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Jérémie 17

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1 Le péché de Juda est écrit avec un burin d’acier de fer, [et] avec une pointe de diamant; il est gravé sur la table de leur cœur, et aux cornes de leurs autels.

2 De sorte que leurs fils se souviendront de leurs autels, et de leurs bocages, auprès des arbres verts sur les hautes collines.

3 Montagnard, je livrerai par les champs tes richesses [et] tous tes trésors au pillage; tes hauts lieux [sont pleins] de péché dans toutes tes contrées.

4 Et toi, et [ceux qui sont] avec toi, vous laisserez vacant l'héritage que je t'avais donné, et je ferai que tu seras asservi à tes ennemis, dans un pays que tu ne connais point, parce que vous avez allumé le feu en ma colère; [et] il brûlera à toujours.

5 Ainsi a dit l'Eternel : maudit soit l'homme qui se confie en l'homme, et qui fait de la chair son bras, et dont le cœur se retire de l'Eternel.

6 Car il sera comme la bruyère en une lande, et il ne s'apercevra point quand le bien sera venu; mais il demeurera au désert en des lieux secs, en une terre salée et inhabitable.

7 Béni soit l'homme qui se confie en l'Eternel, et duquel l'Eternel est la confiance.

8 Car il sera comme un arbre planté près des eaux, et qui étend ses racines le long d'une eau courante; quand la chaleur viendra, il ne s'en apercevra point; et sa feuille sera verte, il ne sera point en peine en l'année de la sécheresse, et ne cessera point de porter du fruit.

9 Le cœur est rusé, et désespérément malin par dessus toutes choses; qui le connaîtra?

10 Je suis l'Eternel, qui sonde le cœur, et qui éprouve les reins; même pour rendre à chacun selon sa voie, [et] selon le fruit de ses actions.

11 Celui qui acquiert des richesses, sans observer la justice, est une perdrix [qui] couve ce qu'elle n'a point pondu; il les laissera au milieu de ses jours, et à la fin il sera trouvé insensé.

12 Le lieu de notre Sanctuaire est un trône de gloire, un lieu haut élevé dès le commencement.

13 Eternel, qui es l'attente d'Israël, tous ceux qui t'abandonnent seront honteux; ceux qui se détournent de moi, seront écrits en la terre, parce qu'ils ont délaissé la source des eaux vives, l'Eternel.

14 Eternel, guéris-moi, et je serai guéri; sauve-moi, et je serai sauvé; car tu es ma louange.

15 Voici, ceux-ci me disent : où est la parole de l'Eternel? qu'elle vienne présentement!

16 Mais je ne me suis point avancé plus qu'un pasteur après toi, et je n'ai point désiré le jour de l'extrême affliction, tu le sais; et ce qui est sorti de mes lèvres a été devant toi.

17 Ne me sois point en effroi, tu es ma retraite au jour du mal.

18 Que ceux qui me persécutent soient honteux, mais que je ne sois point honteux; qu'ils soient épouvantés, mais que je ne sois point épouvanté; amène sur eux le jour du mal, et les accable d'une double plaie.

19 Ainsi m'a dit l'Eternel : va, et tiens-toi debout à la porte des enfants du peuple, par laquelle les Rois de Juda entrent, et par laquelle ils sortent; et à toutes les portes de Jérusalem.

20 Et leur dis : écoutez la parole de l'Eternel, Rois de Juda, et vous tous [hommes] de Juda, et vous tous habitants de Jérusalem qui entrez par ces portes;

21 Ainsi a dit l'Eternel : prenez garde à vos âmes, et ne portez aucun fardeau le jour du Sabbat, et ne les faites point passer par les portes de Jérusalem.

22 Et ne tirez point hors de vos maisons aucun fardeau le jour du Sabbat, et ne faites aucune œuvre, mais sanctifiez le jour du Sabbat, comme j'ai commandé à vos pères.

23 Mais ils n'ont point écouté, et n'ont point incliné leur oreille, mais ils ont raidi leur cou, pour n'écouter point, et pour ne recevoir point d'instruction.

24 Il arrivera donc si vous m'écoutez attentivement, dit l'Eternel pour ne faire passer aucun fardeau par les portes de cette ville le jour du Sabbat, et si vous sanctifiez le jour du Sabbat, tellement que vous ne fassiez aucune œuvre en ce jour-là;

25 Que les Rois et les principaux, ceux qui sont assis sur le trône de David, montés sur des chariots et sur des chevaux, eux et les principaux d'entre eux, les hommes de Juda, et les habitants de Jérusalem, entreront par les portes de cette ville ; et cette ville sera habitée à toujours.

26 On viendra aussi des villes de Juda, et des environs de Jérusalem et du pays de Benjamin, et de la campagne, et des montagnes, et de devers le Midi, et on apportera des holocaustes, des sacrifices, des oblations et de l'encens; on apportera aussi [des sacrifices] d'action de grâces en la maison de l'Eternel.

27 Mais si vous ne m'écoutez point pour sanctifier le jour du Sabbat, et pour ne porter aucun fardeau, et n'en faire entrer aucun par les portes de Jérusalem le jour du Sabbat, je mettrai le feu à ses portes, il consumera les palais de Jérusalem, et ne sera point éteint.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 10300

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10300. 'Salted' means the desire which truth has for good. This is clear from the meaning of 'salt' as desire belonging to the love which truth has for good, dealt with below, so that 'salted' means something in which that desire is present. The reason why the desire which truth has for good needs to be present is that this desire causes the two to be joined together; for to the extent that truth desires good it becomes joined to it. Truth and good joined together is what is called the heavenly marriage, which constitutes heaven itself with a person. Therefore when the desire for them to be joined together exists within the worship of God, within every single part of it, heaven - and accordingly the Lord - is present there within every single part. This is meant by the requirement for the incense to be salted. 'Salt' receives this meaning from its conjunctive properties; for it makes ingredients all combine and consequently brings out their flavour. Indeed it causes water and oil to combine, which otherwise do not combine.

[2] When it is known that 'salt' means the desire for truth and good to be joined together it may be seen what the Lord's words in Mark mean,

Everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes tasteless, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves. Mark 9:49-50.

'Everyone will be salted with fire' means that each person must have a desire that is present as a result of true love. 'Every sacrifice will be salted with salt' means that the desire present as a result of true love must exist within all worship. 'Tasteless salt' means a desire present as a result of a love other than that true love. 'Having salt in themselves' means possessing truth that has a desire for good.

Love is meant by 'fire', see 4906, 5071(end), 5215, 6314, 6832, 10055.

Worship in general is meant by 'sacrifice', 922, 6905, 8680, 8936.

Can anyone without knowledge of what 'fire' means, or what 'salt' and 'being salted' mean, know what 'being salted with fire' means, why a sacrifice had to be salted, or what the command to have salt in themselves means?

[3] Something similar occurs in Luke,

Any of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be My disciple. Salt is good; but if the salt is made tasteless, by what will it be seasoned? It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill; people will throw it outdoors. Luke 14:33-35.

'Renouncing all their possessions' means loving the Lord above all things, 'possessions' being what is a person's own. 'Tasteless salt' means desire that springs from the proprium or self, thus from self-love and love of the world. This kind of desire is meant by salt that is tasteless, fit for nothing, as also in Matthew,

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt is tasteless, by what will it be made salty? It no longer has any use, except to be thrown outdoors and trodden down by people. Matthew 5:13-14.

[4] The need for all worship to contain truth that has a desire for good is also meant by the requirement that every offering of a minchah should be salted, and that the salt of Jehovah's covenant should be on every offering, Leviticus 2:13. By 'the minchah and offering' which compose the sacrifice worship is meant, as above; and the salt is called in that verse 'the salt of Jehovah's covenant' because 'covenant' means a joining together, see 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804, 8767, 8778, 9396, 9416. Also desire is the actual ardour that flames from and so is an extension of love, and love is spiritual togetherness.

[5] Just as truth's desire for good has the capacity to link things together, so falsity's desire for evil has the capacity to separate them; and that which has the capacity to separate them also has the capacity to destroy them. For this reason 'salt' in the contrary sense means the destruction and laying waste of truth and good, as in Jeremiah,

Cursed is the man (vir) who makes flesh his arm. He will not see when good comes; but he will inhabit very hot places, a salt land which is not inhabited. Jeremiah 17:5-6.

'Making flesh his arm' means trusting in himself, in his proprium, and not in the Divine, 10283; and since the proprium consists in loving self more than God and the neighbour, self-love is what those words describe. This is why it says that he will not see when good comes, and that he will inhabit very hot places and a salt land, that is, will lead a life ruled by foul kinds of love and their desires, which have destroyed the Church's goodness and truth.

[6] In Zephaniah,

It will be like Gomorrah, a place abandoned to the nettle, and a saltpit, and a waste forever. Zephaniah 2:9.

'A place abandoned to the nettle' stands for the ardour and passion in a person's life that spring from self-love. 'A saltpit' stands for the desire falsity possesses; and because this is destructive of truth and good, the expression 'a waste forever' is used. The reason for its being said that 'it will be like Gomorrah' is that Gomorrah and Sodom mean self-love, 2220.

[7] Where it said at Genesis 19:26 that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt because she turned her face towards those cities, the meaning was the laying waste of truth and good; for in the internal sense 'turning the face' towards something means loving it, 10189. This explains why the Lord says,

Let him not return to the things behind him. Remember Lot's wife. Luke 17:31-32.

And in Moses,

Its whole land will be brimstone and salt, and a burning, as at the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. Deuteronomy 29:23.

Here, as also elsewhere in the Word, 'land' is used to mean the Church, see in the places referred to in 9325.

[8] So it was that cities which were not to be inhabited any longer were sown with salt after they had been destroyed, Judges 9:45.

From all this it is evident that in the genuine sense 'salt' means the desire that truth has for good, thus its conjunctive power, and in the contrary sense the desire that falsity has for evil, thus its destructive power.

[9] Anyone therefore who knows that 'salt' means truth's desire for good and the force that joins the two together is also able to know what is meant where it says that the water of Jericho was healed by Elisha, by his throwing salt into its source, 2 Kings 2:19-22. For Elisha, like Elijah, represented the Lord in respect of the Word, 2762, 8029; 'water' means the truths of the Word, 'the water of Jericho', and in like manner 'the source' of that water, meaning the truths of the Word in the literal sense; and 'salt' means the desire truth has for good, the joining together of the two, and consequent healing.

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