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Deuteronomio 33

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1 OR quest’è la benedizione con la quale Mosè, uomo di Dio, benedisse i figliuoli d’Israele, avanti la sua morte.

2 Disse adunque: Il Signore venne di Sinai, E apparve loro di Seir; Egli risplendè dal monte di Paran, E venne dalle decine delle migliaia de’ santi, Avendo dalla sua destra il fuoco della Legge, per darla loro.

3 Benchè tu ami i popoli, Tutti i santi di esso son nella tua mano; Ed essi stanno fra i tuoi piedi, Affin di ricevere delle tue parole.

4 Mosè ci ha data la Legge, Che è una eredità alla raunanza di Giacobbe.

5 Ed egli è stato Re in Iesurun, Quando si raunavano i Capi del popolo, Insieme con le tribù d’Israele.

6 Viva RUBEN, e non muoia; Ma sieno i suoi uomini pochi.

7 E quest’è la benedizion di GIUDA. Mosè adunque disse: Ascolta, o Signore, la voce di GIUDA, E riconducilo al suo popolo; Bastingli le sue mani, E siigli in aiuto, per liberarlo da’ suoi nemici.

8 Poi disse di LEVI: I tuoi Tummim e Urim sieno al tuo uomo pietoso, Il qual tu provasti in Massa, E col quale tu contendesti alle acque di Meriba;

9 Il quale dice di suo padre e di sua madre: Io non l’ho veduto; E il quale non ha riconosciuti i suoi fratelli, E non ha conosciuti i suoi figliuoli; Perciocchè essi hanno osservate le tue parole, E guardato il tuo patto.

10 Essi insegneranno le tue ordinazioni a Giacobbe, E la tua Legge ad Israele; Essi presenteranno il profumo alle tue nari, E i sacrificii da ardere interamente, sopra il tuo Altare.

11 O Signore, benedici il suo esercito, E gradisci l’opera delle sue mani; Trafiggi le reni a coloro che si solleveranno contro a lui, E a coloro che l’odieranno, sì che non possano risorgere.

12 Di BENIAMINO disse: L’amato del Signore abiti in sicurtà con lui; Egli del continuo gli farà riparo, Ed esso abiterà fra le sue spalle.

13 Poi disse di GIUSEPPE: Il suo paese sia benedetto dal Signore, Delle delizie del cielo, della rugiada, e dell’abisso che giace a basso,

14 E delle delizie che il sole fa produrre, E parimente delle delizie che le lune fanno nascere.

15 E del meglio de’ monti antichi, E delle cose preziose de’ colli eterni.

16 E delle delizie della terra, e di tutto ciò ch’ella contiene, E del favor di colui che stava nel pruno; Venga quello sopra il capo di Giuseppe, E sopra la sommità del capo Di colui ch’è stato messo da parte d’infra i suoi fratelli.

17 Egli ha una bravura, come il primogenito di un toro; E le sue corna son come corna di liocorno; Con quello egli cozzerà i popoli tutti quanti, Fino alle stremità della terra. E queste son le decine delle migliaia d’Efraim, E queste son le migliaia di Manasse.

18 Poi disse di ZABULON: Rallegrati, Zabulon, nella tua uscita; E tu, ISSACAR, ne’ tuoi tabernacoli.

19 Essi chiameranno i popoli al Monte, E quivi sacrificheranno sacrificii di giustizia; Perciocchè suggeranno la dovizia del mare, E i tesori nascosti della rena.

20 Poi disse di GAD: Benedetto sia colui che allarga GAD; Egli se ne sta come un fiero leone, E lacera braccio e testa.

21 Egli l’ha provveduto delle primizie del paese, Perciocchè ivi era riposta la parte del Legislatore; Ed egli è venuto co’ capi del popolo; Egli ha eseguita la giustizia del Signore, E i suoi giudicii, con Israele.

22 Poi disse di DAN: DAN è come un leoncello Che salta di Basan.

23 Poi disse di NEFTALI: NEFTALI è sazio di benevolenza, E ripieno della benedizione del Signore; Tu avrai possessione dall’Occidente, e dal Mezzodì.

24 Poi disse di ASER: Aser sarà benedetto in figliuoli; Egli sarà l’aggradevole fra i suoi fratelli, E tufferà il suo piè nell’olio.

25 I tuoi calzari saranno ferro e rame; E la tua forza durerà quanto i tuoi giorni.

26 O Iesurun, ei non v’è niuno pari a Dio, Ch’è portato, come sopra un carro, Sopra i cieli in tuo aiuto, E nella sua altezza sopra le nuvole,

27 Che son l’abitacolo dell’eterno Dio, E di sotto son le braccia eterne. Egli ha scacciato d’innanzi a te il nemico; E ha detto: Distruggi.

28 Laonde Israele abiterà da parte in sicurtà; L’occhio di Giacobbe sarà verso un paese di frumento e di mosto; I suoi cieli eziandio stilleranno la rugiada.

29 Beato te, Israele. Quale è il popolo pari a te, Salvato dal Signore, Ch’è lo scudo della tua salvezza, E la spada della tua altezza? Laonde i tuoi nemici s’infingeranno inverso te, E tu calcherai i loro alti luoghi.

   


To many Protestant and Evangelical Italians, the Bibles translated by Giovanni Diodati are an important part of their history. Diodati’s first Italian Bible edition was printed in 1607, and his second in 1641. He died in 1649. Throughout the 1800s two editions of Diodati’s text were printed by the British Foreign Bible Society. This is the more recent 1894 edition, translated by Claudiana.

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Apocalypse Explained # 438

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438. Verse 6. Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand sealed, signifies charity towards the neighbor, and that all who are in it are in heaven and come into heaven. This is evident from the signification of "the tribe of Asher," as being the spiritual affection which is charity (of which presently); and from the signification of "twelve thousand sealed," as being those who are in heaven and who come into heaven (as above, n. 433). That "the tribe of Asher" signifies love towards the neighbor, which is called charity, will be made clear from what follows, and is also clear from this, that the twelve tribes taken together represented heaven and the church, and therefore signify these in the Word, and that each tribe represented, and thence signifies, some universal essential that is a constituent of heaven and the church. Heaven and the church are constituted, in general, of three universal essentials, namely, love to the Lord, charity towards the neighbor, and the obedience of faith; love to the Lord is signified by the first three tribes, Judah, Reuben, and Gad (as was shown above); charity towards the neighbor is signified by these three tribes, Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh; while the obedience of faith is signified by the three tribes next named, Simeon, Levi, and Issachar; the conjunction of all of these with the Lord is signified by the last three tribes, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. This, in brief, is the signification of all these tribes named in this order, for their signification is determined by the order in which they are named (as has been said and shown above, n. 431, 435, 436).

[2] Furthermore, the "sealed" mean those who have been separated from the evil and received into heaven; and the first three tribes mean those who have been received into the highest or third heaven, in which all are in love to the Lord; the three tribes next named, which are now under consideration, mean those who have been received into the middle or second heaven, in which all are in charity towards the neighbor; while the three tribes that next follow mean those who have been received into the lowest or first heaven, where those are who are in the obedience that is called the obedience of faith; and the last three tribes mean the reception of all these into the three heavens by the Lord; for there are three heavens, distinguished from one another according to the degrees of the good of love. From all this it can first be seen that this second class of tribes, that is, the three tribes, Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh, mean those who are in charity towards the neighbor; "the tribe of Asher" meaning charity towards the neighbor; "Naphtali" the regeneration of those who are in that charity, and "Manasseh" their good of life.

[3] But what "Asher" signifies in the Lord's kingdom, that is, in the church, shall first be told. "Asher" signifies the blessedness of spiritual affections, and thence spiritual affection itself; and as spiritual affection is what is called love towards the neighbor or charity, so "Asher" here signifies charity; consequently the "twelve thousand" of that tribe here signify all who are in charity, and are thus in the second or middle heaven. That Asher was so called from what is blessed or from blessedness is evident both from the meaning of the word in Hebrew and also from what was said of him by Leah the wife of Jacob, when he was born, which is the following:

Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, bare Jacob a second son. And Leah said, In my blessedness, for the daughters will call me blessed; and she called his name Asher (Genesis 30:12, 13).

"The daughters who should call her blessed" signify the spiritual affections of truth, which constitute the church, from which is every internal blessedness that is heavenly, in which blessedness those are who are in charity towards the neighbor, for charity towards the neighbor is the spiritual affection of truth (as was just said above); and the spiritual affection of truth is to love truth in its essence, that is, to love truth because it is truth; moreover, the neighbor, in the spiritual sense, is nothing else than good and truth, and charity is love for this (as can be seen from what is said and shown in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, on Love towards the Neighbor, which is called Charity, n84-107. The rest of the passage may be seen explained in Arcana Coelestia 3936-3939).

[4] That "Asher" signified blessedness which is of love and charity is further evident from the blessing of Asher by Israel his father:

From Asher his bread is fat, and he shall yield the delicacies of a king (Genesis 49:20).

"From Asher" signifies from celestial and spiritual affections, which are those of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbor; "his bread is fat," signifies delight from good; "and he shall yield the delicacies of a king" signifies pleasure from truth. (This is further explained in Arcana Coelestia 6408-6410.)

[5] "Asher" has a similar significance in Moses' blessing, namely, the delight of the affection of truth from the Word; the blessing is this:

Of Asher he said, Blessed above sons be Asher; let him be acceptable unto his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil; thy shoe is iron and brass; and as the days so thy fame (Deuteronomy 33:24, 25).

Moses' blessing of the sons of Israel contains arcana respecting the Word; and "Asher," who is the one last mentioned there signifies the spiritual affection of truth from the Word; therefore it is said, "Blessed above sons be Asher, let him be acceptable to his brethren," "sons" signifying truths, and "brethren" the church from truths; and "blessed" and "acceptable" are predicated of the affection of truths. The good of love, from which are the truths of the Word in the sense of the letter, is signified by "dipping his foot in oil;" "foot" signifies truth in ultimates, which is the truth of the sense of the letter of the Word, and "oil" signifies the good of love. That the ultimate of the Word is natural truth and good is signified by "thy shoe is iron and brass;" natural truth is signified by "iron," and natural good by "brass," and the ultimate by "shoe." That the Word is to endure to eternity is signified by "as the days so thy fame." (That "iron" signifies natural truth, see above, n. 176; that "brass" signifies natural good, n. 70; and that "shoe" signifies the ultimate of the natural, which is the sensual, see Arcana Coelestia 1748, 2162, 6844)

[6] Because "Asher" signifies the delight of affections, such as those have who are in truths from the sense of the letter:

That tribe encamped, together with the tribe of Dan and the tribe of Naphtali, to the north (Numbers 2:25-31).

The encampments of the sons of Israel in the wilderness represented the arrangements of the angelic societies in the heavens (See above, n. 431), and there to the north are the dwelling places of those who, from the good of charity, are in the affection of spiritual knowledges.

[7] That "Asher" signifies spiritual blessedness, which is blessedness from love and charity, can be seen in Ezekiel, where the new land and the new city are treated of, and that land is distributed as an inheritance among all the tribes of Israel; and to the city twelve gates are assigned, one for each tribe. The inheritance of Asher is there described in chapter Ezekiel 48:1-3, and the gates in these words:

The corner towards the sea four thousand and five hundred; 1 the gates of the city three; one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali. Round about eighteen thousand; and the name of the city from that day, Jehovah-is-there (verses 34, 35).

The "land" that was to be distributed for an inheritance signifies the church; the "sons of Israel" among whom it was to be distributed, signify all truths from good in the complex that belong to the church; the "city" signifies the doctrine of truth from good of love, therefore it is called Jehovah shammah, or "Jehovah-is-there;" the "gates" signify introductory truths, which are doctrinals; the number "four thousand and five hundred" signifies all truths from good, and "eighteen thousand" all the truths of doctrine encompassing and defending. This makes clear not only that each and all things there mentioned, even to the numbers, signify the things of the church, but also that no tribe of Israel is there meant, each tribe named standing for some universal essential of the church. It is evident, moreover, that "Asher" here signifies the spiritual affection of truth, which makes one with charity towards the neighbor. (That "Asher" signifies eternity in the highest sense, in the internal sense the felicity of life from blessedness of affections that are of love and charity, and in the external sense natural delight therefrom, see in Arcana Coelestia 3938, 3939, 6408.)

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The photolithograph has "five hundred and four thousand" for "four thousand and five hundred."

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia # 4570

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4570. 'But indeed Israel will be your name' means the nature of the internal natural, or the nature of the spiritual aspect of it, represented by 'Israel'; 'and He called his name Israel' means the internal Natural or the celestial-spiritual aspect of the Natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'name' as the essential nature, dealt with just above in 4568, and from the meaning of 'Israel' as the internal aspect of the Lord's natural and also the celestial-spiritual aspect of the Natural. No one can know why Jacob was called Israel unless he knows what the internal natural is and what the external natural is, and in addition what the celestial-spiritual aspect of the natural is. These matters have in actual fact been explained already, when Jacob was named Israel by the angel; but because they are the kind of things about which people know little, if anything, they need to be explained again.

[2] Two quite distinct and separate degrees exist in man - the rational and the natural. The rational constitutes the internal man and the natural the external; but the natural, like the rational also, has an external aspect of its own and an internal one. The external aspect of the natural is composed of the physical senses and of the impressions received from the world through these senses immediately. By means of his sensory impressions a person is in touch with things belonging to the world and to the body; and people who are confined solely to this natural are called sensory-minded because their thought goes scarcely at all beyond sensory experience. But the internal part of the natural is made up of ideas inferred - by the use of analysis and analogies - from what is in the external, even though it draws on and derives its ideas from sensory impressions. So the natural is in touch through the senses with things belonging to the world and to the body, and through ideas, arrived at by the use of analogy and analysis, with the rational, thus with things belonging to the spiritual world. Such is the composition of the natural. There is another part that exists between and has links with both of them - with the external aspect and with the internal - and so is in touch through the external with things in the natural world, and through the internal with those in the spiritual world. This external natural is represented specifically by 'Jacob', and the internal natural by 'Israel'. The situation is similar with the rational; that is to say, there is an external aspect and an internal, and a further one between the two. But this, in the Lord's Divine mercy, is to be discussed where Joseph is the subject, for 'Joseph' represents the external aspect of the rational.

[3] What the celestial-spiritual is however has been stated several times already - that essentially the celestial is good and the spiritual truth, so that the celestial-spiritual is that which is good resulting from truth. Now because the Lord's Church is both external and internal, and internal features of the Church had to be represented by the descendants of Jacob through things of an external nature, Jacob could not therefore be called Jacob any longer, but was called Israel - see what has been introduced already about these matters in 4286, 4292. Further to this it should be recognized that the terms celestial and spiritual are used both of the rational and of the natural. Celestial is used when people receive good, and spiritual when they receive truth from the Lord; for the good which flows from the Lord into heaven is called celestial, and the truth is called spiritual. In the highest sense the naming of Jacob as Israel means that the Lord progressed towards more interior aspects and made the Natural within Him Divine, both the external aspect of it and the internal. For in the highest sense that which is represented is the Natural itself.

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