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Ezekiel 4

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1 And thou, son of man, take thee a brick, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, -- Jerusalem:

2 and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast a mound against it, and set camps against it, and place battering-rams against it round about.

3 And take thou unto thee an iron plate, and put it [for] a wall of iron between thee and the city; and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it: this shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

4 And thou, lie upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: the number of the days that thou liest upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity.

5 And I have appointed thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6 And when thou hast accomplished them, thou shalt lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

7 And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

8 And behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thyself from one side to the other, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

9 And thou, take unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, [according to] the number of the days that thou liest upon thy side: three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.

11 And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.

12 And thou shalt eat it [as] barley-cake, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man.

13 And Jehovah said, So shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations whither I will drive them.

14 Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, my soul hath not been defiled, and from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or of that which is torn; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

15 And he said unto me, See, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

16 And he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread by weight, and with anxiety; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

17 because bread and water shall fail them, and they shall be astonied one with another, and waste away in their iniquity.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 3332

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3332. 'Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil pottage' means that the good of life was given the good of truth and the good of doctrine. This is clear from the representation of 'Esau' as the good of life, dealt with in 3300, 3322; from the meaning of 'bread' as in general the good of love - both celestial and spiritual good - dealt with in 276, 680, 2165, 2177, and so also the good of truth, this being spiritual good; and from the meaning of 'lentil pottage' as the good of doctrine, for 'pottage' or soup means the massing together of matters of doctrine, 3316, but 'lentils' the good that exists essentially in these. Jacob's giving them to Esau means in the internal sense that those goods come through the doctrine of truth, which Jacob represents, 3305.

[2] These words and those that follow in this final verse describe progress made in regard to truth and good. They describe the situation with the spiritual man while being regenerated, that is to say, how he first learns matters of doctrine concerning truth; how next he is stirred by an affection for them, which is the good of doctrine; how after that, through insight into the matters of doctrine, he is stirred by an affection for the truths which they hold within them, which is the good of truth; and how at length he desires to live according to them, which is the good of life. Thus while undergoing regeneration the spiritual man advances from the doctrine of truth towards the good of life. But once he has reached that point the order is reversed - that good is the point from which he sees the good of truth, the latter the point from which he sees the good of doctrine, and this good in turn the point from which he sees matters of doctrine concerning truth. From these considerations it may be known how, from being sensory-minded, a person becomes spiritual, and what he is like when he has become spiritual.

[3] Those varieties of good, that is to say, the good of life, the good of truth, and the good of doctrine, are all distinct from one another, as becomes clear to those who weigh the matter up. The good of life is that which issues from the will, the good of truth that which issues from the understanding, while the good of doctrine is that which issues from knowledge. Doctrinal teaching is such that it includes all three. It is clear that 'lentils' means the good of doctrine from the fact that wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt are such things as are meant by bread, though with specific differences. The fact that 'bread' in general means good is evident from what has been stated and shown in 276, 680, 2165, 2177; and so specific kinds of good are meant by the grains and beans that have been mentioned - nobler kinds of good by wheat and barley, but less noble by beans and lentils, as also becomes evident from these words in Ezekiel,

You, take for yourself wheat and barley, and beans and lentils, and millet and spelt, and put them into a single vessel, and make them into bread for yourself. Ezekiel 4:9, 12-13.

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