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Lamentations 2

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1 א How has the Lord thickly·​·clouded the daughter of Zion in His anger, and cast from the heavens to the earth the splendor of Israel, and remembered not the stool of His feet in the day of His anger!

2 ב The Lord has swallowed·​·up all the homes of Jacob, and has not pitied; He has broken·​·down in His wrath the fortresses of the daughter of Judah; He has thrown* them to the earth; He has profaned the kingdom and the princes of it.

3 ג He has hewn·​·off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel; He has turned·​·back His right·​·hand from before the enemy, and He burned against Jacob as a flaming fire, which devours all around.

4 ד He has bent His bow as an enemy; He stood·​·up with His right·​·hand as an adversary, and killed all who were desirable to the eye; in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion He spilled·​·out His fury as fire.

5 ה The Lord was as an enemy; He has swallowed·​·up Israel, He has swallowed·​·up all her palaces; He has destroyed His fortresses, and has multiplied in the daughter of Judah sighing and sighs.

6 ו And He has done·​·violence to His shelter as if it were a garden; He has destroyed His solemn·​·occasion. Jehovah has caused the solemn·​·occasion and the Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, and has disdained in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest.

7 ז The Lord has cast·​·off His altar, He has spurned His sanctuary; He has shut up in the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have given forth a voice in the house of Jehovah, as in the day of a solemn·​·occasion.

8 ח Jehovah has reckoned to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He has stretched·​·out a line, He has not turned·​·back His hand from swallowing·​·up: and He made the rampart and the wall to mourn; they languished together.

9 ט Her gates are sunk into the earth; He has made her bars perish and broken them; her king and her princes are among the nations. There is no law; even her prophets find not a vision from Jehovah.

10 י The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the earth, and are still; they have made the dust come·​·up upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem let·​·down their heads to the earth.

11 כ My eyes are all·​·consumed by tears, my bowels churn, my liver is spilled·​·out to the earth, for the breaking of the daughter of my people; because the babe and the nursing infant are·​·overwhelmed in the avenues of the city.

12 ל They say to their mothers, when they are·​·overwhelmed as the slain in the avenues of the city, when their soul was spilled·​·out into the bosom of their mothers: Where is grain and wine?

13 מ What shall I testify for thee? To what shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I make·​·equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breaking is as great as the sea; who can heal thee?

14 נ Thy prophets have beheld for thee what is vain and unfit; and they have not revealed thine iniquity, to turn·​·back thy captivity; but they have beheld for thee vain burdens and expulsions.

15 ס All that pass·​·by the way slap the palms of their hands on thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men say is the all of beauty, the joy of all the earth?

16 פ All thine enemies have gaped with their mouth against thee; they hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed· her ·up; surely this is the day that we waited·​·for; we have·​·found it, we have seen it.

17 ע Jehovah has done that which He had purposed; He has gained His saying that He had commanded from ancient days; He has broken·​·down, and has not pitied; and He has caused the enemy to be·​·glad over thee, He has exalted the horn of thine adversaries.

18 צ Their heart cried to the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears go·​·down as a brook day and night; give not failing for thyself; let not the daughter of thine eye be·​·still.

19 ק Arise, shout·​·aloud in the night; in the beginning of the night watches spill·​·out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift the palms of thy hands to Him over the souls of thy babes, who are·​·overwhelmed by hunger at the head of all the streets.

20 ר See, O Jehovah, and look to whom Thou hast acted thus. Shall the women eat their fruit, babes who were cherished; shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 ש A lad and an elder lie on the earth in the streets; my virgins and my young·​·men are fallen by the sword; Thou hast killed them in the day of Thine anger; Thou hast butchered, and not pitied.

22 ת Thou hast called as a solemn day my fears all around, and there will not be in the day of the anger of Jehovah one who escaped or a survivor; those that I have cherished and nurtured* has my enemy completely·​·consumed.

   


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

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Apocalypse Revealed # 167

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167. "'And they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.'" This symbolically means that they will live with the Lord in His spiritual kingdom, because they are governed by truths from Him.

This is the meaning of these words because to walk in the Word symbolically means to live, and to walk with God symbolically means to live from Him, and because to be in white means, symbolically, to be guided by truths. For the color white in the Word is predicated of truths, because it takes its origin from the light of the sun, while red is predicated of goods, because it takes its origin from the sun's fire, and blackness is predicated of falsities, because it takes its origin from the darkness of hell.

People who are governed by truths from the Lord, being conjoined with Him, are called worthy, for all worth in the spiritual world comes from conjunction with the Lord.

It is apparent from this that "they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy," means, symbolically, that they will live with the Lord, because they are governed by truths from Him.

We say that they will live with the Lord in His spiritual kingdom because the whole of heaven has been distinguished into two kingdoms - the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom - and in the celestial kingdom live people who are governed by the goodness of love from the Lord, while in the spiritual kingdom live those who are governed by the truths of wisdom from the Lord. The latter are also said to walk with the Lord in white. Moreover, they are dressed in white garments.

[2] That to walk means, symbolically, to live, and to walk with God means to live with Him because it is to live from Him, is clear from the following passages:

He walked with Me in peace and rectitude... (Malachi 2:6)

You have delivered my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living. (Psalms 56:13)

...David... kept My commandments and... walked after Me with all his heart... (1 Kings 14:8)

Remember..., O Jehovah..., how I have walked before You in truth... (Isaiah 38:3)

If you... walk contrary to Me..., and... do not obey (My voice)..., I also will walk contrary to you... (Leviticus 26:23-24, 27-28)

They would not walk in the ways (of Jehovah). (Isaiah 42:24; cf. Deuteronomy 11:22; 19:9; 26:17)

...all people walk... in the name of (their) god, but we will walk in the name of Jehovah... (Micah 4:5)

A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light... ...believe in the light... (John 12:35-36; cf. 8:12)

...the scribes asked..., "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders...?" (Mark 7:5)

Walking is also said of Jehovah, that He walks among people, which is to say that He lives in them and together with them:

I will make My dwelling among you, and... I will walk among you and be your God... (Leviticus 26:11-12)

It is apparent from this what is meant by the statement,

These things says He... who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. (Revelation 2:1)

  
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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.