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Joel 3

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1 4:1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall return the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 4:2 and I will bring·​·together all the nations, and will bring· them ·down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will judge there with them on·​·account·​·of My people and My heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted My land.

3 4:3 And they have cast lots for My people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

4 4:4 And also, what are you to Me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the boundaries of Philistia? Will you repay Me a recompense? And if you recompense on Me, swiftly and hastily will I return your recompense on your own head,

5 4:5 that you have taken My silver and My gold, and My best desired things you have brought into your temples;

6 4:6 and the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem you have sold to the sons of the Greeks, so·​·that they will be·​·far from their border.

7 4:7 Behold, I will stir· them ·up out·​·of the place into which you have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head.

8 4:8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far·​·off; for Jehovah has spoken it.

9 4:9 Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, stir·​·up the mighty·​·men, let all the men of war approach; let them come·​·up;

10 4:10 beat your mattocks into swords, and your pruninghooks into lances; let him who is overcome say, I am mighty.

11 4:11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye nations, and bring· yourselves ·together all around; thither cause Thy mighty ones to set·​·down, O Jehovah.

12 4:12 Let the nations be stirred·​·up, and come·​·up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations all around.

13 4:13 Send·​·out the sickle, for the harvest has ripened; come, go·​·down, for the wine·​·vat is·​·full; the winepresses spill·​·over, for much is their evil.

14 4:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.

15 4:15 The sun and the moon shall be blackened, and the stars shall gather·​·in their brightness.

16 4:16 Jehovah also shall roar from Zion, and give forth His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall quake; but Jehovah will be the protection for His people, and the stronghold of the sons of Israel.

17 4:17 And you shall know that I am Jehovah your God inhabiting Zion, the mountain of My holiness; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall not pass·​·through her any·​·more.

18 4:18 And it shall be in that day, that the mountains shall drop·​·down new·​·wine, and the hills shall flow* with milk, and all the channels of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall go·​·out from the house of Jehovah, and shall water the Brook of Shittim.

19 4:19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the sons of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 4:20 But Judah shall dwell to eternity, and Jerusalem to generation and generation.

21 4:21 And I will render·​·innocent their blood that I have not rendered·​·innocent; and Jehovah inhabits Zion.

   


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

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Apocalypse Revealed # 447

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447. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million. (9:16) This symbolizes their reasonings concerning faith alone, with which they had filled the interiors of their minds, springing from nothing but an abundance of falsities accompanying evil.

Armies symbolize goods and truths, and in an opposite sense, evils and falsities - here falsities accompanying evil, as we will see presently. Horsemen symbolize reasonings concerning faith alone, because a horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word (no. 298) and also a destroyed understanding of the Word (nos. 305, 312, 320). Horsemen consequently symbolize reasonings based on a destroyed understanding of the Word - here reasonings concerning faith alone, because the subject is people caught up in that faith. Two hundred million does not mean two hundred million, but an abundance. The number two is used because two is said in application to goodness, and in an opposite sense, to evil (no. 322); and a hundred million, or ten thousand times ten thousand, is said in application to truths, and in an opposite sense, to falsities (no. 287).

It can be seen from this that the number of the army of horsemen being two hundred million symbolizes reasonings concerning faith alone, with which these people had filled the interiors of their minds, springing from nothing but an abundance of falsities accompanying evil.

[2] That armies in the Word symbolize the goods and truths of heaven and the church, and in an opposite sense, evils and falsities, can be seen from passages where the sun, moon and stars are called armies or hosts, and where the sun symbolizes the goodness of love, the moon the truth of faith, and stars concepts of goodness and truth, and the antithesis in an opposite sense (nos. 51, 53, 332, 413). All of these are called armies or hosts in the following passages:

Praise (Jehovah), all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars...! (Psalms 148:2-3)

My hands stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded. (Isaiah 45:12)

By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. (Psalms 33:6)

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. (Genesis 2:1)

(The male goat's horn) grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground... He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host... And the host was sent under the yoke for its transgression, (because) it cast truth to the ground... Then... a holy one said..., "How long will... the sanctuary and the host be trampled under foot?" (Daniel 8:10-14)

Jehovah has given forth His voice before His army. (Joel 2:11)

...(on the roofs of the houses) they have burned incense to all the host of heaven... (Jeremiah 19:13)

(Lest you bow down to and serve) the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the host of heaven... (Deuteronomy 4:19; cf. 17:3, Jeremiah 8:2)

So, too, Isaiah 13:4; 34:4; 40:26, Jeremiah 33:22, Zechariah 9:8, Revelation 19:14.

[3] Since the hosts of heaven symbolize the goods and truths of heaven and the church, therefore the Lord is called Jehovah Zebaoth, or Jehovah of Hosts. And therefore the ministry of the Levites was called military service (Numbers 4:3, 23, 30, 39).

Moreover, we read in the book of Psalms,

Bless Jehovah, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His will. (Psalms 103:21)

Evils and falsities in the church are symbolically meant by the armies of the nations in Isaiah 34:2; and by the army of the king of the north with which he came against the king of the south, in Daniel 11:13, 15, 20. The king of the north is the falsity accompanying evil in the church, and the king of the south is the truth accompanying goodness in it.

The Lord says,

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its devastation is near. (Luke 21:20)

Jerusalem there symbolizes the church, and the armies symbolize the evils and falsities that will devastate it. The subject is the end of the age, which is the final period of the church.

Evils and falsities are symbolically meant by armies in Joel,

I will restore to you the years that the locust, the beetle grub, the locust's larva, and the caterpillar has eaten, My great army which I sent among you. (Joel 2:25)

To be shown that the locust and the rest symbolize falsity of the lowest sort, see no. 424 above.

  
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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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Deuteronomy 4:19

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19 and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.