Bible

 

Jeremiah 51

Studie

   

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.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 8581

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

8581. 'behold, I [will be] standing before you there on the rock in Horeb' means the Lord in respect of the truths of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the rock' as faith, in this instance faith received from the Lord, or the Lord in respect of faith, for Jehovah - that is, the Lord - says 'Behold, I [will be] standing on the rock'; and from the meaning of 'Horeb' as God's law. Consequently the words used here mean the Lord in respect of the truths of faith, which come from His law or the Word. The fact that 'the rock' means the Lord in respect of faith, and on man's side the faith he receives from the Lord, is clear from very many places in the Word, as in Moses,

Ascribe 1 greatness to our God, the Rock, whose work is perfect. He caused him to ride on 2 the heights of the land, and fed him with the produce of the fields; He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. But when Jeshurun became fat he kicked; he forsook God who made Him, and despised the Rock of his salvation. You have been unmindful of 3 the Rock who begot you, and have forgotten the God who formed you. Their Rock sold them, and Jehovah shut them up. For their rock is not like our Rock. When it is said, Where are their gods, the rock in which they trusted? ... Deuteronomy 32:3-4, 13, 15, 18, 30-31, 37.

From these verses it is evident that Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is the One who is called 'the Rock'. The fact that 'the Rock' is Jehovah or the Lord in respect of faith is made plain by every detail there in the internal sense.

[2] In Daniel,

You were watching, until a stone was cut out, not by means of hands; and it struck the statue on its feet, which were iron and clay, and smashed them to pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold together were smashed to pieces, and became like chaff from the summer threshing-floors; so that the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. But the stone that struck the statue became a great rock and filled the whole earth. The God of heaven will cause a kingdom to arise that will never be destroyed, and also His kingdom will not be left to other people; it will crush and consume all those kingdoms, but will itself stand for ever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the rock, not by means of hands, and it smashed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold... Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45.

The subject here is the Lord and His kingdom, 'a stone' being used to mean faith, and 'a rock' the Lord in respect of faith. The fact that these things are meant by 'a stone' and 'a rock' is evident to anyone who gives thought to the matter. 'A stone' also means in the Word the truth that composes faith, see 643, 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798, 6426; therefore also the Lord in respect of Divine Truth is called 'the stone of Israel', 6426. The reason why 'a rock' means the Lord in respect of the truth of faith is that 'a rock' is also used to mean a fortress that withstands falsities. The actual fortress is the truth of faith, for this is what the battle against both falsities and evils is waged from.

[3] All this also makes it clear that in the following words in Matthew which the Lord addressed to Peter 'rock' is used to mean the Lord in respect of faith, and also faith received from the Lord,

I tell you, You Are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:18-19.

As regards 'rock' here, that it means the Lord in respect of faith, and faith received from the Lord, and that 'Peter' represents that faith, see Preface to Genesis 22, and also 3750, 4738, 6000, 6073 (end), 6344 (end). It is also evident to anyone who thinks properly that the power to open heaven and close hell for the good, and to open hell and close heaven for the wicked, is the Lord's alone, and that the reason why such power accompanies faith is that faith comes from the Lord, and so likewise is the Lord's; that is, the Lord Himself is within faith. All power in the next life too comes through the truth of faith springing from good, 4931, 6344, 6423, 8200, 8304. One who thinks properly may also conclude that the Lord's Church has not been built on some person, thus not on Peter, but on the Lord Himself, that is, on faith in Him.

[4] From all this one can see what kind of errors they are, and how great, which those people slip into who adhere strictly to the sense of the letter of the Word. One can see why leaders of the Church are all too ready to seize on the idea that such power was given to Peter and consequently to those who call themselves his successors, for that idea lends support to what is in their heart. One can see how difficult it is for them to let themselves be convinced that this passage has any other meaning, for each wishes to gain supreme power. All this also shows how vital it is to know what 'rock', 'the keys', 'the gates of hell', and very many other things mean in the internal sense.

[5] The fact that Jehovah is called 'the Rock', and that when He is called this the Lord in respect of faith is meant, many other places in the Word also go to prove, such as the following, which will be quoted without further explanation. In Isaiah,

Send the lamb of the ruler of the land from the Rock towards the wilderness, to the mountain [of the daughter] of Zion. Isaiah 16:1.

In the same prophet,

You have forgotten [the God] of your salvation, and have not called to mind the Rock of your refuge. Isaiah 17:10.

In the same prophet,

Asshur will fall by the sword, not of man (vir). Also his rock will pass away by reason of terror. Isaiah 31:8-9.

In the same prophet,

Let the inhabitants of the Rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Isaiah 42:11.

In the same prophet,

Pay attention to Me, you who are pursuing righteousness, who are seeking Jehovah. Look to the Rock from which you were hewn. Isaiah 51:1.

In Jeremiah,

Leave the cities and dwell in the Rock, O inhabitants of Moab. Jeremiah 48:28.

In the same prophet,

I am against you, O destroying mountain, destroying the whole earth. And I will stretch out My hand against you, and roll you down from the rocks, and make you into a mountain of burning. Nor will they take from you a stone for a corner, or a stone for foundations. Jeremiah 51:25-26.

This refers to Babel. In David,

He caused me to come up out of the pit of devastation, out of the muddy clay, and He set my feet upon a rock. Psalms 40:2.

In the same author,

From the end of the earth I cry to You, when my heart fails; You lead me to the Rock high up from me. Psalms 61:2.

In the same author,

I fed them with the fat of wheat, and with honey out of the rock I satisfied them. Psalms 81:16.

[6] Since 'a rock' meant the Lord in respect of faith, and faith received from the Lord, also the wondrous things spoken of in the Book of Judges took place on a rock,

The Angel of Jehovah told Gideon to take the flesh and unleavened bread and peace them on the rock, and pour out the broth. And fire went up from the rock and consumed the flesh and unleavened bread. Judges 6:20-21.

And elsewhere in the same book,

Manoah, Samson's father, took the kid of the she-goats and offered it on the rock. Then the Angel acted in a wondrous manner and ascended in the flame. Judges 13:19-20.

What meaning these things had becomes clear if what 'Gideon' and what 'Manoah, Samson's father' represented is discovered from the internal sense, also what was meant by 'the flesh and unleavened bread' and 'the broth', 'the kid of the she-goats' as well, and 'the fire'. For every single one of these was representative and had a spiritual meaning.

[7] Knowing that 'the Rock' means faith may lead also to an understanding of the reference to Moses' being pieced in the cleft of the rock when he was to see Jehovah, Exodus 33:20-23; for 'the cleft of the rock' means obscurity of faith. It is well known in the Churches that the rock in Horeb from which the water came out means the Lord; but now it has been shown that it means the Lord in respect of faith, and also that it means faith received from the Lord. A meaning similar to that which 'the rock in Horeb' possesses is also meant in the following words in Isaiah,

Say, Jehovah has redeemed His servant Jacob. At that time they will not thirst; in waste places He will lead them. He will make water flow for them from the rock, when He cleaves the rock so that water flows out. Isaiah 48:20-21.

The reason why the people were given the water from no other rock than the one in Horeb is that 'Horeb' means God's law; and the reason why God's law is meant by 'Horeb' is that the law was proclaimed from there. And faith which is received from the Lord is acquired from God's law, that is, from the Word; for through the Word the Lord teaches what faith is and also imparts faith.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The Latin means literally I will give but the Hebrew means Give.

2. Reading equitare (to ride on) for evigilare (to arouse)

3. literally, You have given to forgetfulness

  
/ 10837  
  

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