Ezechiele 16:31
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.
True Christian Religion # 583
583. IV. The process of regeneration is on the model of a person's conception, gestation in the womb, birth and upbringing.
The natural and spiritual events in a person's life, that is, what happens to his body and what to his spirit, are so ordered as permanently to correspond. The reason is that a person is by birth spiritual as regards his soul, and he is clothed with a natural form which is constituted by his material body. When therefore this is laid aside, his soul, clothed in his spiritual body, comes into the world where all things are spiritual, and there associates with people like him. Now the spiritual body has to be formed in the material one, a process accomplished by the inflow of truths and various kinds of good from the Lord through the spiritual world. These are inwardly received by the person in such things belonging to the natural world as are called civil and moral; so it is evident how the process of formation takes place. Because, as already said, there is a permanent correspondence between the natural and spiritual events in a person's life, it follows that this process must resemble his conception, gestation in the womb, birth and upbringing. That is why natural births in the Word mean spiritual births, that is, the birth of good and truth. For whatever stands in the literal or natural sense of the Word, enfolds and stands for something spiritual. I demonstrated fully in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture that every detail of the literal sense of the Word contains a spiritual sense.
[2] The natural births mentioned in the Word refer to spiritual births, as is evident from the following passages.
We have conceived, we have given birth, we have as it were brought forth [wind], we have not done what is sound, Isaiah 26:18.
At the presence of the Lord you give birth 1 , O earth, Psalms 114:7.
Has the earth given birth in one day? Shall I break and not bring to birth, and cause to give birth but close 2 up the womb? Isaiah 66:7-10. Sin gives birth and No shall be on the point of being breached, Ezekiel 30:16.
The pangs of childbirth shall come upon Ephraim. He is an unwise child, because at the right time he does not stand in the womb of sons, Hosea 13:12-13.
There are many other similar passages. Since natural births in the Word mean spiritual births, and these are the Lord's work, He is called He who forms and brings out of the womb. This is clear from these passages among others:
Jehovah your maker and who forms you from the womb, Isaiah 44:2.
He who brings me from the womb, Psalms 22:9.
I have been placed upon you from the womb, from my mother's inmost parts it was you who brought me forth, Psalms 71:6.
Pay attention to me, you who were carried by the belly, borne by the womb, Isaiah 46:3.
This is why the Lord is called 'Father' (as at Isaiah 9:6; 63:16, John 10:30; 14:8-9), and those who are in possession of good and truth from Him are called 'sons', 'born of God' and 'brothers' among themselves (Matthew 23:8-9). It is also why the church is called 'mother' (Hosea 2:2, 5; Ezekiel 16:45).
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. Reading parturis for parturit, as elsewhere when this verse is quoted.
2. 'not close' in the Latin, but corrected in the author's copy.
Isaiah 26
1
In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2
Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter: the one which keeps faith.
3
You will keep whoever's mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.
4
Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock.
5
For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city. He lays it low. He lays it low even to the ground. He brings it even to the dust.
6
The foot shall tread it down; Even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy."
7
The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the path of the righteous level.
8
Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, have we waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.
9
With my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10
Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see Yahweh's majesty.
11
Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries.
12
Yahweh, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also worked all our works for us.
13
Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make mention of your name.
14
The dead shall not live. The deceased shall not rise. Therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish.
15
You have increased the nation, O Yahweh. You have increased the nation! You are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of the land.
16
Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
17
Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Yahweh.
18
We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19
Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead.
20
Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
21
For, behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.
