52. 24. (The Lord is described as to the Word, appearing above the expanse of the cherubim (Ezekiel 1:26-28); and is called Lord Jehovih (2:4; 3:11, 27; 4:14; 5:5, 7-8, 11; 6:3, 11; 7:2, 5; 8:1 seq.; also the God of Israel (8:4).) (That they may want bread and water; and a man and his brother be desolated; and fade away on account of their iniquity (Ezekiel 4:17).

In all your habitations the cities shall be devastated, also the high places (Ezekiel 6:6).

The end is come, the end upon the four corners of the land; I will send My anger upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways. The end is come, the end is come, the mourning is come upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth, the time is come, the day of tumult is near (Ezekiel 7:2-12).

(They shall eat their bread with solicitude, and drink their waters with astonishment, that her land may be devastated from the fullness thereof; the cities that are inhabited shall be devastated, and the land shall be a desolation (Ezekiel 12:19-20).)

The vision which the prophet seeth after many days, and prophesying it in times that are far off (Ezekiel 12:27).

That [he is against] the pillows under the hands, through lies, etc. (Ezekiel 13:20-23).

Let the land of Egypt be a solitude and a waste; it shall be made an utter waste and desolation; a solitude in the midst of desolate lands, and its cities shall be a solitude in the midst of cities that have been devastated (Ezekiel 29:9-10, 12, concerning Egypt).

(They shall be devastated in the midst of the lands that are devastated, and her cities in the midst of the cities that are desolate; I will lay waste the land and the fullness thereof (Ezekiel 30:7, 12).)

(When I shall extinguish thee I will cover the heavens, and will make the stars thereof black; I will cover the sun with a cloud; I will make black all the luminaries of light in the heavens above thee, and will set darkness upon the land (Ezekiel 32:7-8).)

(The violent of the nations shall devastate the pride of Egypt, so that all the multitude thereof may be destroyed. I will make the land of Egypt a waste, so that it is a land desolated of that whereof it was full (Ezekiel 32:12, 15).)

8773. 'And Moses came and called the elders of the people' means the choice of those who ranked first in the understanding of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling to oneself' as choosing; and from the meaning of 'the elders of the people' as those who rank first in the understanding of truth, or - in the sense completely separate from actual persons - leading truths, dealt with in 6524, 6525, 6890, 8578, 8585. The implications of all this are as follows: People governed by the kind of good that is the subject in the present chapter - that is, good that has not as yet received truths to give it form - are reformed by the Lord first by means of leading truths, that is, by general truths, which contain and are the source of all other truths. Leading truths are these: God is one; the Lord was born a human being in order that the human race might be saved; heaven exists, and hell; those who have led a good life enter heaven, and those who have led a bad one enter hell; love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour are the commandments on which all others hang; and only through faith can this love exist. These and others like them are the leading truths which the Lord first instills into the good present with a person who is being regenerated. When these truths have been instilled into the good and become the truths of good, all other truths are instilled. They are arranged into order within and beneath those general or leading truths, and are in keeping with the form that heaven takes. Thus by degrees they enable the life of heaven to exist in that person, who is then so to speak a miniature heaven; that is, they enable all that composes his understanding and that constitutes his will to be linked to the forms of good and the truths residing with angels, and so to the angels themselves.