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Ezekiel 22

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1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2 And thou son of man, dost thou not judge, dost thou not judge the city of blood?

3 And thou shalt shew her all her abominations, and shalt say: Thus saith the Lord God: This is the city that sheddeth blood in the midst of her, that her time may come: and that hath made idols against herself, to defile herself.

4 Thou art become guilty in thy blood which thou hast shed: and thou art defiled in thy idols which thou hast made: and thou hast made thy days to draw near, and hast brought on the time of thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach to the Gentiles, and a mockery to all countries.

5 Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall triumph over thee: thou filthy one, infamous, great in destruction.

6 Behold the princes of Israel, every one hath employed his arm in thee to shed blood.

7 They have abused father and mother in thee, they have oppressed the stranger in the midst of thee, they have grieved the fatherless and widow in thee.

8 Thou hast despised my sanctuaries, and profaned my sabbaths.

9 Slanderers have been in thee to shed blood, and they have eaten upon the mountains in thee, they have committed wickedness in the midst of thee.

10 They have discovered the nakedness of their father in thee, they have humbled the uncleanness of the menstruous woman in thee.

11 And every one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife, and the father in law hath wickedly defiled his daughter in law, the brother hath oppressed his sister the daughter of his father in thee.

12 They have taken gifts in thee to shed blood: thou hast taken usury and increase, and hast covetously oppressed thy neighbours: and then hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.

13 Behold, I have clapped my hands at thy covetousness, which thou hast exercised and at the blood that hath been shed: In the midst of thee.

14 Shall thy heart endure, or shall thy hands prevail ill the days which I will bring upon thee: I the Lord have spoken, and will do it.

15 And I will disperse thee in the nations, and will scatter thee among the countries, and I will put an end to thy uncleanness in thee.

16 And I will possess thee in the sight of the Gentiles, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

18 Son of man, the house of Israel is become dress to me: all these are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: they are become the dress of silver.

19 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you are all turned into dress, therefore behold I will gather you together in the midst of Jerusalem.

20 As they gather silver, and brass, and tin, and iron, and lead in the midst of the furnace: that I may kindle a fire in it to melt it: so will I gather you together in my fury and in my wrath, and will take my rest, and I will melt you down.

21 And I will gather you together, and will burn you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof.

22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be in the midst thereof: and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have poured out my indignation upon you.

23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

24 Son of man, say to her: Thou art a land that is unclean, and not rained upon in the day of wrath.

25 There is a conspiracy of prophets in the midst thereof: like a lion that roareth and catcheth the prey, they have devoured souls, they have taken riches and hire, they have made many widows in the midst thereof.

26 Her priests have despised my law, and have defiled my sanctuaries: they have put no difference between holy and profane: nor have distinguished between the polluted and the clean: and they have turned away their eyes from my sabbaths, and I was profaned in the midst of them.

27 Her princes in the midst of her, are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood, and to destroy souls, and to run after gains through covetousness.

28 And her prophets have daubed them without tempering the mortar, seeing vain things, and divining lies unto them, saying: Thus saith the Lord God: when the Lord hath not spoken.

29 The people of the land have used oppression, and committed robbery: they afflicted the needy and poor, and they oppressed the stranger by calumny without judgment.

30 And I sought among them for a man that might set up a hedge, and stand in the gap before me in favour of the land, that I might not destroy it: and I found none.

31 And I poured out my indignation upon them, in the fire of my wrath I consumed them: I have rendered their way upon their own head, saith the Lord God.

   

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Pour out

  

'Pouring out the vials upon the earth, which contained the plagues,' in Revelation 16:1, signifies influx of the reformed into the church, or into people who study and receive the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 16; Apocalypse Revealed 676)

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Arcana Coelestia # 8294

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8294. 'I will unsheathe the sword' means unceasing conflict on the part of falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sword' as truth engaged in conflict against falsity and evil, and in the contrary sense as falsity engaged in conflict against truth and good, dealt with in 2799, 4499; and from the meaning of 'unsheathing', or baring it, as unceasing conflict until the enemy has been laid low. Unceasing conflict is likewise meant by an unsheathed or drawn sword in Moses, I will scatter you among the nations, and unsheathe a sword after you. Leviticus 26:33.

In Ezekiel,

I will scatter to every wind all his troop; and I will unsheathe the sword after them. Ezekiel 12:14.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, Behold Me against you; I will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. My sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north; so that all flesh may know that I Jehovah have drawn My sword out of its sheath, and it is not going to return any more. Ezekiel 21:3-5.

Here 'unsheathing' or 'drawing the sword' stands for not ceasing to engage in conflict until enemies have been laid low, and so stands for unceasing conflict. Unceasing conflict against evils and falsities is also meant by the unsheathed sword of the Prince of the army of Jehovah whom Joshua saw when he entered the land of Canaan, Joshua 5:13. It was a sign to them that they were to fight the nations there and to destroy them. By 'the nations' in possession of the land of Canaan at that time are meant those who before the Lord's Coming occupied the region of heaven which was subsequently given to members of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, 6914, 8054.

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