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Kohtunikud 4

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1 Ja Iisraeli lapsed tegid jälle, mis kuri oli Issanda silmis, kui Eehud oli surnud.

2 Siis andis Issand nad Kaanani kuninga Jaabini kätte, kes valitses Haasoris; tema sõjaväe pealik oli Siisera, kes elas Haroset-Goojimis.

3 Ja Iisraeli lapsed kisendasid Issanda poole, sest tal oli üheksasada raudsõjavankrit ja ta rõhus Iisraeli lapsi tugevasti kakskümmend aastat.

4 Aga naisprohvet Deboora, Lappidoti naine, mõistis sel ajal Iisraelile kohut.

5 Tema istus Deboora-palmi all Raama ja Peeteli vahel Efraimi mäestikus, ja Iisraeli lapsed läksid üles tema juurde kohtusse.

6 Ja Deboora läkitas käskjala ja laskis kutsuda Baaraki, Abinoami poja Naftali Kedesist ning ütles temale: 'Eks ole Issand, Iisraeli Jumal, käskinud: Mine rända Taabori mäele ja võta enesega kaasa kümme tuhat meest naftalilaste ja sebulonlaste hulgast!

7 Siis juhin mina su juurde Kiisoni jõe äärde Siisera, Jaabini sõjaväe pealiku, ning tema sõjavankrid ja väehulgad, ja ma annan ta sinu kätte.'

8 Ja Baarak vastas temale: 'Kui sa tuled koos minuga, siis ma lähen; aga kui sa ei tule koos minuga, siis ma ei lähe!'

9 Ja tema ütles: 'Ma tulen kindlasti koos sinuga, ainult et teekonnal, millele sa lähed, ei saa au osaks sinule, vaid Issand annab Siisera ühe naise kätte.' Ja Deboora võttis kätte ning läks koos Baarakiga Kedesisse.

10 Siis Baarak kutsus Kedesisse kokku Sebuloni ja Naftali, ja kümme tuhat meest läks üles tema kannul; ja Deboora läks koos temaga.

11 Aga keenlane Heber oli lahkunud keenlastest, Moosese äia Hoobabi lastest, ja oli oma telki üles lüües tulnud kuni Saanaimi tammeni, mis on Kedesi juures.

12 Kui Siiserale teatati, et Baarak, Abinoami poeg, oli läinud üles Taabori mäele,

13 siis hüüdis ta kokku kõik oma sõjavankrid, üheksasada raudvankrit, ja kogu rahva, kes tal oli, Haroset-Goojimist Kiisoni jõe äärde.

14 Ja Deboora ütles Baarakile: 'Tõuse, sest see on päev, mil Issand annab Siisera sinu kätte! Eks ole Issand su ees välja läinud?' Siis Baarak läks Taabori mäelt alla ja tema järel kümme tuhat meest.

15 Ja Issand viis segadusse Siisera ja kõik sõjavankrid ja kogu leeri Baaraki mõõgatera ees - ja Siisera astus vankrist maha ning põgenes jala.

16 Ja Baarak ajas vankreid ja sõjaväge taga kuni Haroset-Goojimini, ja kogu Siisera sõjavägi langes mõõgatera läbi, ainsatki ei jäänud järele.

17 Aga Siisera oli jala põgenenud keenlase Heberi naise Jaeli telki, sest Haasori kuninga Jaabini ja keenlase Heberi soo vahel oli rahu.

18 Ja Jael tuli välja Siiserale vastu ning ütles temale: 'Tule sisse, mu isand, tule sisse mu juurde, ära karda!' Ja Siisera läks tema juurde telki ning Jael kattis ta vaibaga.

19 Ja Siisera ütles temale: 'Anna mulle pisut vett juua, sest mul on janu!' Siis Jael võttis lahti piimaastja, andis temale juua ja kattis ta kinni.

20 Ja Siisera ütles temale: 'Seisa telgi uksel ja kui keegi tuleb ja küsib ning ütleb: Kas siin on keegi?, siis vasta: Ei ole!'

21 Aga Jael, Heberi naine, haaras ühe telgivaia ja võttis vasara kätte ning läks hiljukesi ta juurde ja tagus vaia ta oimudesse, nõnda et see tungis maasse; tema magas ju väsimuse pärast sügavasti; nõnda ta suri.

22 Ja vaata, Baarak ajas Siiserat taga. Siis Jael läks välja temale vastu ja ütles talle: 'Tule, ma näitan sulle meest, keda sa otsid!' Ja Baarak läks sisse tema juurde, ja vaata, Siisera lamas surnuna, vai oimudes.

23 Nõnda alandas Jumal sel päeval Jaabinit, Kaanani kuningat, Iisraeli laste ees.

24 Ja Iisraeli laste käsi lasus üha rängemini Kaanani kuninga Jaabini peal, kuni nad hävitasid Kaanani kuninga Jaabini.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Judges 4

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth

Judges 4: Deborah

Yet again, the children of Israel had disobeyed the Lord. At this point in time, they had been under the yoke of Jabin, a Canaanite king, for twenty years. He had nine hundred chariots of iron, and was apparently very powerful.

The Lord raised up Deborah, a prophetess, to free the Israelites from oppression under Jabin. The text says that she would pass judgements for the children of Israel while she sat under the palm tree of Deborah.

Deborah summoned Barak, an army officer, and told him to go with ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun to fight King Jabin’s armies. Barak said he would only go if Deborah went as well, so she agreed to join him. Deborah then prophesied that Sisera, the enemy commander, would be defeated by a woman.

The two armies clashed at by the River Kishon, and all of Sisera’s men were killed. Sisera then fled to the tent of Heber, an Israelite who was on peaceful terms with King Jabin. Jael, Heber’s wife, invited Sisera to come in with the comforting words, “fear not”. She covered him with a blanket, gave him milk to drink, and let him sleep there.

Then Jael quietly took a tent peg and drove it into Sisera’s temple using a hammer, so that the peg stuck in the earth. When Barak came to the tent, pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to tell him, “come, and I will show you the man you seek.” And she showed him Sisera, dead, with a peg through his temple.

So Jabin’s army was defeated that day, and Israel grew stronger until their oppression under Jabin came to an end.

*****

Deborah is an especially significant character in the Bible, because she was the only female judge of Israel. It was very unusual for a woman in those times to rise to power, yet she truly earned the respect of her people. Deborah, as a woman, stands for the nurturing power of the Word to strengthen us during regeneration. Her name means ‘a bee’, but this comes from a word meaning ‘to speak’ – here, to speak the Word. Bees make honey; honey is nutritious; God’s word is our nourishment (see Swedenborg’s work, Arcana Caelestia 3424[2]).

The fact that Deborah judged from under a palm tree may seem like a passing detail, but even this contributes to the spiritual meaning of the story. Palm trees stand for the divine truths of the Word, which means that Deborah was judging the people from her understanding of the Lord’s truths.

King Jabin’s nine hundred iron chariots represent the apparent power of false beliefs, thoughts and persuasions over us. The number ‘nine’ stands for something which is complete, and ‘iron’ here stands for either natural truths or falsities. A ‘chariot’, being pulled by a horse, always stands for a set of teachings or doctrine. These three symbols add to the picture of a very powerful enemy: false ideas and views that can weaken and overwhelm us (Arcana Caelestia 4720[2]).

The spiritual meaning of the complex arrangement between Barak and Deborah is that we can only deal with our spiritual conflicts if we take the Word’s power (Deborah) with us. Barak, a man, represents the power of truth, but Deborah says a woman will gain victory over Sisera. The feminine stands for the power of love: our charity, our affection for good, and our wish to be useful. These qualities are always essential in our spiritual life (see Swedenborg’s work, Apocalypse Explained 1120[2]).

The story about Jael and Sisera is really about actively resisting the temptations of evil in our lives. Jael, a woman, stands for the power of good to overcome what is false in our mind. Driving the tent peg through Sisera’s head stands for the complete destruction of what is false. Driving it right through and into the ground stands for the power of good in our life and in our regeneration, because the ground represents our actions (Arcana Caelestia 268).

When Barak and Jael meet, it stands for the unity between good (Jael, a woman) and truth (Barak, a man). This unity of good and truth appears again at the start of the next chapter, in which Deborah and Barak sing of Israel’s victory.

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 3424

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3424. 'Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of living water' means the Word as regards the literal sense, which holds the internal sense within it. This is clear from the meaning of 'digging in the valley' as investigating lower down to discover where truths are, for 'digging' is investigating, and 'a valley' is that which is lower down, 1723, 3417; and from the meaning of 'a well of living water' as the Word in which Divine truths are present, thus the Word as regards the literal sense which holds the internal sense within it. It is well known that the Word is called 'a spring', in particular 'a spring of living waters'. The reason why the Word is also called 'a well' is that in relation to its other senses the sense of the letter is like a well, and that where spiritual people are concerned the Word is not a spring but a well, see 2702, 3096. Since a valley is that which is lower down, or what amounts to the same, that which is more external, and it was in the valley that the spring was found; and since the literal sense is the lower or more external sense of the Word, it is the literal sense that is therefore meant. But because that sense holds the internal sense, that is, the heavenly and Divine sense, its waters are for that reason called 'living', as also were the waters which went out under the threshold of the new house in Ezekiel,

And it will happen, that every wild creature that creeps, wherever the river comes to, is living; and there will be very many fish, for those waters go there, and become fresh; and everything is living where the river goes. Ezekiel 47:8-9.

Here 'the river' is the Word, 'the waters which cause everything to live' are the Divine Truths within it, 'fish' are facts, 40, 991.

[2] The Lord teaches that the Word of the Lord is such that it gives life to him who is thirsty, that is, to one who desires life, and that it is a spring whose waters are living, in John,

Jesus said to the woman from Samaria at Jacob's well, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would ask from Him, and He would give you living water. He who drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life. John 4:10, 14.

The reason why the Word is living and therefore confers life is that in its highest sense the subject is the Lord, while in the inmost sense it is His kingdom in which the Lord is everything. And this being so it is life itself which the Word contains and which flows into the minds of those who read the Word devoutly. This is why the Lord, in regard to the Word which comes from Himself, calls Himself 'a spring of water welling up into eternal life'; see also 2702.

[3] The fact that the Word of the Lord is called 'a well' in addition to 'a spring' is clear in Moses,

Israel sang the song: Spring up, O well! Answer to it! The well which the princes dug, which the chiefs of the people dug out, as directed by the Lawgiver, 1 with their staves. Numbers 21:17-18.

These words were sung at the place Beer, that is, the place of the well. In this case 'a well' means the Word which existed with the Ancient Church, as is evident from what has been said previously about the Word in 2897. 'The princes' means the first and foremost truths of which [the Word] consists - 'princes' being first and foremost truths, see 1482, 2089 - 'nobles of the people' lower truths such as those present in the literal sense, 1259, 1260, 2928, 3295. 'The Lawgiver' is clearly the Lord, 'staves' the powers which those truths possessed.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, into the Lawgiver

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