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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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True Christian Religion # 130

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130. The following passages establish that prophets represented the state of their church as regards doctrine from the Word, and living in accordance with that doctrine. The prophet Isaiah was commanded to strip the sackcloth from his loins and his shoe from his foot, and to go naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a token (Isaiah 20:2-3). The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to represent the state of the church by packing his bags for an exile, and to move to another place in the sight of the Children of Israel; he was to bring out his baggage during the day, and go out in the evening through a hole in the house-wall; he was to cover his face so as not to see the ground, and thus he would be a token for the house of Israel, and he was to say, 'Behold, I am your token; as I have done, so shall it be with you' (Ezekiel 12:3-7, 11). The prophet Hosea was commanded to represent the state of the church by taking a prostitute as a wife; he did so, and she bore him three children, one of whom he called Jezreel, the second No-pity, and the third Not-my-people. Again he was commanded to go and love a woman who was loved by another man, an adulteress; and he bought her (Hosea 1:2-9; 3:2-3). Another prophet was commanded to put ashes on his eyes, and to allow himself to be struck and beaten (1 Kings 20:35, 38).

The prophet Ezekiel was commanded, in order to represent the state of the church, to take a brick and to draw a picture of Jerusalem on it; to lay siege to it, and make a rampart and a mound to attack it; to place an iron griddle between himself and the city; and to lie on his left side and on his right side. Also to take wheat, barley, lentils, millet and spelt, and to make bread from them; also to make a cake of barley mixed with human dung; and because he begged off this, he was allowed to make it with cow-dung. It was said to him:

Lie on your left side, and put the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; for the number of days that you lie on that side, you shall carry their iniquity. For I will make you carry the iniquity of the house of Israel for a number of days equal to the years of their iniquity, namely, three hundred and ninety days. When you have completed this period, you are to lie a second time on your right side, to carry the iniquity of the house of Judah, Ezekiel 4:1-15.

[2] It is clear from what follows this passage that the prophet by these actions carried the iniquities of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and did not remove and so expiate them, but merely represented and demonstrated them:

Thus said Jehovah, the Children of Israel shall eat their bread unclean. Behold, I break the staff of bread, so that they may lack bread and water, and they shall be desolate, a man and his brother, and they shall waste away because of their iniquity, Ezekiel 4:13, 16-17.

The meaning is similar where it is said of the Lord:

He bore our sicknesses, He carried our pains. Jehovah made the iniquities of us all to fall upon Him. By His knowledge He made many righteous, in that He carried their iniquities Isaiah 53:4, 6, 11.

The whole of this chapter deals with the Lord's passion.

[3] The details of the Lord's passion show clearly that as the Prophet He represented the state of the Jewish church with regard to the Word. For example, His betrayal by Judas; His arrest and conviction by the chief priests and the elders; His being beaten; His head being struck with a reed; His crowning with a crown of thorns; the dividing of His garments, and the casting of lots for His tunic; His crucifixion; His being given vinegar to drink; His side being pierced; His burial and resurrection on the third day.

His betrayal by Judas meant that He was betrayed by the Jewish nation, which possessed the Word, since Judas represented that nation. His arrest and conviction by the chief priests and elders meant that the whole of that church so behaved. His being beaten, being spat upon in the face, being flogged and having His head struck with a reed meant their similar treatment of the Word as regards the Divine truths it contains. The crowning with thorn meant that they falsified and adulterated these truths. The dividing of His garments and throwing lots for His tunic meant that they threw to the winds all the truths of the Word, but not its spiritual sense, which is what the tunic meant. The crucifixion meant that they destroyed and profaned the whole Word. Their giving Him vinegar to drink meant that they offered only falsified truths, which is why He did not drink it. The piercing of His side meant that they utterly extinguished all the truth and all the good of the Word. His burial meant the rejection of all He had left from His mother. His resurrection on the third day meant His glorification, or the union of His Human with the Father's Divine. From this it is now plain that 'carrying iniquities' does not mean removing them, but representing the profaning of truths in the Word.

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