no. 379). But blood as though of a dead man symbolizes infernal falsity, inasmuch as death symbolizes the extinction of spiritual life, and so a dead man symbolizes something infernal (nos. 321, 525). That every living creature died means symbolically that every truth in the Word, in the church, and in faith was extinguished. For a living creature symbolizes the truth of faith; accordingly a living creature that has died symbolizes the truth of faith extinguished.

A living creature in the Word, or a soul when referring to a human being, symbolizes his spiritual life, which is also the life of his intellect; and because the intellect is formed by truths, and truths have to do with faith, therefore a living creature or soul symbolizes the truth of faith. That this is the symbolic meaning of a living creature or soul can be seen from many passages in the Word, and also from those that mention both soul and heart. The soul and heart plainly mean a person's life, but it is his life in consequence of his will and intellect, or spiritually speaking, in consequence of his love and wisdom, or of his charity and faith; and the life of the will springing from the goodness of love is meant by heart, while the life of the intellect springing from truths of wisdom or of faith is meant by soul. These are meant by soul and heart in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, 33, Luke 10:27; Deuteronomy 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; 26:16; Jeremiah 32:41; and elsewhere. Also in passages which mention heart by itself and soul by itself.

The reason these terms are used comes from the correspondence of the heart with the will and love, and of the soul's action in the lungs with the intellect and wisdom, as may be seem in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, Section Five, where this correspondence is discussed.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.