Bible

 

Jonah 4

Studie

   

1 And it was·​·evil to Jonah, a great evil, and he was·​·incensed by it.

2 And he prayed to Jehovah, and said, I pray Thee, O Jehovah, was not this my word, when I was yet upon my own ground? Therefore I went·​·before to run·​·away to Tarshish, for I knew that Thou art a God gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and of much mercy, and repenting concerning the evil.

3 And now, O Jehovah, take, I pray Thee, my soul from me; for my death is better than my life.

4 And Jehovah said, Doest· thou ·well to be·​·incensed?

5 And Jonah went·​·out from the city, and sat from the east to the city, and there made for himself a shelter, and sat under it in the shadow, until he might see what would become of the city.

6 And Jehovah God provided a kikajon*, and it went·​·up over Jonah, and it was a shade over his head, to rescue him from his evil. And Jonah was·​·glad on·​·account·​·of the kikajon, with great gladness.

7 But God provided a worm when the dawn came·​·up on the morrow, and it smote the kikajon, and it dried·​·up.

8 And it was, as the sun rose, that God provided a drying east wind; and the sun smote upon the head of Jonah, and he was·​·fatigued, and asked·​·for his soul to die, and said, My death would be better than my living.

9 And God said to Jonah, Doest· thou ·well to be·​·incensed for the kikajon? And he said, I do·​·well to be·​·incensed, even·​·to death.

10 And Jehovah said, Thou wouldst spare the kikajon, on which thou hast not labored, and didst not cause to grow·​·up; which is the son of a night, and the son of a night perishes;

11 and should not I spare Nineveh, the great city, in which are multiplied more than twelve myriads* of man* who knows not between his right·​·hand and his left; and also many beasts?

   


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

Komentář

 

Wind (as in west wind)

  
Storm in the Sea, by Théodore Gudin

In the Bible, the wind represents the power of the Lord working on us through the heavens. The Lord is love itself, and by extending His love He created the energy that created the universe, the energy that still sustains and empowers us. That love, and the wisdom that is its form, can act on us more or less directly depending on our spiritual states. A powerful wind indicates a more direct force.

It's interesting to note that the sun corresponds to the Lord, that its heat corresponds to the Lord's love and its light to the Lord's wisdom. In the natural world, the sun's heat causes wind by warming the air. In the spiritual world, the Lord's love causes spiritual wind by acting through heaven.

The Bible also talks about four winds, an east wind and a "wind of the sea." The four winds stand for the whole of the impact of the Lord's love. The east wind is withering, devastating – it represents the Lord's love as experienced by those in hell. The west wind represents stopping or turning aside the flow of the Lord's love – in Israel the "wind of the sea" would come from the west, opposing the east wind.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 418, 419; Apocalypse Revealed 343 [2-4]; Arcana Coelestia 7679, 7702)

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 8455

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

8455. 'There was a deposit of dew around the camp' means the truth of peace attaching itself. This is clear from the meaning of 'dew' as the truth of peace, dealt with in 3579. The reason why 'dew' means the truth of peace is that it comes down in the morning from heaven or the sky and on grassland looks like a light shower of rain. But also it holds a certain sweetness or pleasantness, more so than a shower of rain does, and causes grass and crops in the field to rejoice. And 'morning' is a state of peace, 2780. For what peace is, see 2780, 3696, 4681, 5662, where it is said to be like the dawn on earth, which fills people's minds with overall delight. And the truth of peace is like the light of dawn. This truth which is being called the truth of peace is the Divine Truth itself present in heaven and coming from the Lord; it influences all there without exception, and causes heaven to be heaven. Peace holds within itself trust in the Lord, the trust that He governs all things and provides all things, and that He leads towards an end that is good. When a person believes these things about Him he is at peace, since he fears nothing and no anxiety about things to come disturbs him. How far a person attains this state depends on how far he attains love to the Lord.

[2] Everything bad, especially trust in self, takes away the state of peace. People think that someone bad is at peace when he is calm and cheerful because everything is going right for him. But this is not peace, it is the calm and delight belonging to evil desires that merely simulates the state of peace. This delight, being the opposite of the delight belonging to peace, turns to undelight in the next life, for that is what lies hidden within it. In the next life outward things are rolled away one layer after another through to inmost things at the centre. Peace is at the centre of all delight, even of the undelight of a person governed by good. So far therefore as he casts off what is external the state of peace is revealed and he is filled with bliss, blessedness, and happiness, the source of which is the Lord Himself.

[3] Regarding the state of peace that exists in heaven one may say it is such that no words can describe it; nor can any idea of a worldly origin enable it to enter a person's thought and perception, as long as he is in the world. It transcends all his awareness then. Calmness of mind, contentment, and cheerfulness because things are going right are nothing in comparison, for these affect only the outward parts of the mind. But peace affects the inmost parts of all; it affects the primary substances, and the beginnings of substances as they exist with a person, and from these it spreads and pours itself out into parts formed from those substances and beginnings of them. It brings a lovely feeling into them; it brings bliss and happiness to the parts where his ideas form, consequently to his ends in life, and so makes his mind into a heaven.

  
/ 10837  
  

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