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Giudici 4

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1 Morto che fu Ehud, i figliuoli d’Israele continuarono a fare ciò ch’è male agli occhi dell’Eterno.

2 E l’Eterno li diede nelle mani di Iabin re di Canaan, che regnava a Hatsor. Il capo del suo esercito era Sisera che abitava a Harosceth-Goim.

3 E i figliuoli d’Israele gridarono all’Eterno, perché Iabin avea novecento carri di ferro, e già da venti anni opprimeva con violenza i figliuoli d’Israele.

4 Or in quel tempo era giudice d’Israele una profetessa, Debora, moglie di Lappidoth.

5 Essa sedeva sotto la palma di Debora, fra Rama e Bethel, nella contrada montuosa di Efraim, e figliuoli d’Israele salivano a lei per farsi rendere giustizia.

6 Or ella mandò a chiamare Barak, figliuolo di Abinoam, da Kades di Neftali, e gli disse: "L’Eterno, l’Iddio d’Israele, non t’ha egli dato quest’ordine: Va’, raduna sul monte Tabor e prendi teco diecimila uomini de’ figliuoli di Neftali e de’ figliuoli di Zabulon.

7 E io attirerò verso te, al torrente Kison, Sisera, capo dell’esercito di Iabin, coi suoi carri e la sua numerosa gente, e io lo darò nelle tue mani".

8 Barak le rispose: "Se vieni meco andrò; ma se non vieni meco, non andrò".

9 Ed ella disse: "Certamente, verrò con te; soltanto, la via per cui ti metti non ridonderà ad onor tuo; poiché l’Eterno darà Sisera in man d’una donna". E Debora si levò e andò con Barak a Kades.

10 E Barak convocò Zabulon e Neftali a Kades; diecimila uomini si misero al suo séguito, e Debora salì con lui.

11 Or Heber, il Keneo, s’era separato dai Kenei, discendenti di Hobab, suocero di Mosè, e avea piantate le sue tende fino al querceto di Tsaannaim, ch’è presso a Kades.

12 Fu riferito a Sisera che Barak, figliuolo di Abinoam, era salito sul monte Tabor.

13 E Sisera adunò tutti i suoi carri, novecento carri di ferro, e tutta la gente ch’era seco, da Harosceth-Goim fino al torrente Kison.

14 E Debora disse a Barak: "Lèvati, perché questo è il giorno in cui l’Eterno ha dato Sisera nelle tue mani. l’Eterno non va egli dinanzi a te?" Allora Barak scese dal monte Tabor, seguito da diecimila uomini.

15 E l’Eterno mise in rotta, davanti a Barak, Sisera con tutti i suoi carri e con tutto il suo esercito, che fu passato a fil di spada; e Sisera, sceso dal carro, si diè alla fuga a piedi.

16 Ma Barak inseguì i carri e l’esercito fino ad Harosceth-Goim; e tutto l’esercito di Sisera cadde sotto i colpi della spada, e non ne scampò un uomo.

17 Sisera fuggì a piedi verso la tenda di Jael, moglie di Heber, il Keneo, perché v’era pace fra Iabin, re di Hatsor, e la casa di Heber il Keneo.

18 E Jael uscì incontro a Sisera e gli disse: "Entra, signor mio, entra da me: non temere". Ed egli entrò da lei nella sua tenda, ed essa lo coprì con una coperta.

19 Ed egli le disse: "Deh, dammi un po’ d’acqua da bere perché ho sete". E quella, aperto l’otre del latte, gli diè da bere, e lo coprì.

20 Ed egli le disse: "Stattene all’ingresso della tenda; e se qualcuno viene a interrogarti dicendo: C’è qualcuno qui dentro? di’ di no".

21 Allora Jael, moglie di Heber, prese un piuolo della tenda; e, dato di piglio al martello, venne pian piano a lui, e gli piantò il piuolo nella tempia sì ch’esso penetrò in terra. Egli era profondamente addormentato e sfinito; e morì.

22 Ed ecco che, come Barak inseguiva Sisera, Jael uscì ad incontrarlo, e gli disse: "Vieni, e ti mostrerò l’uomo che cerchi". Ed egli entrò da lei; ed ecco, Sisera era steso morto, col piuolo nella tempia.

23 Così Dio umiliò quel giorno Iabin, re di Canaan, dinanzi ai figliuoli d’Israele.

24 E la mano de’ figliuoli d’Israele s’andò sempre più aggravando su Iabin, re di Canaan, finché ebbero sterminato Iabin, re di Canaan.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Judges 4

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth

Judges 4: Deborah

Yet again, the children of Israel had disobeyed the Lord. At this point in time, they had been under the yoke of Jabin, a Canaanite king, for twenty years. He had nine hundred chariots of iron, and was apparently very powerful.

The Lord raised up Deborah, a prophetess, to free the Israelites from oppression under Jabin. The text says that she would pass judgements for the children of Israel while she sat under the palm tree of Deborah.

Deborah summoned Barak, an army officer, and told him to go with ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun to fight King Jabin’s armies. Barak said he would only go if Deborah went as well, so she agreed to join him. Deborah then prophesied that Sisera, the enemy commander, would be defeated by a woman.

The two armies clashed at by the River Kishon, and all of Sisera’s men were killed. Sisera then fled to the tent of Heber, an Israelite who was on peaceful terms with King Jabin. Jael, Heber’s wife, invited Sisera to come in with the comforting words, “fear not”. She covered him with a blanket, gave him milk to drink, and let him sleep there.

Then Jael quietly took a tent peg and drove it into Sisera’s temple using a hammer, so that the peg stuck in the earth. When Barak came to the tent, pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to tell him, “come, and I will show you the man you seek.” And she showed him Sisera, dead, with a peg through his temple.

So Jabin’s army was defeated that day, and Israel grew stronger until their oppression under Jabin came to an end.

*****

Deborah is an especially significant character in the Bible, because she was the only female judge of Israel. It was very unusual for a woman in those times to rise to power, yet she truly earned the respect of her people. Deborah, as a woman, stands for the nurturing power of the Word to strengthen us during regeneration. Her name means ‘a bee’, but this comes from a word meaning ‘to speak’ – here, to speak the Word. Bees make honey; honey is nutritious; God’s word is our nourishment (see Swedenborg’s work, Arcana Caelestia 3424[2]).

The fact that Deborah judged from under a palm tree may seem like a passing detail, but even this contributes to the spiritual meaning of the story. Palm trees stand for the divine truths of the Word, which means that Deborah was judging the people from her understanding of the Lord’s truths.

King Jabin’s nine hundred iron chariots represent the apparent power of false beliefs, thoughts and persuasions over us. The number ‘nine’ stands for something which is complete, and ‘iron’ here stands for either natural truths or falsities. A ‘chariot’, being pulled by a horse, always stands for a set of teachings or doctrine. These three symbols add to the picture of a very powerful enemy: false ideas and views that can weaken and overwhelm us (Arcana Caelestia 4720[2]).

The spiritual meaning of the complex arrangement between Barak and Deborah is that we can only deal with our spiritual conflicts if we take the Word’s power (Deborah) with us. Barak, a man, represents the power of truth, but Deborah says a woman will gain victory over Sisera. The feminine stands for the power of love: our charity, our affection for good, and our wish to be useful. These qualities are always essential in our spiritual life (see Swedenborg’s work, Apocalypse Explained 1120[2]).

The story about Jael and Sisera is really about actively resisting the temptations of evil in our lives. Jael, a woman, stands for the power of good to overcome what is false in our mind. Driving the tent peg through Sisera’s head stands for the complete destruction of what is false. Driving it right through and into the ground stands for the power of good in our life and in our regeneration, because the ground represents our actions (Arcana Caelestia 268).

When Barak and Jael meet, it stands for the unity between good (Jael, a woman) and truth (Barak, a man). This unity of good and truth appears again at the start of the next chapter, in which Deborah and Barak sing of Israel’s victory.

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Arcana Coelestia # 3424

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3424. 'Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of living water' means the Word as regards the literal sense, which holds the internal sense within it. This is clear from the meaning of 'digging in the valley' as investigating lower down to discover where truths are, for 'digging' is investigating, and 'a valley' is that which is lower down, 1723, 3417; and from the meaning of 'a well of living water' as the Word in which Divine truths are present, thus the Word as regards the literal sense which holds the internal sense within it. It is well known that the Word is called 'a spring', in particular 'a spring of living waters'. The reason why the Word is also called 'a well' is that in relation to its other senses the sense of the letter is like a well, and that where spiritual people are concerned the Word is not a spring but a well, see 2702, 3096. Since a valley is that which is lower down, or what amounts to the same, that which is more external, and it was in the valley that the spring was found; and since the literal sense is the lower or more external sense of the Word, it is the literal sense that is therefore meant. But because that sense holds the internal sense, that is, the heavenly and Divine sense, its waters are for that reason called 'living', as also were the waters which went out under the threshold of the new house in Ezekiel,

And it will happen, that every wild creature that creeps, wherever the river comes to, is living; and there will be very many fish, for those waters go there, and become fresh; and everything is living where the river goes. Ezekiel 47:8-9.

Here 'the river' is the Word, 'the waters which cause everything to live' are the Divine Truths within it, 'fish' are facts, 40, 991.

[2] The Lord teaches that the Word of the Lord is such that it gives life to him who is thirsty, that is, to one who desires life, and that it is a spring whose waters are living, in John,

Jesus said to the woman from Samaria at Jacob's well, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would ask from Him, and He would give you living water. He who drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life. John 4:10, 14.

The reason why the Word is living and therefore confers life is that in its highest sense the subject is the Lord, while in the inmost sense it is His kingdom in which the Lord is everything. And this being so it is life itself which the Word contains and which flows into the minds of those who read the Word devoutly. This is why the Lord, in regard to the Word which comes from Himself, calls Himself 'a spring of water welling up into eternal life'; see also 2702.

[3] The fact that the Word of the Lord is called 'a well' in addition to 'a spring' is clear in Moses,

Israel sang the song: Spring up, O well! Answer to it! The well which the princes dug, which the chiefs of the people dug out, as directed by the Lawgiver, 1 with their staves. Numbers 21:17-18.

These words were sung at the place Beer, that is, the place of the well. In this case 'a well' means the Word which existed with the Ancient Church, as is evident from what has been said previously about the Word in 2897. 'The princes' means the first and foremost truths of which [the Word] consists - 'princes' being first and foremost truths, see 1482, 2089 - 'nobles of the people' lower truths such as those present in the literal sense, 1259, 1260, 2928, 3295. 'The Lawgiver' is clearly the Lord, 'staves' the powers which those truths possessed.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, into the Lawgiver

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