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כִּי כְּפָרָה סֹרֵרָה סָרַר יִשְׂרָאֵל עַתָּה יִרְעֵם יְהוָה כְּכֶבֶשׂ בַּמֶּרְחָב׃
Arcana Coelestia # 627
627. 'For all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth 1 ' means that man's bodily-mindedness destroyed all understanding of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'flesh', dealt with already at verse 3, as in general the whole of mankind, and in particular the bodily-minded man, or everything of a bodily nature; and from the meaning of 'way' as the understanding of truth, or truth itself. The fact that 'way' has reference to the understanding of truth, or to truth itself, becomes clear from the examples already quoted in several places as well as from the following,
Jehovah said, Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people have corrupted themselves. They have suddenly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have cast for themselves a metal image. Deuteronomy 9:11, 16.
This means that they forsook His commandments, which are truths.
[2] In Jeremiah,
Whose eyes have been opened upon all the ways of the sons of man, giving to every man (vir) according to his ways and according to the fruit of his works. Jeremiah 32:19.
'Ways' means life according to the commandments, 'fruit of his works' life based on charity. 'Way' accordingly has reference to truths, which comprise commandments and ordinances, and so do 'son of man' and 'man' (vir), as shown above. Jeremiah 7:3; 17:10, also contain similar usages.
In Hosea,
I will visit upon him his ways, and require him for his works. Hosea 4:9.
In Zechariah,
Return from your evil ways and from your evil works. As Jehovah Zebaoth thought to deal with us for our ways and for our works. Zechariah 1:4, 6.
Similar phrases appear here, yet they are the contrary in meaning to those mentioned before them, since they are 'evil ways' and 'evil works'.
In Jeremiah,
I will give them one heart and one way. Jeremiah 32:39.
'Heart' stands for goods, 'way' for truths. In David,
Make me understand the way of Your commandments. Take from me the way of untruth, and graciously grant me Your law. I have chosen the way of truth. I will run in the way of Your precepts. Psalms 119:26-27, 29-30, 32, 35.
Here 'the way of the commandments and precepts' is called 'the way of truth', and the contrary of this, 'the way of untruth'.
[3] In the same author,
Make Your ways known to me, O Jehovah, teach me Your paths, guide my way in Your truth, and teach me. Psalms 25:4-5.
This in like manner plainly stands for the truth. In Isaiah,
With whom did Jehovah consult, and he instructed Him, and taught Him the path of judgement, and taught Him knowledge, and made Him know the way of understanding? Isaiah 40:14.
This plainly stands for an understanding of truth. In Jeremiah,
Thus said Jehovah, Stand upon the highways and look, and ask concerning the paths of old, which is the good way, and go in it. Jeremiah 6:16.
This in like manner stands for an understanding of truth. In Isaiah,
I will lead the blind in a way they do not know; and in paths they do not know I will guide them. Isaiah 42:16.
The expressions way, by-path, pathway, road, and street all have reference to truths because they lead to what is true, as also in Jeremiah,
They have caused them to stumble in their ways, in the pathways of old, going into by-paths and not the highway. Jeremiah 18:15.
Similarly in the Book of Judges,
In the days of Jael pathways ceased to be. And those who went along the paths kept to twisting pathways; the streets in Israel ceased to be. Judges 5:6-7.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. or the land
Jeremiah 7
1
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
2
"Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.
3
Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
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Don't trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh, The temple of Yahweh, The temple of Yahweh, are these.
5
For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
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if you don't oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:
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then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.
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Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit.
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Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,
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and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations?
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Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh.
12
But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
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Now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear; and I called you, but you didn't answer:
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therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
15
I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
16
Therefore don't pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.
17
Don't you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
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The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
19
Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh; [do they] not [provoke] themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?
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Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
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Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.
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For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
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but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
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But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
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Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
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yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.
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You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.
28
You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
29
Cut off your hair, [Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
30
For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.
31
They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn't command, nor did it come into my mind.
32
Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place [to bury].
33
The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.
34
Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.
