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Jeremiah 16

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1 And the word of Jehovah was unto me, saying,

2 Thou shalt not take to thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.

3 For thus says Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who gave·​·birth to them, and concerning their fathers who begot them in this land;

4 from the deaths of sicknesses they shall·​·die; they shall not be bewailed, and they shall not be buried; they shall be for manure on the face of the ground; and they shall all·​·be·​·consumed by the sword and by famine; and their carcasses shall be for food for the fowl of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth.

5 For thus says Jehovah, Come· not ·into the house of the wake, and go not to wail, and be· not ·sorry for them; for I have gathered My peace from this people, says Jehovah, even the mercy and the compassions.

6 And the great and the small shall·​·die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men wail for them, nor gash themselves, nor make· themselves ·bald for them:

7 neither shall they divide bread for them upon mourning, to comfort him for the dead; neither shall men give· them the cup of comforting ·to·​·drink over his father or over his mother.*

8 And thou shalt not go·​·into the house of feasts, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

9 For thus says Jehovah of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out·​·of this place before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

10 And it shall be, when thou shalt tell this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Why has Jehovah spoken all this great evil against us, or what is our iniquity, or what is our sin that we have sinned against Jehovah our God?

11 And thou shalt say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken Me, says Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law;

12 and you have done more evil than your fathers; for, behold, you walk each·​·man after the stubbornness of his evil heart, to hearken not unto Me;

13 and I will throw you from off this land onto a land which you and your fathers know not; and there shall you serve other gods by·​·day and by night, where I will not give you grace.

14 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, Jehovah lives, who brought·​·up the sons of Israel out·​·of the land of Egypt;

15 but, Jehovah lives, who brought·​·up the sons of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had compelled them; and I will return them onto their ground that I gave unto their fathers.

16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, says Jehovah, and they shall fish them; and after thus I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from on every mountain, and from on every hill, and from the crevices of the rocks.

17 For My eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, neither is their iniquity kept·​·secret from in·​·front·​·of My eyes.

18 And first I will repay their iniquity and their sin double; on·​·account·​·of their profaning My land; they have·​·filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.

19 O Jehovah, my strength, and my stronghold, and my place·​·to·​·flee in the day of adversity, the nations shall come to Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited falsity, vanity and there is no profit in them.

20 Shall man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?

21 Therefore, behold, I will this time make· them ·to·​·know, I will make· them ·to·​·know My hand and My might; and they shall know that My name is Jehovah.

   


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

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Apocalypse Explained # 1189

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1189. And the voice of bridegroom and of bride shall not be heard in thee any more signifies no joy from the conjunction of good and truth. This is evident from the signification of "bridegroom," as being in the highest sense the Lord; also from the signification of "bride," as being in that sense the church; and as the Lord flows into man from the Divine good of the Divine love, and is conjoined to the man of the church in the Divine truth, so "bridegroom and bride" mean the conjunction of the Lord with the church, and also the conjunction of good with truth. Because all spiritual joy is from that conjunction, it follows that "the voice of the bridegroom and bride" signifies the joy therefrom. Moreover, the angels have all their wisdom and intelligence, and thus all their joy and happiness from that conjunction and according to it. As this is the signification of "the voice of bridegroom and bride," heavenly joy is described in other places in the Word by "bridegroom and bride." As in Jeremiah:

I will take away from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of the millstone and the voice of the lamp (Jeremiah 25:10).

In the same:

Behold I cause to cease out of this place the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride (Jeremiah 16:9).

In the same:

I will cause to cease out of the cities of Judah, and out of the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride (Jeremiah 7:34).

In Joel:

Let the bridegroom go forth out of His chamber, and the bride out of her closet (Joel 2:16).

In Jeremiah:

Yet again shall be heard in this place the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, of them that say, Confess ye Jehovah of Hosts (Jeremiah 33:10-11).

In these passages, "the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride" signify joy and gladness from the conjunction of the Lord with the church, and thus from the conjunction of good and truth, for the state of the church is here treated of; and the terms "joy and gladness" are also used, "joy" from good and "gladness" from truth.

[2] So in Isaiah:

I will rejoice in Jehovah, my soul shall exult in my God, as the bridegroom putteth on a miter, and as the bride adorneth herself with her jewels (Isaiah 61:10).

"To put on the miter" means to put on wisdom, and "to adorn herself with jewels" means with the knowledges of truth. In the same:

As the joy of the bridegroom over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee (Isaiah 62:5).

That the Lord is meant in the highest sense by the "bridegroom," and the church by the "bride, "' is evident in the Gospels:

When the disciples of John asked about fasting, Jesus said as long as the bridegroom is with them the sons of the nuptials cannot fast; but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them; then shall they fast (Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:19, 20; Luke 5:34-35).

Here the Lord calls Himself the "bridegroom" and the men of the church He calls "sons of the nuptials;" "to fast" signifies to mourn on account of the lack of truth and good. In Matthew:

The kingdom of the heavens is likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom (Matthew 25:1-2).

Here the "bridegroom" means the Lord, and "virgins" mean the church, and "lamps" signify the truths of faith. In John:

He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice (John 3:29).

John the Baptist said this of the Lord, who is meant by the "bridegroom," and the church is meant by the "bride." That the church is meant by the "bride" is evident from these passages in Revelation:

I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2).

The "New Jerusalem" means the New Church. Again:

Come, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb; and he showed me the city Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9-10).

And again:

The Spirit and the bride say, Come; and he that heareth, let him say, Come (Revelation 22:17).

"The Spirit and the bride" signify the church as to good and truth.

(Continuation)

[3] As the love of rule and the love of riches prevail universally in the Christian world, and these loves at this day are so deeply rooted that it is not known that they in any wise lead astray, it is important that their quality should be set forth. They lead every man astray who does not shun evils because they are sins; for he who does not thus shun evils does not fear God, and therefore remains natural. And as the love of ruling and the love of riches are the natural man's own loves, he does not see with any interior acknowledgment what the quality of those loves are in him. This he does not see unless he is reformed, and he can be reformed only by combat against evils. It is believed that he can be reformed by faith; but there can be no faith of God in man until he fights against evils. When man has thus been reformed light flows in from the Lord through heaven and gives him the affection of seeing and the ability to see what those loves are, and whether they rule or serve in him, thus whether they are in the first place in him and make as it were the head, or are in the second place and make as it were the feet. If they rule and are in the first place they lead astray and become curses; but if they serve and are in the second place they do not lead astray but become blessings.

[4] I can assert that all in whom the love of rule is in the first place are inwardly devils. This love is known from its delight, for it exceeds every other delight of the life of man. It is continually exhaled from hell, and the exhalation appears like the fire of a great furnace, kindling the hearts of men whom the Lord does not protect from it. The Lord protects all who are reformed. Nevertheless, the former although in hell, are led by the Lord but only by means of external bonds, which are fears on account of the penalties of the law and the loss of reputation, honor, gain, and consequently pleasures. He leads them also by means of worldly rewards. He cannot lead them out of hell because the love of rule does not admit of internal bonds, which are the fear of God and affections of good and truth, by means of which the Lord leads all who will follow Him to heaven and in heaven.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.