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Hosea 8

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1 Set the trumpet to thy mouth. [He cometh] as an eagle against the house of Jehovah, because they have transgressed my covenant, and rebelled against my law.

2 They shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee; [we], Israel.

3 Israel hath cast off good: the enemy shall pursue him.

4 They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not; of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

5 Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast [thee] off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will they be incapable of purity?

6 For from Israel is this also: -- a workman made it, and it is no God: for the calf of Samaria shall be [broken in] pieces.

7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; should it sprout, it would yield no meal; if so be it yield, strangers shall swallow it up.

8 Israel is swallowed up: now are they become among the nations as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

9 For they are gone up [to] Assyria [as] a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.

10 Although they hire among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall begin to be straitened under the burden of the king of princes.

11 Because Ephraim hath multiplied altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.

12 I have prescribed unto him the manifold things of my law: they are counted [as] a strange thing.

13 They sacrifice flesh [for] the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; Jehovah hath no delight in them. Now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

14 For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

   

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Good

  
To Charity, by João Zeferino da Costa

It seems rather circular to say that “good” in the Bible represents good, but in a general sense it's true! The case is this: The Lord is love itself given form and expression as wisdom itself, and that Divine Love and Divine Wisdom flow down into us, into the world and into the Bible in an unending stream with endless variety. Divine Love gives rise to our loves, our affections, our desires for good and the joy we can feel; Divine Wisdom gives rise to facts, knowledge, intelligence, understanding and human wisdom. And the more we can bring those two aspects of our lives into harmony, the more elevated we can become -- which will in turn make us happier, more useful, and ultimately more angelic.

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 2818

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2818. 'To slay his son' means until whatever originated in the merely human was dead. This becomes clear from the internal sense of these words, for they mean the Lord's severest and inmost temptations, in the last of which, that of the Cross, it is clear that the merely human also died. This could not be represented by 'Abraham's son' or Isaac because the sacrificing of sons was an abomination. Yet that death of the human was represented so far as this could be represented; that is to say, it was represented in the attempt to sacrifice Isaac but not in any actual sacrificing of him. From this it may become clear that these words about Abraham taking the knife to slay his son mean until all that was merely human was dead.

[2] The Lord's future coming into the world and His suffering of death had been known since most ancient times. The existence of that knowledge then may be recognized plainly from the custom prevalent among the gentiles of sacrificing their own children, which they did in the belief that by so doing they made atonement and satisfied God. They would never have made this abominable custom their major religious activity unless they had received from the ancients knowledge of a future coming of the Son of God, of whom, so they believed, a sacrifice would be made. The children of Jacob too inclined to this abominable practice, as also did Abraham, for nobody is tempted except through that to which he has an inclination. The fact that the children of Jacob had those inclinations is clear in the Prophets. But to prevent them plunging into that abominable practice the introduction of burnt offerings and sacrifices was permitted, 922, 1128, 1241, 1343, 2180.

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