Arcana Coelestia # 5320
5320. 'And placed a chain of gold onto his neck' means an outward sign denoting the joining of interior things to exterior ones, good being that which effects that joining together. This is clear from the meaning of 'the neck' as a flowing in, also the communication of higher things with lower ones, or what amounts to the same, interior things with exterior ones, dealt with in 3542; and therefore 'a chain', because it goes around the neck, is a sign denoting the joining together of those things. 'A chain of gold' means a joining together by means of good; that is, good is the means which effects it, because 'gold' means good, 113, 1551, 1552. A sign denoting the joining of interior truth to exterior truth is meant by 'a chain onto the neck' in Ezekiel,
I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets onto your hands and a chain onto your neck. Ezekiel 16:11.
Zechariah 7
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It happened in the fourth year of king Darius that the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.
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The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech, and their men, to entreat Yahweh's favor,
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and to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Armies, and to the prophets, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?"
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Then the word of Yahweh of Armies came to me, saying,
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"Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?
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When you eat, and when you drink, don't you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
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Aren't these the words which Yahweh proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and its cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?'"
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The word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying,
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"Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, 'Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.
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Don't oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.'
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But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
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Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law, and the words which Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of Armies.
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It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen," said Yahweh of Armies;
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"but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned: for they made the pleasant land desolate."
