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Miicaah 6

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1 Auxskultu, kion diras la Eternulo:Levigxu, havu jugxan disputon kun la montoj, kaj la montetoj auxdu vian vocxon.

2 Auxskultu, ho montoj, la jugxan disputon de la Eternulo, kaj ankaux vi, ho potencaj fundamentoj de la tero; cxar la Eternulo havas jugxan disputon kun Sia popolo, kaj al Izrael Li volas doni moralinstruon.

3 Ho Mia popolo! kion Mi faris al vi, kaj per kio Mi faris al vi maljustajxon? respondu al Mi.

4 Mi elkondukis ja vin el la lando Egipta, kaj el la domo de sklaveco Mi vin elacxetis, kaj Mi sendis antaux vin Moseon, Aaronon, kaj Mirjamon.

5 Ho Mia popolo! rememoru, kion intencis Balak, regxo de Moab, kaj kion respondis al li Bileam, filo de Beor; de SXitim gxis Gilgal, por ke vi sciu la bonfarojn de la Eternulo.

6 Kun kio mi povas starigxi antaux la Eternulo, klinigxi antaux Dio en la alto? cxu mi starigxu antaux Li kun bruloferoj, kun jaragxaj bovidoj?

7 CXu al la Eternulo faros plezuron miloj da sxafoj aux sennombraj torentoj da oleo? cxu mi donu mian unuenaskiton pro mia krimo, la frukton de mia ventro pro la peko de mia animo?

8 Estas dirite al vi, ho homo, kio estas bona kaj kion la Eternulo postulas de vi:nur agi juste, ami bonfarojn, kaj esti modesta antaux via Dio.

9 La vocxo de la Eternulo vokas al la urbo, kaj sagxuloj timas Vian nomon. Humiligxu antaux la puno, kaj antaux Tiu, kiu gxin destinis.

10 Ankoraux restas en la domo de malpiulo trezoroj de malpieco, kaj malbeninda malgxusta mezurilo.

11 CXu Mi povas aprobi falsan pesilon kaj trompajn pezilojn en la saketo?

12 CXar la ricxuloj de la urbo estas plenaj de rabemo, kaj gxiaj logxantoj parolas mensogon, kaj la lingvo de ilia busxo estas falsajxo,

13 tial Mi dolorige vin frapos per dezertigo pro viaj pekoj.

14 Vi mangxos, sed ne farigxos sata; doloron pro malsato vi havos en via interno; vi kasxos, sed ne povos konservi; kaj kion vi konservos, tion Mi transdonos al la glavo.

15 Vi semos, sed vi ne rikoltos; vi premos olivojn, sed vi ne sxmiros vin per oleo; vi premos vinberojn, sed vi ne trinkos vinon.

16 Konservigxis cxe vi la moroj de Omri kaj cxiuj faroj de la domo de Ahxab, kaj vi sekvas iliajn konsilojn, por ke Mi faru vin dezerto, viajn logxantojn mokatajxo, kaj por ke vi portu sur vi la malhonoron de Mia popolo.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Micah 6

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff

In Micah 6:1-4, the Lord speaks of all that He has done for Israel, getting them out of Egypt where they were slaves. In Micah 6:5, he relates how He protected them from Balak, king of Moab (in Numbers 22-24).

Then, in Micah 6:6-8, the Lord asks, rhetorically, how the people should worship Him: “With calves of a year old?” and then goes on with a reference to the idol Moloch, “shall I give my firstborn for my transgression?” Obviously these external acts do no good at all without internal repentance and a stopping of any transgressions.

Then He answers the question. Micah says, “He has told thee oh man, what is good,” and continues the stirring, familiar words; "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God". 1

Micah 6:9 is about humility. It's a really important idea that started to be a problem for humankind all the way back in the story of the Garden of Eden. To eat of the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil” is to take to oneself the right/ability to decide which is which, and not listen to what God says about it. To walk “humbly” is to listen to God. That’s the meaning of “hear ye the rod and who has appointed it.”

Micah 6:10-11 points out that there is still some falsification with these people. The lean ephah is a cheating on the amount of liquid in a pitcher, and liquids refer to truth. Stones are used as weights to balance a scale that weighs out a purchase of food, and deceitful stones will cheat the buyer. Food means a form of good.

In Micah 6:12, 13, the rich mean people who, because they know a lot about natural things, believe they are also wise about spiritual things. 2 Here they are wicked and love the life of evil and falsity, nor can they be changed.

Then, in Micah 6:14-16, the chapter ends with a list of the problems such people will face. To eat, in the good sense, is to take in good. However, the gifts given by people who are immersed in evils and falsities turn out to be false gifts. People try to get things that will make them happy, but it doesn’t happen. Olives and their oil mean good, and grapes and their juice mean truth. 3

What are the laws of Omri? Omri was one of the wickeder kings of Israel, and Ahab was the wickedest king of all. To follow them means desolation and reproach.

In some ways, this chapter is a lot like many others in the books of the prophets. And yet, for centuries it has stood out, because it contains one of the Word's most powerful, concise, statements of how we should live: "Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God."

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. See Arcana Coelestia 2895

2. See Heaven and Hell 365.

3. Regarding olives and olive oil, seeArcana Coelestia 986. For the signification of grapes their juice, Apocalypse Explained 918.

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Heaven and Hell # 365

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365. We may gather from this that rich people arrive in heaven just as much as poor people do, one as easily as the other. The reason people believe that it is easy for the poor and hard for the rich is that the Word is misunderstood when it talks about the rich and the poor. In the spiritual meaning of the Word, "the rich" means people who are amply supplied with understandings of what is true and good, that is, people in the church where the Word is. "The poor" means people who lack these understandings but who long for them, or people outside the church, where the Word is not found.

[2] The rich person dressed in purple and fine linen who was cast into hell means the Jewish nation. Because they had the Word and were therefore amply supplied with understandings of what is good and true, they are called "rich." The garments of purple actually mean understandings of what is good, and the fine linen means understandings of what is true. 1 The poor person who was lying in the gateway and who longed to feast on the crumbs that were falling from the rich person's table, who was carried up into heaven by angels, means the non-Jews who did not have understandings of what is good and true but who still longed for them (Luke 16:19, 31).

The rich who were invited to the great feast but who excused themselves also mean the Jewish nation, and the poor who were brought in to replace them mean the non-Jews who were outside the church (Luke 12:16-24, 14:16-24).

[3] We need also to explain who are meant by the rich of whom the Lord said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24). "The rich person" here means the rich in both senses, natural and spiritual. Rich people in the natural sense are people who have abundant wealth and set their hearts on it, while in a spiritual sense they are people who are amply supplied with insights and knowledge (for these are spiritual wealth) and who want to use them to get themselves into heavenly and ecclesiastical circles by their own intellect. Since this is contrary to the divine design, it says that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. On this level of meaning, a camel means our cognitive and informational level in general, and the eye of a needle means spiritual truth. 2

Nowadays people do not know that this is the meaning of the camel and the eye of a needle because there has not yet been any access to the knowledge that teaches what is meant spiritually by the things that the Word says literally. There is spiritual meaning in the details of the Word, and natural meaning as well; because the Word was written in pure correspondences of natural realities with spiritual ones in order to effect a union of heaven and the world, or of angels with us, once the direct union had ceased. We can see from this exactly who are meant by the rich in the Word.

[4] We may gather from a number of passages that on the spiritual level "the rich" in the Word refers to people who enjoy insights into what is good and true and that wealth means those insights themselves, which are spiritual riches: see Isaiah 10:12-14; 30:6-7; 45:3, Jeremiah 17:3; 47:7 [Jeremiah 48:7?], Jeremiah 50:36-37; 51:13, Daniel 5:2-4, Ezekiel 26:7, 12; 27:1-36; Zechariah 9:3-4; Psalms 45:12; Hosea 12:9; Revelation 3:17-18, Luke 14:33, and elsewhere. On the poor in the spiritual sense as people who do not have insights into what is good and true but who long for them, see Matthew 11:5; Luke 6:20-21; 14:21; Isaiah 14:30; 29:19; 41:17-18; Zephaniah 3:12, 18 [13]. An explanation of the spiritual meaning of all these passages may be found in 10227 of Secrets of Heaven.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. [Swedenborg's footnote] Garments mean things that are true, and therefore insights: 1033 [1073?], 2576, 5319, 5954, 9212, 9216, 9952, 10536. Purple means heavenly good: 9467. Linen means truth of a heavenly origin: 5319, 9469, 9744.

2. [Swedenborg's footnote] A camel in the Word means our cognitive and informational level in general: 3048, 3071, 3143, 3145. What embroidery, embroidering, and therefore needles Arcana Coelestia 9688. To start from outward facts in order to gain access to truths of faith is contrary to the divine design: 10236. People who do this become insane in matters of heaven and the church: 128-130, 232-233, 6047; and in the other life, when they think about spiritual things, they become virtually drunk: 1072. More about their nature: 196. Examples to illustrate the fact that spiritual things cannot be grasped if they are approached on this basis: 233, 2094, 2196, 2203, 2209. It is all right to go from spiritual truth into the knowledge appropriate to our natural level, but not the other way around, because there is an inflow of the spiritual into the natural but not an inflow of the natural into the spiritual: 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427-5428, 5478, 6322, 9110-9111 [10199?]. We need first to acknowledge the truths of the Word and the church, and then it is all right to take our secular learning into account; but not the other way around: 6047.

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