Bible

 

Yechezchial 29

Studie

   

1 בשנה העשרית בעשרי בשנים עשר לחדש היה דבר יהוה אלי לאמר׃

2 בן אדם שים פניך על פרעה מלך מצרים והנבא עליו ועל מצרים כלה׃

3 דבר ואמרת כה אמר אדני יהוה הנני עליך פרעה מלך מצרים התנים הגדול הרבץ בתוך יאריו אשר אמר לי יארי ואני עשיתני׃

4 ונתתי חחיים בלחייך והדבקתי דגת יאריך בקשקשתיך והעליתיך מתוך יאריך ואת כל דגת יאריך בקשקשתיך תדבק׃

5 ונטשתיך המדברה אותך ואת כל דגת יאריך על פני השדה תפול לא תאסף ולא תקבץ לחית הארץ ולעוף השמים נתתיך לאכלה׃

6 וידעו כל ישבי מצרים כי אני יהוה יען היותם משענת קנה לבית ישראל׃

7 בתפשם בך בכפך תרוץ ובקעת להם כל כתף ובהשענם עליך תשבר והעמדת להם כל מתנים׃

8 לכן כה אמר אדני יהוה הנני מביא עליך חרב והכרתי ממך אדם ובהמה׃

9 והיתה ארץ מצרים לשממה וחרבה וידעו כי אני יהוה יען אמר יאר לי ואני עשיתי׃

10 לכן הנני אליך ואל יאריך ונתתי את ארץ מצרים לחרבות חרב שממה ממגדל סונה ועד גבול כוש׃

11 לא תעבר בה רגל אדם ורגל בהמה לא תעבר בה ולא תשב ארבעים שנה׃

12 ונתתי את ארץ מצרים שממה בתוך ארצות נשמות ועריה בתוך ערים מחרבות תהיין שממה ארבעים שנה והפצתי את מצרים בגוים וזריתים בארצות׃

13 כי כה אמר אדני יהוה מקץ ארבעים שנה אקבץ את מצרים מן העמים אשר נפצו שמה׃

14 ושבתי את שבות מצרים והשבתי אתם ארץ פתרוס על ארץ מכורתם והיו שם ממלכה שפלה׃

15 מן הממלכות תהיה שפלה ולא תתנשא עוד על הגוים והמעטתים לבלתי רדות בגוים׃

16 ולא יהיה עוד לבית ישראל למבטח מזכיר עון בפנותם אחריהם וידעו כי אני אדני יהוה׃

17 ויהי בעשרים ושבע שנה בראשון באחד לחדש היה דבר יהוה אלי לאמר׃

18 בן אדם נבוכדראצר מלך בבל העביד את חילו עבדה גדלה אל צר כל ראש מקרח וכל כתף מרוטה ושכר לא היה לו ולחילו מצר על העבדה אשר עבד עליה׃

19 לכן כה אמר אדני יהוה הנני נתן לנבוכדראצר מלך בבל את ארץ מצרים ונשא המנה ושלל שללה ובזז בזה והיתה שכר לחילו׃

20 פעלתו אשר עבד בה נתתי לו את ארץ מצרים אשר עשו לי נאם אדני יהוה׃

21 ביום ההוא אצמיח קרן לבית ישראל ולך אתן פתחון פה בתוכם וידעו כי אני יהוה׃

   

Komentář

 

Iniquity, transgression and sin

  
The Abduction of Rebecca, by Eugène Delacroix

In the Word three terms are used to refer to bad actions: transgression, iniquity, and sin. Transgression is the least bad. It means a violation of what is true in an external context, a violation of what is right and orderly. Iniquity is next and denotes acts that violate more interior truths. Sin is the worst. It is a violation of what is holy and righteous, a violation against the Lord. Sin is the deepest kind of evil. Regarding iniquity -- to be in charity, or live a life of charity is to live a life where the acts and thoughts that have top priority are those that have within them a love for the neighbor. Sometimes our love of self, our inborn desire to put ourselves first, is stronger than our charity and we do something for ourselves at the expense of our neighbor, or even do harm to our neighbor. Such an act, if our motive is selfish, is an iniquity.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 9156, 9965 [2-3])

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Apocalypse Revealed # 759

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 962  
  

759. "And the merchants of the earth have become rich owing to the potencies of her delights." This symbolizes the greater and lower in rank in the Roman Catholic hierarchy who by their dominion over sacred things strive for Divine majesty and superregal glory, who continually seek to establish it by multiplying the number of monasteries and possessions under their control, and by collecting and accumulating the world's treasures without end, and who thus procure for themselves physical and natural delights and gratifications by claiming for themselves a celestial and spiritual dominion.

The merchants of Babylon can only mean the greater and lower in rank in their church hierarchy, because in verse 23 of this chapter we are told that they are the great men of the earth. And the potencies of her delights with which they have become rich can only mean the dogmas that are the means by which they acquire for themselves dominion over people's souls, and so also over their possessions and wealth. People know that they collect these without end and swell their treasuries with them, and also that they make merchandise of the sanctities of the church, by selling salvation, for example, or heaven, in exchange for offerings and gifts made to monasteries and their saints and images, or in exchange for masses, indulgences and various dispensations.

[2] Who cannot see that if the papal dominion had not been broken at the time of the Protestant Reformation, Roman Catholics would have scraped together the possessions and wealth of all the kingdoms in the whole of Europe? And that then they would have made themselves the sole lords, and everyone else their servants? Do they not have the greatest part of their wealth from preceding centuries when they had power over emperors and kings, whom they could excommunicate and depose if they did not obey? And do they not still have annual incomes that are immense, and treasuries full of gold, silver, and precious stones?

The same barbarous lust for dominion is still lodged in the hearts of many of them, and is restrained only by a fear of its loss if it should extend beyond accepted limits.

Of what use, however, are such great incomes, treasures and possessions to them, other than to be delighted by them, to pride themselves on having them, and to establish their dominion to eternity?

It can be seen from this what is here symbolized by merchants of the earth who have become rich owing to the potencies of Babylon's delights.

They are called merchants also in Isaiah:

(The inhabitants of Babylon) are as stubble. Fire has burned them; they do not deliver their soul from the power of the flame... Such are... your merchants from your youth. (Isaiah 47:14-15)

[3] In the Word, to be a merchant or trader means, symbolically, to be engaged in procuring for oneself spiritual riches, which are concepts of truth and goodness, and in an opposite sense, concepts of falsity and evil, and to use the first to gain heaven, and the second to gain the world. For that reason the Lord likened the kingdom of heaven to a merchant seeking beautiful pearls (Matthew 13:45-46), and the people in the church to servants who were given talents with which to trade and gain more (Matthew 25:14-30), or who were given ten minas with which to likewise trade and gain more (Luke 19:12-26).

Moreover, because Tyre symbolizes the church in respect to its concepts of truth and goodness, therefore the whole of chapter twenty-seven in Ezekiel has trading and gain as its subject, and we are told concerning Tyre:

In your wisdom and your understanding you have gained... for yourself... gold and silver into your treasuries; and by the great wisdom in your trading you have increased your riches... (Ezekiel 28:4-5)

And elsewhere:

...Tyre... has been laid waste..., whose merchants are princes, and its traders the honorable of the earth. (Isaiah 23:1, 8)

Also, the corrupt church among Jews in the land of Canaan is called the land of trade (Ezekiel 16:3, 29; 21:30; 29:14).

  
/ 962  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.