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Jeremiah 51

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1 Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the heart of those that rise against me, a destroying wind;

2 and I will send unto Babylon strangers, who shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

3 Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his coat of mail; and spare not her young men: destroy utterly all her host.

4 And the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.

5 For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; for their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be ye not cut off in her iniquity: for this is the time of Jehovah's vengeance: he shall render unto her a recompence.

7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore have the nations become mad.

8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and ruined. Howl over her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

9 We have treated Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto the heavens, and is lifted up to the skies.

10 Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.

11 Sharpen the arrows; take the shields. Jehovah hath stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; for his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for this is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple.

12 Lift up a banner towards the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hath both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 Thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of thy rapacity.

14 Jehovah of hosts hath sworn by himself, I will assuredly fill thee with men, as with caterpillars; and they shall raise a shout against thee.

15 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

16 When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the end of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

17 Every man is become brutish, so as to have no knowledge; every founder is put to shame by the graven image, for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

18 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for it is he that hath formed all things: and [Israel] is the rod of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.

20 Thou art my maul, [my] weapons of war: and with thee I will break in pieces the nations, and I will with thee destroy kingdoms;

21 and with thee I will break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee I will break in pieces the chariot and its driver;

22 and with thee will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;

23 and with thee will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces governors and rulers.

24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea, in your sight, all their evil which they have done in Zion, saith Jehovah.

25 Behold, I am against thee, mount of destruction, saith Jehovah, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burning mountain.

26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; for thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith Jehovah.

27 Lift up a banner in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare nations against her; call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the bristly caterpillars.

28 Prepare nations against her, the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their rulers, yea, all the land of their dominion.

29 And the land trembleth and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased to fight, they are sitting in the fortresses; their might hath failed, they are become as women: they have set her dwelling places on fire; her bars are broken.

31 Courier runneth to meet courier, and messenger to meet messenger, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city is taken from end to end;

32 and the passages are seized, and the reedy places are burnt with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

33 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, at the time of its being trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel; he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitress of Zion say; and, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

36 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her spring dry.

37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like young lions, growl as lions' whelps.

39 When they are heated, I will prepare their drink, and I will make them drunken, that they may exult, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith Jehovah.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.

41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth seized! How is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!

42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of its waves.

43 Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no one dwelleth, neither doth a son of man pass thereby.

44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth what he hath swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon is fallen.

45 Go ye out of the midst of her, my people, and deliver every man his soul from the fierce anger of Jehovah!

46 lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; for a rumour shall come [one] year, and after that a rumour in [another] year, and violence in the earth, ruler against ruler.

47 Therefore behold, days are coming when I will punish the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48 And the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall shout aloud over Babylon; for out of the north the spoilers shall come against her, saith Jehovah.

49 As Babylon caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go, stand not still: remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

51 -- We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered our face: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah's house.

52 -- Therefore behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that I will punish her graven images; and throughout her land the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Babylon should mount up to the heavens, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith Jehovah.

54 The sound of a cry [cometh] from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans;

55 for Jehovah spoileth Babylon, and he will destroy out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like great waters, the noise of their voice resoundeth.

56 For the spoiler is come against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men are taken; their bows are broken in pieces; for Jehovah, the ùGod of recompences, will certainly requite.

57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her governors, and her rulers, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts.

58 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly laid bare, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; so that the peoples will have laboured in vain, and the nations for the fire: and they shall be weary.

59 The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Nerijah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief chamberlain.

60 And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, see that thou read all these words;

62 and say, Jehovah, thou hast spoken concerning this place, that thou wilt cut it off, so that none shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.

63 And it shall be, when thou hast ended reading this book, [that] thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates;

64 and shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise, because of the evil that I will bring upon it: and they shall be weary. Thus far the words of Jeremiah.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 6367

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6367. 'A lion's cub is Judah' means innocence with innate strength. This is clear from the meaning of 'a lion' as the good of love and the truth from that good in their power, dealt with below, so that 'a lion's cub' is innocence with strength. The reason why with innate strength is meant is that here 'Judah' represents the celestial element of love, and the celestial element of love resides in the will part of the mind, 895, 917, 4493, 5117, and thus possesses innate strength. For a person is born into things that belong to the will part. That being so, members of the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial, were born into the good of love, in the measure that good was present in their will. This then is why the strength is said to be innate. The reason 'a lion's cub' means innocence is that 'a lion' is the good of celestial love, and 'a cub', being so to speak its young child, accordingly means innocence.

[2] 'A lion' means the good of celestial love and the truth from that love in their power, and also in the contrary sense the evil of self-love in its power, as is clear from places in the Word where 'a lion' is mentioned. The good of celestial love is meant in John,

Behold, the Lion which is from the Tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose its seven seals. Revelation 5:5.

Here the Lord is called 'the Lion' by virtue of the almighty power which His Divine Love and Divine Truth from that Love possess. There are also other places in the Word where Jehovah or the Lord is compared to a lion, as in Hosea,

They will go after Jehovah; He will roar like a lion, for He will roar, and respectfully [His] sons from the west 1 will draw near. Hosea 11:10.

[3] Also in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah to me, As a lion roars, and a young lion over its prey, when there come up against him a full number of shepherds, by whose voice he is not dismayed, and by whose tumult he is not distressed, so Jehovah Zebaoth will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. Isaiah 31:4.

Here the almighty power of Divine Good is compared to 'a lion', and the almighty power of Divine Truth from that Good is compared to 'a young lion'. For it says that 'Jehovah Zebaoth will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill', and 'Mount Zion' means the Good of Divine Love and 'its hill' the Divine Truth from that Good, 795, 796, 1430, 4210.

[4] For the same reason the four living creatures in Ezekiel and in John, meaning cherubs, had the faces of a human being, lion, ox, and eagle: In Ezekiel,

The likeness of the faces of the four living creatures - [each of] the four had the face of a human being, and the face of a lion on the right side, and [each of] the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and [each of] the four had the face of an eagle. Ezekiel 1:10; 10:14.

And in John,

Around 2 the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. And the first living creature was like a lion; the second living creature was like a calf; the third living creature had a face like a human being; the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. Revelation 4:6-7.

The fact that the living creatures were cherubs is stated in Ezekiel to, which fact is also evident from the description of them in John, in which he says that they had 'eyes in front and behind'. The Lord's foresight and providence are meant by 'the cherubs', 308; and they had the face of a lion by virtue of the almighty power belonging to providence that Divine Truth from Divine Good possesses. So also with the cherubs around the new temple in Ezekiel 41:19.

[5] Celestial people in possession of the power supplied by the good and the truth from good which come from the Lord are meant by 'lions', as is evident in David,

There is no want to those fearing Jehovah. The young lions will lack and suffer hunger, but those seeking Jehovah will not lack any good thing. Psalms 34:9-10.

In the same author,

The [young] lions are roaring for plunder, and to seek from God their food. The sun rises, they are gathered together, and lie down in their dwelling-places. Psalms 104:21-22.

In Balaam's prophetic utterance,

At that time it will be said to Jacob and to Israel, What has God been doing? See, a people will rise up like an old lion, and like a young lion will lift itself up. He will not rest until he has devoured the prey. Numbers 23:23-24.

[6] And further on,

When Balaam saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes, he said, He crouches, he lies down like a lion, and like an old lion; who will rouse him? Numbers 24:2, 9.

The celestial is what is described here because celestial order is what the tribes represented by their encampments and was what Balaam saw in the spirit when he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes, 6335. That order originates in Divine Good coming through Divine Truth from the Lord; and within that order resides all power, meant here by a crouching and recumbent lion.

[7] In Micah,

The remnant of Jacob will be with the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, who, if he passes through, will tread down and tear in pieces, 3 and there is no deliverer. Your hand will be lifted up over your enemies, and all your adversaries will be cut off. Micah 5:8-9.

Here 'a lion' and a young lion stand for celestial good and celestial truth, which are 'the remnant of Jacob'. They also stand for that good and truth in Isaiah 21:8; Jeremiah 25:38; Ezekiel 38:13; Zechariah 11:3. And that same good and truth were also represented by the lions at Solomon's ivory throne, two next to the armrests 4 and twelve on the six steps, 1 Kings 10:18-20, and by the lions on the panels of the ten pedestals made of bronze, 1 Kings 7:29, 36.

[8] In the contrary sense 'a lion' means the evil of self-love in its power, as is evident from the following places: In Isaiah,

There will not be any lion there, and the savage of the wild animals will not go up on it; it will not be found there. But they will go free; thus the redeemed of Jehovah will return, and will come to Zion with song. Isaiah 35:9-10.

In Jeremiah,

Why has Israel become plunder? The young lions roar at him, they sound their voice; they turn his land into a waste. Jeremiah 2:14-15.

In the same prophet,

A lion has risen up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out; he has come from his place to turn the land into a waste. Jeremiah 4:7.

In the same prophet,

They did not know the way of Jehovah, the judgement of their God, therefore a lion from the forest has struck them down, and a wolf of the plains will devastate them. Jeremiah 5:4, 6.

In Nahum,

Where is the dwelling-place of lions, and the feeding-place 5 of the young lions, where the lion walked, the old lion, the lion's cub, and there is no one making them afraid? The lion tears in pieces enough for the cubs, and strangles for his old lionesses, and fills his caves with plunder, and his dwelling places with what he has pounced on. Behold, I am against you, said Jehovah Zebaoth, and I will burn her chariot in the smoke; but the sword will devour your young lions, and I will cut off your plunder from the earth. Nahum 2:11-13.

This refers to Nineveh.

In all these places 'a lion' stands for the power that the evil of self-love possesses, when it destroys and lays waste. 'A lion' has a like meaning in Jeremiah 12:8; 49:19; 50:17, 44; 51:38; Ezekiel 19:2-9; 32:2; Joel 1:6; Zephaniah 3:3; Psalms 57:4; 58:6; 91:13; Revelation 13:2.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, sons from the sea

2. The Latin means Before but the Greek means Around, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.

3. Reading discerpet (will tear to pieces), which Swedenborg has in his rough draft, for disperget (will scatter)

4. literally, the hands of the throne

5. literally, pasture or grazing ground

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