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Jeremiah 46

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1 The word of Jehovah was to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations;

2 for Egypt, against the host of Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.

3 Arrange ye the shield and the buckler, and approach to the battle.

4 Harness the horses; and go·​·up, ye horsemen, and stand·​·forth with your helmets; scour the lances, and put on the sirons*.

5 Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned·​·away backward? And their heroes are beaten·​·down, and fleeing have fled, and faced them not; for fear was all around, says Jehovah.

6 Let not the swift flee, nor the mighty·​·man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the hand* of the river Euphrates.

7 Who is this that goes·​·up as the Nile, whose waters tumble as rivers?

8 Egypt goes·​·up as the Nile, and his waters tumble as the rivers; and he says, I will go·​·up, I will cover the land; I will make· the city and those who dwell in her ·perish.

9 Go·​·up, ye horses; and rave, ye chariots; and let the heroes go·​·forth; Kush and Put, who handle the shield; and the Lydians, who handle and bend the bow.

10 And this is the day for the Lord Jehovih* of Armies, a day of vengeance, that He may be avenged of His adversaries. And the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiated and soaked* with their blood; for the Lord Jehovih of Armies sacrifices in the land of the north by the River Euphrates.

11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt; in vain shalt thou multiply medicines; there is no cure for thee.

12 The nations have heard of thy disgrace, and thy clamor has·​·filled the land; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.

13 The word that Jehovah spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon would come and smite the land of Egypt.

14 Tell ye in Egypt, and make it heard in Migdol, and make it heard in Noph and in Taḥpanḥes; say ye, Stand·​·forth, and prepare for thyself; for the sword shall devour all around thee.

15 Wherefore are thy powerful·​·ones swept·​·away? He stood not, for Jehovah did push· him ·out.

16 He made those who stumble many, yea, a man fell upon his companion; and they said, Arise, and let us return to our people, and to the land of our birth, from the faces of the afflicting sword.

17 They did call there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but an uproar; he has passed the time appointed.

18 As I am alive, says the King, whose name is Jehovah of Armies, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.

19 Make for thyself vessels of exile, O daughter who dwells in Egypt; for Noph shall be for a desolation, and be kindled with fire from none dwelling there.

20 Egypt is a very·​·beautiful heifer, but from the north disaster comes; it comes.

21 Also her hirelings are in among her as calves of the stall; for they also are faced back, and are fled away together; they did not stand, for the day of their downfall had come upon them, and the time of their visitation.

22 Her voice shall go as a serpent; for they shall go with a host, and come to her with axes, as hewers of wood.

23 They shall cut·​·off her forest, says Jehovah, for it is not searched·​·out; for they are multiplied more than the locusts, and there is no number for them.

24 The daughter of Egypt shall be shamed; she shall be given into the hand of the people of the north.

25 Jehovah of Armies, the God of Israel, says, Behold, I will visit Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, and her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh and those who trust in him;

26 and I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their souls, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the ancient days, says Jehovah.

27 But fear not thou, O My servant Jacob, and be· not ·dismayed, O Israel; for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be·​·quiet and be·​·at·​·ease, and none shall frighten him.

28 Fear thou not, Jacob My servant, says Jehovah; for I am with thee; for I will make a complete end of all the nations whither I have expelled thee; but I will not make a complete end of thee, but chastise thee for the judgment; but rendering·​·innocent I will not render· thee ·innocent

   


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

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Time

  

Time is an aspect of the physical world, but it is not an aspect of the spiritual world. The same is true of space: There is no space in heaven. This is hard for us to grasp or even visualize, because we live in physical bodies with physical senses that are filled with physical elements existing in time and space. Our minds are schooled and patterned in terms of time and space, and have no reference point to imagine a reality without them. Consider how you think for a second. In your mind you can immediately be in your past or in some speculative future; in your mind you can circle the globe seeing other lands and faraway friends, or even zoom instantly to the most distant stars. Such imaginings are insubstantial, of course, but if we could make them real we would be getting close to what spiritual reality is like. Indeed, the mind is like a spiritual organ, which may be why physicians and philosophers have had such a hard time juxtaposing its functions to those of the brain. What this means in the Bible is that descriptions of time -- hours, days, weeks, months, years and even simply the word "time" itself -- represent spiritual states, and the passing of time represents the change of spiritual states. Again, we can see this a little bit within our minds. If we imagine talking to one friend then talking to another, it feels like going from one place to another, even though we're not moving. The same is true if we picture a moment from childhood and then imagine something in the future; it feels like a movement through time even though it's instantaneous. Changing our state of mind feels like a physical change in space and time. The Bible simply reverses that, with marking points in space and time representing particular states of mind.