Bible

 

Ezekiel 23

Studie

   

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother.

3 And they committed fornication in Egypt, in their youth they committed fornication: there were their breasts pressed down, and the teats of their virginity were bruised.

4 And their names were Oolla the elder, and Ooliba her younger sister: and I took them, and they bore sons and daughters. Now for their names, Samaria is Oolla, and Jerusalem is Ooliba.

5 And Oolla committed fornication against me, and doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians that came to her,

6 Who were clothed with blue, princes, and rulers, beautiful youths, all horsemen, mounted upon horses.

7 And she committed her fornications with those chosen men, all sons of the Assyrians: and she defiled herself with the uncleanness of all them on whom she doted.

8 Moreover also she did not forsake her fornications which she had committed in Egypt: for they also lay with her in her youth, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured out their fornication upon her.

9 Therefore have I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of the Assyrians, upon whose lust she doted.

10 They discovered her disgrace, took away her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword: and they became infamous women, and they executed judgments in her.

11 And when her sister Ooliba saw this, she was mad with lust more than she: and she carried her fornication beyond the fornication of her sister.

12 Impudently prostituting herself to the children of the Assyrians, the princes, and rulers that came to her, clothed with divers colours, to the horsemen that rode upon horses, and to young men all of great beauty.

13 And I saw that she was defiled, and that they both took one way.

14 And she increased her fornications: and when she had seen men painted on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans set forth in colours,

15 And girded with girdles about their reins, and with dyed turbans on their heads, the resemblance of all the captains, the likeness of the sons of Babylon, and of the land of the Chaldeans wherein they were born,

16 She doted upon them with the lust of her eyes, and she sent messengers to them into Chaldea.

17 And when the sons of Babylon were come to her to the bed of love, they defiled her with their fornications, and she was polluted by them, and her soul was glutted with them.

18 And she discovered her fornications, and discovered her disgrace: and my soul was alienated from her, as my soul was alienated from her sister.

19 For she multiplied her fornications, remembering the days of her youth, in which she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

20 And she was mad with lust after lying with them whose flesh is as the flesh of asses: and whose issue as the issue of horses.

21 And thou hast renewed the wickedness of thy youth, when thy breasts were pressed in Egypt, and the papa of thy virginity broken.

22 Therefore, Ooliba, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will raise up against thee all thy lovers with whom thy soul hath been glutted: and I will gather them together against thee round about.

23 The children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, the nobles, and the kings, and princes, all the sons of the Assyrians, beautiful young men, all the captains, and rulers, the princes of princes, and the renowned horsemen.

24 And they shall come upon thee well appointed with chariot and wheel, a multitude of people: they shall be armed against thee on every side with breastplate, and buckler, and helmet: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee by their judgments.

25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, which they shall execute upon thee with fury: they shall cut off thy nose and thy ears: and what remains shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons, and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by fire.

26 And they shall strip thee of thy garments, and take away the instruments of thy glory.

27 And I will put an end to thy wickedness in thee, and thy fornication brought out of the land of Egypt: neither shalt thou lift up thy eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.

28 For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hands of them whom thou hatest, into their hands with whom thy soul hath been glutted.

29 And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and they shall take away all thy labours, and shall let thee go naked, and full of disgrace, and the disgrace of thy fornication shall be discovered, thy wickedness, and thy fornications.

30 They have done these things to thee, because thou hast played the harlot with the nations among which thou wast defiled with their idols.

31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister, and I will give her cup into thy hand.

32 Thus saith the Lord God: Thou shalt drink thy sister's cup, deep, and wide: thou shalt be had in derision and scorn, which containeth very much.

33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness, and sorrow: with the cup of grief, and sadness, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

34 And thou shalt drink it, and shalt drink it up even to the dregs, and thou shalt devour the fragments thereof, thou shalt rend thy breasts: because I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

35 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast forgotten me, and hast cast me off behind thy back, bear thou also thy wickedness, and thy fornications.

36 And the Lord spoke to me, saying: Son of man, dost thou judge Oolla, and Ooliba, and dost thou declare to them their wicked deeds?

37 Because they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and they have committed fornication with their idols: moreover also their children, whom they bore to me, they have offered to them to be devoured.

38 Yea, and they have done this to me. They polluted my sanctuary on the same day, and profaned my sabbaths.

39 And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, and went into my sanctuary the same day to profane it: they did these things even in the midst of my house.

40 They sent for men coming from afar, to whom they had sent a messenger: and behold they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, and didst paint thy eyes, and wast adorned with women's ornaments.

41 Thou sattest on a very fine bed, and a table was decked before thee: whereupon thou didst set my incense, and my ointment.

42 And there was in her the voice of a multitude rejoicing: and to some that were brought of the multitude of men, and that came from the desert, they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads.

43 And I said to her that was worn out in her adulteries: Now will this woman still continue in her fornication.

44 And they went in to her, as to a harlot: so went they in unto Oolla, and Ooliba, wicked women.

45 They therefore are k just men: these shall judge them as adulteresses are judged, and as shedders of blood are judged: because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

46 For thus saith the Lord God: Bring a multitude upon them, and deliver them over to tumult and rapine:

47 And lee the people stone them with stones, and let them be stabbed with their swords: they shall kill their sons and daughters, and their houses they shall burn with fire.

48 And I will take away wickedness out of the land: and all women shall learn, not to do according to the wickedness of them.

49 And they shall render your wickedness upon you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols: and you shall know that I am the Lord God.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 9965

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

9965. 'That they may not bear iniquity and die' means the elimination of the whole of worship. This is clear from the meaning of 'bearing the iniquity', when the subject is the priestly office of Aaron and his sons, as a removal or shifting away of falsities and evils with those who are governed by good derived from the Lord, dealt with above in 9937. But when it speaks of them 'bearing iniquity and dying' the elimination of the whole of worship is meant, see 9928; for the representative worship died because nothing of it appeared any longer in heaven. The situation in all this may become clear from what has been stated and shown above in 9959-9961. They also died when they did not act in accordance with the statutes, 1 as is evident from Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu, who were devoured by fire from heaven when they did not take the fire of the altar to burn incense but foreign 2 fire, Leviticus 10:1-2ff. 'The fire of the altar' represented God's love, thus love from the Lord, whereas 'foreign fire' represented love from hell. The elimination of worship was meant by their burning incense with this fire and their consequent death. For the meaning of 'fire' as love, see 5215, 6832, 7324, 7575, 7852.

[2] Many places in the Word state that they would bear iniquity when they did not do things in accordance with the statutes, and by this was meant damnation because sins had not been removed. Not that they themselves were condemned on account of disobeying the statutes. Rather by doing so they eliminated representative worship and in so doing represented the damnation of those who remain in their sins. For none are condemned because they fail in their performance of outward religious observances, only because of evils in the heart, thus because of failing in such observances as a result of evil in the heart. This is what 'bearing iniquity' means in the following places: In Moses,

If a soul sins and acts against any of Jehovah's commandments regarding what ought not to be done, 3 though he does not know it, yet he will be guilty and will bear his iniquity. Leviticus 5:17-18.

Here the retention of evils and consequent damnation should not be understood literally by 'bearing iniquity', although that is the spiritual meaning; for it says 'though he does not know it', implying that what the person has done does not spring from evil in the heart.

[3] In the same author,

If any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering is eaten at all on the third day, the one offering it will not be accepted. It is an abomination, and the soul that eats it will bear his iniquity, and will be cut off from his people. Leviticus 7:18; 19:7-8.

Here also 'bearing iniquity' means remaining in his sins and being as a result in a state of damnation. It does so not because the person ate some of his sacrifice on the third day, but because 'eating it on the third day' represented something abominable, namely an action leading to damnation. Thus 'bearing iniquity and being cut off from his people' represented the damnation of those who performed the abomination meant by that deed. Nevertheless there was no condemnation on account of his having eaten it, for interior evils that were represented are what condemn, not exterior actions in which those evils are not present.

[4] In the same author,

Every soul who eats a carcass 4 or that which has been torn, and does not wash his clothes and bathe his flesh shall bear his iniquity. Leviticus 17:15-16.

Since 'eating a carcass or that which has been torn' represented making evil or falsity one's own, the expression 'bearing iniquity' also has a representative meaning. In the same author,

If a man who is clean fails to keep the Passover, this soul shall be cut off from his people, because he did not bring the offering of Jehovah at its appointed time; he shall bear his sin. Numbers 9:13.

'The Passover' represented deliverance by the Lord from damnation, 7093 (end), 7867, 7995, 9286-9292; and 'the Passover supper' represented being joined to the Lord through the good of love, 7836, 7997, 8001. And since these things were represented it was decreed that anyone who did not keep the Passover should be cut off from his people and that he should bear his sin. The failure to keep it was not really so great a crime; rather it represented those who at heart refuse to accept the Lord and consequently deliverance from sins, and so who have no wish to be joined to Him through love. Thus it represented their damnation.

[5] In the same author,

The children of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting, or else they will bear iniquity and die. 5 Levites shall perform the work of the tent of meeting, and these shall bear the iniquity. Numbers 18:22-23.

The reason why the people would bear iniquity and die if they were to go near the tent of meeting to do the work there was that they would thereby eliminate the representative worship assigned to the function of the priests. The function of the priests or the priestly office represented the Lord's entire work of salvation, 9809; and this is why it says that the Levites, who also were priests, should bear the people's iniquity, by which expiation or atonement was meant, that is, removal from evils and falsities with those who are governed by good derived from the Lord alone, 9937. 'Bearing iniquity' means real damnation when this expression is used in reference to those who perform evil deeds because their heart is evil, such as those mentioned in Leviticus 20:17, 19-20; 24:15-16; Ezekiel 18:20; 23:49; and elsewhere.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. i.e. the laws of worship; see 8972.

2. i.e. unauthorized or profane

3. literally, and does one of [all] Jehovah's commandments [about] things which ought not to be done

4. i.e. an animal that had not been slaughtered but had died naturally

5. literally, to bear iniquity, dying

  
/ 10837  
  

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