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Ezekiel 39

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1 And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovih*; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief, the head of Meshech and Tubal:

2 and I will turn· thee ·back, and divide thee in six, and will cause thee to come·​·up from the flanks of the north, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel;

3 and I will smite thy bow out·​·of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out·​·of thy right hand.

4 Thou shalt fall on the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the peoples that are with thee; I will give thee to the raptor, to the bird of every wing, and to the animals of the field for food.

5 Thou shalt fall upon the face of the field; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Jehovih.

6 And I will send a fire into Magog, and into those who dwell· securely ·in the islands; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

7 And I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them profane My holy name any·​·more; and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, the holy·​·One in Israel.

8 Behold, it is come, and it is come·​·to·​·pass, says the Lord Jehovih; it is the day of which I have spoken.

9 And they who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go·​·out, and burn and kindle the arsenal, and the shield and the buckler, the bow and the arrows, and the sticks for the hand, and the lance, and they shall burn them with fire seven years;

10 and they shall not carry wood from the field, neither hew any from the forests; for they shall burn the arsenal with fire; and they shall spoil those who spoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord Jehovih.

11 And it shall be in that day, that I will give to Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the ravine of those who cross toward·​·the·​·east of the sea, and it shall muzzle them who cross; and there shall they bury Gog and all his crowd, and they shall call it The Ravine of the·​·Crowd·​·of·​·Gog.

12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, so·​·that they may cleanse the land.

13 And all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be for them for a name of the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord Jehovih.

14 And they shall distinguish the men continually passing·​·through in the land, from those burying the passing·​·by, those who remain on the face of the earth to cleanse it; from the end of seven months shall they search· them ·out.

15 And when they who pass·​·through pass·​·through the land, and one sees the bone of man, and shall build a marker beside it, until the buriers have buried it in the Ravine of the·​·Crowd·​·of·​·Gog.

16 And also the name of the city shall be The Crowd. And they shall cleanse the land.

17 And, thou son of man, thus says the Lord Jehovih; Say unto every winged bird, and to every animal of the field, Bring· yourselves ·together, and come; gather yourselves all around to My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, and you will eat flesh, and drink blood.

18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the chiefs of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.

19 And you shall eat fat until you be satisfied, and drink blood until you have drunk·​·largely,* of My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

20 And you shall be satisfied at My table with horse and chariot, with heroes, and with all men of war, says the Lord Jehovih.

21 And I will put My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment that I have made, and My hand that I have set upon them.

22 And the house of Israel shall know that I am Jehovah their God from that day and beyond.

23 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel were exiled in their iniquity; because they trespassed against Me; and I hid My face from them, and gave them into the hand of their adversaries: and all of them fell by the sword.

24 According·​·to their uncleanness and according·​·to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid My face from them.

25 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovih; Now will I return the captivity of Jacob, and have·​·compassion upon all the house of Israel, and will be·​·jealous for My holy name;

26 and they have borne their humiliation, and all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against Me, when they dwelt securely on their ground, and none frightened them.

27 When I have returned them from the people, and brought· them ·together out of the lands of their enemies, and am sanctified in them in the eyes of many nations;

28 and they shall know that I am Jehovah their God, who caused them to be exiled to the nations; but I have gathered· them ·together on their own ground, and I have not caused any of them to remain any·​·more there*.

29 And I will not hide My face any·​·more from them; that I have spilled·​·out My spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord Jehovih.

   


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

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Apocalypse Revealed # 862

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862. We have said that the nations' surrounding the camp of the saints and the beloved city means, symbolically, that these people attempted to destroy everything connected with the New Church, both its truths and goods and its fundamental doctrine regarding the Lord and life, as stated in the preceding number. This is the symbolic meaning because the camp of the saints symbolizes all the truths and goods of the church which is the New Jerusalem.

That a camp in the spiritual sense symbolizes everything connected with the church with respect to its truths and goods can be seen from the following passages:

The sun and moon grew dark, and the stars diminished their brightness. Jehovah uttered His voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for numberless are those who obey His Word. (Joel 2:10-11)

I will encamp for My house some of the army... (Zechariah 9:8)

...God has scattered the bones of them who encamp against you..., because God has rejected them. (Psalms 53:5)

The angel of Jehovah encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them. (Psalms 34:7)

(An angel of God met Jacob, and said to Jacob,) "This is God's camp." Therefore he called the name of that place Mahanaim (Two Camps). (Genesis 32:1-2)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 29:3, Ezekiel 1:24, Psalms 27:3.

That an army or host in the Word symbolizes the church's truths and goods, and also its falsities and evils, may be seen in nos. 447, 826, 833; and so, too, does a camp.

[2] Since the children of Israel and their twelve tribes symbolize the church in respect to all its truths and goods (nos. 349, 350), they were therefore called the armies or hosts of Jehovah (Exodus 7:4; 12:41, 51), and the places where they stopped and assembled were called camps, as in Leviticus 4:12; 8:17; 13:46; 14:8; 16:26, 28; 24:14, 23; Numbers 1; 2; 3; 4:5 ff., 5:2-4; 9:17-23; 10:1-10, 11-28; 11:31-32; 12:14-15; 21:10-15; 33:1-49; Deuteronomy 23:9-14; Amos 4:10.

It is apparent from this now that the nations' surrounding the camp of the saints and the beloved city means, symbolically, that these people tried to destroy all the truths and goods of the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, and also its doctrine regarding the Lord and life.

The same symbolism is found in these verses in Luke:

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near... (At length) Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:20, 24)

This is said in reference to the end of the age, which is the final period of the church. Jerusalem here also symbolizes the church.

That Gog and Magog, that is, people who engage in external worship divorced from any internal worship, will then invade the church and try to destroy it, is something we are told also in Ezekiel 38:8-9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 39:2, and that the New Church will then be established by the Lord, Ezekiel 39:17-29.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

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Apocalypse Revealed # 483

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483. And he said to me, "You must prophesy again about peoples, nations, tongues, and many kings." (10:11) This symbolically means that such being the case, the character of people caught up in faith alone must be further told.

That this is the symbolic meaning is apparent from what follows, in which the subject is people caught up in faith alone, to the end of chapter 16. After that the subject is the Roman Catholic religion, then the casting out of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet into hell, and afterward the New Church, which will worship the Lord alone.

To prophesy means, symbolically, to teach (nos. 8, 133), and so to prophesy again means to teach further. "Peoples" symbolize people who are impelled by doctrinal truths or doctrinal falsities, and "nations" symbolize people who are impelled by good practices or evil practices. More about these later. "Tongues" symbolize people who are impelled by truths and goods or falsities and evils externally (no. 282), and "kings" people who are impelled by them internally. To be shown that kings symbolize people who are impelled by truths springing from goodness, and in an opposite sense, people who are impelled by falsities springing from evil, and abstractly truths themselves springing from goodness or falsities themselves springing from evil, see nos. 20, 664, 704, 720, 830, 921. And as the subject in what follows is in particular people impelled by interior falsities, the text says, "and many kings," which symbolizes falsities accompanying evil in abundance.

The text says peoples, nations, tongues and kings in order to mean all people in the church who are of this character.

John's being told that he had to prophesy again means, symbolically, to teach further the character of people caught up in faith alone, in order that their falsities may be exposed and thus eradicated, since no falsity is eradicated before it has been exposed.

[2] That "peoples" symbolize people impelled by doctrinal truths or falsities, and "nations" people impelled by good or evil practices, can be seen from many passages in the Word where peoples and nations are mentioned. However, to demonstrate this we will cite here only some passages where peoples and nations are mentioned together, from which this conclusion may be drawn, as each and every particular in the Word contains a marriage of the Lord and the church, and consequently a marriage of goodness and truth; and "peoples" refer to truth, and "nations" to goodness. The presence of such a marriage in each and every particular of the Word may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 80-90.

[3] Here are the passages in the Word:

Woe to a sinful nation, to a people laden with iniquity... (Isaiah 1:4)

I will send him against a hypocritical nation, against the people of My wrath I will command him... (Isaiah 10:6)

(Jehovah) who is striking the peoples... with an incurable plague, who is ruling the nations in anger... (Isaiah 14:6)

At that time a present will be brought to Jehovah..., a people scattered and shaven..., and a nation marked off and downtrodden... (Isaiah 18:7)

...a strong people will honor You, a city of mighty nations will fear You. (Isaiah 25:3)

(Jehovah) will swallow up... the covering... over all peoples, and the veil... over all nations. (Isaiah 25:7)

Come near, you nations..., and pay heed, you peoples! (Isaiah 34:1)

I... have called You... as a covenant to the peoples, and as a light to the nations. (Isaiah 42:6)

Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples assemble. (Isaiah 43:9)

Behold, I will lift My hand... to the nations, and... My standard to the peoples. (Isaiah 49:22)

...I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a leader and lawgiver to the nations. (Isaiah 55:4)

Behold, a people is coming from the north country, and a great nation... from the edges of the earth. (Jeremiah 6:22)

Many peoples and numerous nations shall come to seek Jehovah of hosts in Jerusalem... (Zechariah 8:22)

Jehovah renders the counsel of the nations of no effect, He overturns the deliberations of the peoples. (Psalms 33:10)

(Jehovah) will subdue the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet... (Jehovah) reigned over the nations... The willing of the peoples have gathered together... (Psalms 47:3, 8-9)

The peoples shall confess You... The nations shall be glad... For You shall judge the peoples righteously, and guide the nations on the earth. (Psalms 67:3-4)

Remember me, O Jehovah, with good pleasure toward Your people..., that I may rejoice in the joy of Your nations... (Psalms 106:4-5)

...all peoples, nations, and languages shall worship (the Son of Man). (Daniel 7:14)

And so on elsewhere, as in Psalms 18:43, Isaiah 9:2-3; 11:10, Ezekiel 36:15, Joel 2:17, Zephaniah 2:9, Revelation 5:9, Luke 2:30-32.

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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.