Bible

 

Lamentations 2

Studie

   

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.

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 6419

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

6419. 'Daughters, [each one] marches onto the wall' means going out to fight against falsity. This is clear from the meaning of 'a daughter' as the Church, dealt with in 2362, 3963, here the spiritual Church since that Church is the subject; and from the meaning of 'marching onto the wall' as going out to fight against falsity, as is evident from the words that immediately follow - 'they exasperate him and shoot at him and hate him, do the archers; and he will sit in the strength of his bow', meaning the fight put up by falsity against truth.

[2] The expression 'marches onto the wall' is used because the subject in the internal sense is the attack made by falsities on truth and the protection of truth against falsity; for the spiritual Church represented by 'Joseph' is constantly under attack, but the Lord is constantly protecting it. This explains why in the Word all that makes up that Church is compared to a city with a wall, rampart, gates, and bars; and attacks made on the city describe attacks made on truth by falsities. Hence it also is that 'a city' means matters of doctrine, 402, 2268, 2449, 2712, 2943, 3216, 4492, 4493, and 'a wall' the truths of faith that serve to defend, or in the contrary sense falsities that serve to destroy. The first meaning - the truths of faith that serve to defend - may be seen in Isaiah,

Ours is a strong city; He will establish salvation for walls and rampart. Open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. Isaiah 26:1-2.

In the same prophet,

You will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. Isaiah 60:18.

In the same prophet,

Behold, I have engraved you upon [My] hands, your walls are continually before Me. Isaiah 49:16

'Walls' stands for the truths of faith. In the same prophet,

Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have placed watchmen, all day and night they will not be silent, calling Jehovah to mind. Isaiah 62:6.

Here the meaning is similar. In Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah, the God of Israel, 1 I will convert the weapons of war with which you are fighting with the king of Babel, besieging you outside the wall; I Myself will fight with you with an outstretched hand. Jeremiah 21:4-5.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah thought to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion, He caused rampart and wall to mourn; they will languish together. Her gates have sunk into the earth, He has destroyed and broken in pieces her bars. Lamentations 2:8-9.

In Ezekiel,

The sons of Arvad, and your army, were on your walls round about, and the Gammadim were in your towers; they hung their shields on your walls round about and they made perfect your beauty. Ezekiel 27:11.

This refers to Tyre, which means cognitions of good and truth.

[3] The fact that such things are meant by a city and its walls becomes perfectly clear from the description of the holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, as seen by John. From every detail of the description it is evident that a new Church is meant by that city; and by its wall is meant Divine Truth going forth from the Lord. The city is depicted in John as follows,

The holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven, having a wall great and high, having twelve gates - the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. He who talked to me measured the city and its gates, and its wall. Its wall was a hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. The structure of the wall was jasper, and the city pure gold, like pure glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone. Revelation 21:10, 12, 14, 15, 17-19.

[4] The fact that 'the wall' means Divine Truth going forth from the Lord, and from this means the truth of faith coming out of the good of charity, is evident from the details regarding the wall that are mentioned in that description, such as the detail that the wall had twelve foundations, and in them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb; for 'twelve means all, 3272, 3858, 3913, and 'the wall and its foundations' the truths of faith - much the same as is meant by 'the twelve apostles', 3488, 3858 (end), 6397. Then there is the detail that the wall was a hundred and forty-four cubits high, much the same being meant by that number as by twelve, which is all, since it is the product of twelve multiplied by twelve. And since that number used in reference to the wall means all truths and goods of faith, the expression 'which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel' is added. Other details that are given are that the structure of the wall was jasper, and that its foundations were adorned with every precious stone; for 'jasper' and 'precious stones' mean the truths of faith, 114.

[5] The meaning of 'wall' in the contrary sense - falsities that serve to destroy - is evident from the following places: In Isaiah,

A day of tumult in the valley of vision. The Lord Jehovih Zebaoth has destroyed the wall, so that there is a shout towards the mountain. For Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men (homo), [and] horsemen. The horsemen surely positioned themselves right at the gate. Isaiah 22:5-7.

In the same prophet,

The defence-work of your walls providing refuge 2 He will pull down, cast down, lay flat on the ground, 3 right down into the dust. Isaiah 25:12.

In Jeremiah,

Go up onto its walls and throw down. Jeremiah 5:10.

In the same prophet,

I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, which will consume the palaces of Benhadad. Jeremiah 49:27.

In the same prophet,

Raise a standard against the walls of Babel, keep watch, post watchmen. Jeremiah 51:12.

In Ezekiel,

They will overturn the walls of Tyre, and destroy her towers, and I will scrape her dust from her and make her a bare rock. Ezekiel 16:4, 8-9, 11.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The Latin means Jehovah Zebaoth but the Hebrew means Jehovah, the God of Israel.

2. literally, The fortification of refuge of your walls

3. literally, earth or land

  
/ 10837  
  

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