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Deuteronomy 28

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1 And it shall be, if obeying thou shalt obey the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep and to do all His commandments which I command thee today, that Jehovah thy God will put thee on high above all nations of the earth;

2 and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God.

3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and Blessed shalt thou be in the field.

4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy belly, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy beasts, the progeny of thine oxen, and the sheep of thy flock.

5 Blessed shall be thy bushel and thy kneading-trough.

6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest·​·in, and Blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

7 Jehovah shall give thine enemies that rise·​·up against thee to be struck down before thee; they shall go·​·out against thee in one way, and flee before thee in seven ways.

8 Jehovah shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou puttest·​·forth thy hand; and He shall bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God gives thee.

9 Jehovah shall raise· thee ·up for a holy people to Himself, as He has promised to thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of Jehovah thy God, and walk in His ways.

10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of Jehovah; and they shall be afraid of thee.

11 And Jehovah shall make thee a remainder for goodness, in the fruit of thy belly, and in the fruit of thy beasts, and in the fruit of thy ground, on the ground which Jehovah promised to thy fathers to give thee.

12 Jehovah shall open to thee His good treasure, the heavens to give the rain of thy land in its time, and to bless all the work of thy hand; and thou shalt lend to many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

13 And Jehovah shall put thee for the head, and not for the tail; and thou shalt be only above, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou hearken to the commandments of Jehovah thy God, which I command thee today, to keep and to do;

14 and thou shalt not turn·​·aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right·​·hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15 But it shall be, if thou wilt not obey the voice of Jehovah thy God, to take·​·heed to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee today; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee;

16 cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be thy bushel and thy kneading-trough.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy belly, and the fruit of thy ground, the progeny of thine oxen, and the sheep of thy flock.

19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest·​·in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest·​·out.

20 Jehovah shall send upon thee a curse, upset, and rebuke, in all that thou puttest· thy hand ·forth to do, until thou be blotted·​·out, and until thou perish hastily; on·​·account·​·of the evil of thine actions in which thou hast forsaken Me.

21 Jehovah shall make the pestilence stick to thee, until He has consumed· thee ·all from on the ground, whither thou goest·​·in to possess her.

22 Jehovah shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with a blazing fever, and with the drought, and with scorching, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

23 And thy heavens that are over thy head shall be bronze, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

24 Jehovah shall give the rain of thy land as powder and dust; from the heavens shall it come·​·down on thee, until it blots· thee ·out.

25 Jehovah shall give thee to be struck down before thine enemies; thou shalt go·​·out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be in turmoil before all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 And thy carcass shall be food to all fowls of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth, and none shall·​·frighten them.

27 Jehovah will smite thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with scabies, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

28 Jehovah shall smite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with amazement of heart;

29 and thou shalt be feeling·​·around at noon, as the blind feels·​·around in thick·​·darkness; and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways; and thou shalt be only oppressed and robbed all the days, and none shall save thee.

30 Thou shalt betroth a woman, and another man shall ravish her; thou shalt build a house, and shalt not dwell in it; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not begin to use it.

31 Thine ox shall be butchered before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat of it; thine donkey shall be taken·​·by·​·robbery from before thy face, and shall not be returned to thee; thy flock shall be given to thine enemies, and thou shalt have no·​·one to save them.

32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given to another people, and thine eyes shall see, and be consumed upon them all the day; and there shall be no power in thy hand.

33 The fruit of thy ground, and all thy toils, shall a people which thou knowest not eat·​·up; and thou only shalt be oppressed and fractured all the days.

34 And thou shalt be mad from the seeing of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

35 Jehovah shall smite thee on the knees, and on the hips, with a bad ulcer that is· not ·able to be healed, from the sole of thy foot to the top·​·of· thy ·head.

36 Jehovah shall make thee go, and thy king whom thou shalt raise·​·up over thee, to a nation which thou and thy fathers have not known; and there shalt thou serve other gods of wood and stone.

37 And thou shalt be an astonishment, a proverb, and a sharp·​·word, among all the peoples whither Jehovah shall direct thee.

38 Thou shalt carry out much seed into the field, and shalt gather in but a·​·little; for the locust shall consume it.

39 Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.

40 There shall be olive·​·trees for thee in all thy border, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive·​·trees shall shake·​·off their fruit.

41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be thine; for they shall go into captivity.

42 All thy trees and fruit of thy ground shall the locust possess.

43 The sojourner that is among thee shall go·​·up above thee, upward upward; and thou shalt go·​·down, downward downward.

44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him; he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

45 And all these curses shall come on thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, until thou be blotted·​·out; for thou didst not obey the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee;

46 and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a miracle, and upon thy seed even·​·to eternity.

47 Because thou didst not serve Jehovah thy God with gladness, and with goodness of heart, for the multitude of all things;

48 and shalt thou serve thine enemies which Jehovah shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things; and he shall put a yoke of iron on thy neck, until he has blotted· thee ·out.

49 Jehovah shall lift up a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle soars; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not hear;

50 a nation strong of face, which shall not accept the faces of an elder, nor be·​·gracious to a lad;

51 and he shall eat the fruit of thy beasts, and the fruit of thy ground, until thou be blotted·​·out; which also shall not leave for thee grain, must*, or olive·​·oil, or the progeny of thine oxen, or the sheep of thy flock, until he have made· thee ·perish.

52 And he shall be·​·an·​·adversary to thee in all thy gates, until thy tall and fortified walls come·​·down, in which thou didst trust, in all thy land; and he shall be·​·an·​·adversary to thee in all thy gates in all thy land, which Jehovah thy God has given to thee.

53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own belly, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which Jehovah thy God has given to thee, in the siege, and in the anguish, with which thine enemies shall cause· thee ·anguish;

54 So that the man that is soft among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be·​·evil against his brother, and against the wife of his bosom, and against the remnant of his sons who shall remain;

55 so that he will not give to any one of them from the flesh of his sons whom he shall eat; because he has nothing left to him in the siege, and in the anguish, with which thine enemies shall cause· thee ·anguish in all thy gates.

56 The tender woman among thee and the delicate, who would not attempt to place the sole of her foot on the earth from delicateness and from tenderness, her eye shall be·​·evil against the husband of her bosom, and against her son, and against her daughter,

57 and against her offspring that goes·​·out from between her feet, and against her sons to whom she shall give·​·birth; for she shall eat them in hiding for want of all things in the siege and in the anguish with which thine enemy shall cause· thee ·anguish in thy gates.

58 If thou wilt not take·​·heed to do all the words of this law written in this book, to fear this glorious and fearful name, Jehovah thy God;

59 then Jehovah will make thy smitings a wonder, and the smitings of thy seed great and constant smitings, and bad and constant sicknesses.

60 And He will turn·​·back on thee all the diseases of Egypt, before which thou wast afraid; and they shall stick to thee.

61 Also every sickness, and every smiting, which is not written in the book of this law, these will Jehovah bring·​·up upon thee, until thou be blotted·​·out.

62 And you shall be left with few mortals, instead·​·of being as the stars of the heavens for multitude; for thou didst not obey the voice of Jehovah thy God.

63 And it shall be, that as Jehovah had·​·joy over you to do· you ·good, and to multiply you; so Jehovah will have·​·joy over you to make· you ·perish, and to blot· you ·out; and you shall be plucked·​·out from on the ground whither thou comest to possess it.

64 And Jehovah shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even to the other end; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have·​·known, even wood and stone.

65 And among these nations shalt thou have no repose, and there shall not be rest for the sole of thy foot; but Jehovah shall give thee there a trembling heart, and a complete consumption* of the eyes, and sadness of soul;

66 and thy life shall be hung in·​·front·​·of thee; and thou shalt dread night and day, and shalt not have·​·faith in thy life;

67 in the morning thou shalt say, May He give evening! and in the evening thou shalt say, May He give morning! for the dread of thy heart wherewith thou shalt dread, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

68 And Jehovah shall return thee to Egypt with ships, by the way of which I said to thee, Thou shalt not see it again any·​·more; and there you shall be sold to your enemies for servants and handmaids, and no·​·one shall buy you.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Arcana Coelestia # 3901

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3901. The reason why the final state of the Church is compared to eagles gathered together where there is a carcass or body is that 'eagles' means man's rational ideas. When used in reference to forms of good 'eagles' means true rational ideas, but when used in reference to forms of evil 'eagles' means false rational ideas, or reasonings. 'Birds' in general means a person's thoughts, and in both the genuine and the contrary senses, 40, 745, 776, 866, 991, 3219; and each species has some individual meaning, 'eagles' meaning rational ideas because they are high-flyers and sharp-sighted. This meaning may be seen from many places in the Word, from which let the following be brought forward to confirm it. First, places where true rational ideas are meant: in Moses,

Jehovah found His people [Jacob] in a wilderness land and in the emptiness, the howling, the lonely place He encompassed him, instructed him, and kept him as the pupil of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreads out its wings, takes one, carries it on its wings. Deuteronomy 32:10-11.

That which is described here and compared to the eagle is instruction in the truths and goods of faith. The actual process up to the point when a person becomes rational and spiritual is what this description and comparison contains. All comparisons in the Word are made by means of meaningful signs, in this case by 'the eagle', which means the rational.

[2] In the same author,

Jehovah said to Moses, You have seen the things which I did to the Egyptians, and I bore you on eagles' wings so that I might bring you to Myself. Exodus 19:3-4.

Here the meaning is similar. In Isaiah,

Those who await Jehovah will be renewed with strength; they will mount up with strong wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31.

'Being renewed with strength' stands for growth in the willing of good, 'mounting up with strong wings like eagles' for growth in the understanding of truth, and so growth of the rational. Here, as elsewhere, dual expressions are used to present the subject, the first of a pair involving good which belongs to the will, the second truth which belongs to the understanding. 'Running and not being weary' and 'walking and not fainting' are similar dual expressions.

[3] In Ezekiel,

Speak a parable about the house of Israel, and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovih, A great eagle with long pinions, full of feathers, in its embroidery, came on Lebanon and took a twig of the cedar. He carried it into a land of trade, he placed it in a city of perfumers. It sprouted and became a spreading vine. There was another great eagle with great wings and full of feathers, towards which, behold, this vine directed its roots, and sent out its branches towards it to water it from the beds of its young plants in a good field, by many waters. But it will be laid waste. He sent his ambassadors to Egypt that they might give him horses and many people. Ezekiel 17:2-9, 15.

The eagle mentioned first stands for the rational enlightened by the Divine, the eagle mentioned second for the rational originating in the proprium, subsequently perverted by means of reasonings based on sensory evidence and factual knowledge - 'Egypt' standing for factual knowledge, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, and 'horses' for understanding resulting from all this, 2761, 2762, 3217.

[4] In Daniel,

A vision of Daniel. Four beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion, but had eagle's wings. I watched it until its wings were torn away and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on its feet like a human being; and the heart of a human being was given to it. Daniel 7:3-4.

That which is described by 'a lion which had eagle's wings' is the first state of the Church, 'eagle's wings' in this case meaning rational ideas originating in the proprium. And when these had been removed, rational ideas and desires in the will which had a Divine origin were given to it. These are meant by the lifting up of the eagle from the ground and the standing of it on its feet like a human being, and the gift to it of the heart of a human being.

[5] In Ezekiel,

As for the likeness of the faces of the four living creatures or cherubs, each of the four had the face of a human being, and the face of a lion on the right side; and each of the four the face of an ox on the left side; and each of the four had the face of an eagle. Ezekiel 1:10.

Their wheels were called Galgal; and each one had four faces - the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. Ezekiel 10:13-14.

In John,

Around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature was like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a human being, the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. Revelation 4:7.

Clearly, those living creatures that were seen mean Divine arcana, as consequently does the likeness of their faces. But exactly which arcana are meant cannot be known unless one knows what 'lion', 'calf', 'human being', and 'eagle' mean in the internal sense. It is evident that 'the face of an eagle' means vigilance and therefore providence, for the cherubs who were represented by the living creatures in Ezekiel mean the Lord's providence which guards against anyone entering the mysteries of faith from himself and his own rationality as the starting point, see 308. This also shows that when 'an eagle' is used in reference to a human being the rational is meant in the internal sense. It has this meaning because an eagle is a high-flyer and from its more exalted position has a wide view of things below.

[6] In Job,

Is it through your intelligence that the hawk flies up and spreads its wings towards the south? Is it at your command 1 that the eagle lifts itself up and makes its nest up high? Job 39:26-27.

In this verse it is evident that 'the eagle' means reason which is an attribute of intelligence. This was what 'eagle' meant in the Ancient Church, for the Book of Job is a book of the Ancient Church, 3540 (end). In fact the writing of almost all the books of that period involved the use of meaningful signs, but with the passage of time meaningful signs have been so eclipsed that it is not even known that 'birds' in general means thoughts, even though these are referred to many times in the Word and in those places quite clearly is meant something different from birds.

[7] As regards 'the eagle' in the contrary sense meaning rational ideas that are not true, and so are false, this is evident from the following places: In Moses,

Jehovah will raise up above you a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, as an eagle flies, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation. Deuteronomy 28:49-50.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, he comes up [like] clouds, and his chariots like a whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we have been laid waste! Jeremiah 4:13.

In the same prophet,

Your bragging has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill; because, like the eagle, you have made your nest up high, I will cast you down from there. Behold, he mounts up and flies like an eagle, and spreads his wings over Bozrah; and the heart of the powerful men of Edom has become on that day like the heart of a woman in distress. Jeremiah 49:16, 22.

In the same prophet,

Our pursuers were swifter than eagles; they pursued us over the mountains, they laid in wait for us in the wilderness. Lamentations 4:19.

In Micah,

Make yourself bald, and shave your head for the children of your delight; extend your baldness like an eagle, for they have departed from you. Micah 1:16.

In Obadiah,

If you raise yourself up like the eagle, and if you place your nest among the stars, I will bring you down from there. Obad. verse 4.

In Habakkuk,

I am rousing the Chaldeans, a bitter and headlong nation, marching into the breadths of the earth, to inherit habitations that are not its own. Its horses are swifter than leopards. 2 Its horsemen will come from afar. They will fly in like an eagle hastening to devour. Habakkuk 1:6, 8.

[8] In all these places 'eagles' means falsity that has been introduced through reasonings - the delusions of the senses and external appearances being the source of that falsity. 'The Chaldeans' referred to in the last of the Prophets quoted means people who outwardly are holy but inwardly are under the influence of falsity, see 1368, and these like Babel are those who lay waste the Church, 1367. 'The breadths of the earth' means truths (the vastation of which is meant by 'marching into the breadths of the earth') see 3433, 3434, and 'horses' their intellectual concepts, which are similar, 2761, 2762, 3217. What is meant by 'an eagle hastening to devour' is clear from all this, namely a hastening to make man desolate of truths, for the desolation of the Church is the subject in these verses. Comparisons are made with eagles, but as has been stated, comparisons in the Word are made by means of meaningful signs. From all this one may now see what is meant by the comparison with the eagles which will be gathered together where the carcass is.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, mouth

2. The Latin means eagles, but the Hebrew means leopards, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.

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