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Ezekiel 4

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1 And thou, son of man, take thee a brick, and put it before thee, and portray upon her the city of Jerusalem;

2 and put a siege against her, and build a ramp against her, and pour·​·out an embankment against her; put the camp against her, and set battering rams against her all around.

3 And take thou to thee an iron griddle, and put it for a wall of iron between thee and the city; and establish thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt besiege it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

4 And thou, lie also on thy left side, and set the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; the number of the days that thou shalt lie on it thou shalt bear their iniquity.

5 And I have put upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6 And when thou hast completed these, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days; I have given to thee a day for a year, a day for a year.

7 And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be made·​·bare, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

8 And, behold, I will put ropes on thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from thy side to thy side, until thou hast completed the days of thy siege.

9 And take thou unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie on thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat of it.

10 And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time shalt thou eat it.

11 And thou shalt drink water by volume, the sixth part of a hin; from time to time shalt thou drink.

12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt make·​·the·​·cake with excrement that goes out of man, before their eyes.

13 And Jehovah said, In·​·this·​·manner shall the sons of Israel eat their unclean bread among the nations, whither I will compel them.

14 And I said, Alas, Lord Jehovih*! Behold, my soul has not been defiled; and from my youth until now I have not eaten of the carcass and of what is torn; and there came not the flesh of abomination into my mouth.

15 And He said to me, See, I have given thee the dung of cattle instead·​·of the excrement of man, and thou shalt make thy bread with it.

16 And He said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the rod of bread in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread by weight, and with anxiety; and they shall drink water by volume, and with astonishment,

17 in·​·order·​·that they may have·​·want of bread and water, and be desolate, a man and his brother, and waste·​·away in their iniquity.

   


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

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Bear (a baby, or a burden)

  
Photo by Jenny Stein

Child-bearing being what it is, the spiritual meaning of "bearing" in that context seems to be particularly important, and sheds some light on other uses. Children represent new spiritual ideas or new affections for spiritual things; the Writings say "bearing" a child means "acknowledging" that idea or affection "in action as well as in faith." So it's not just thinking about a new idea or feeling good about something, it's actually going out and doing something about it, to make it real.In a general sense, other uses of "bear" also indicate an active and supportive approach to spiritual things, with actual works being done in pursuit of spiritual issues of various sorts.Like many verbs, the spiritual meaning of "bearing" something depends greatly on context – what it is that's being borne, and why. It is further complicated by the fact that "bearing" in the literal sense can mean anything from putting up with an annoyance to the miracle of pregnancy and birth.