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Lamentations 5

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1 Remember, O Jehovah, what is for us; look, and see our reproach.

2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

3 We are orphans and have no father; our mothers are as widows.

4 We have drunk our water for silver; our wood comes with a price.

5 On our necks we are persecuted; we toil, and there is no rest for us.

6 We have given the hand to Egypt, to Assyria, to be·​·satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne·​·the·​·burden of their iniquities.

8 servants have ruled over us; there is none that pulls· us ·out from their hand.

9 We brought our bread with the peril of our souls on·​·account·​·of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin was·​·charred* as an oven from the faces of the gales of the famine.

11 They afflicted the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 By their hand princes are hanged; the faces of elders were not honored.

13 They took·​·up the young·​·men to·​·grind, and the lads stumbled over the wood.

14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young·​·men from their strumming.

15 The joy of our heart has ceased; our dancing has turned to mourning.

16 The crown of our head is fallen; woe unto us now, that we have sinned!

17 Over this our heart is infirm; Over these our eyes are·​·darkened.

18 On·​·account·​·of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

19 Thou, O Jehovah, dwellest for eternity; Thy throne from generation to generation.

20 Why dost Thou forget us perpetually, and forsake us for length of days?

21 Return Thou us unto Thee, O Jehovah, and we shall be turned·​·back; renew our ancient days.

22 For rejecting shalt Thou reject us and be· ever very ·enraged against us?

   


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

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Face

  
Photo by Caleb Kerr

“The eyes are the windows of the soul.” That's a sentiment with roots somewhere in murky antiquity, but one that has become hopelessly cliché because it is both poetic and obviously true. We feel that if we can look in someone's eyes, we can truly know what they are inside. And it's not just the eyes; really it is the face as a whole that conveys this. As Swedenborg puts it, the face is “man's spiritual world presented in his natural world” (Heaven and Hell, No. 91). Our faces reveal our interior thoughts and feelings in myriad ways, which is why psychologists, poker players and criminal investigators spend so much time studying them. It makes sense, then, that people's faces in the Bible represent their interiors, the thoughts, loves and desires they hold most deeply. We turn our faces to the ground to show humility when we bow in worship; we turn them to the mountains when seeking inspiration; we turn them toward our enemies when we are ready to battle temptation. When things are hard, we need to “face facts,” or accept them internally. When the topic is the Lord's face, it represents the Lord's interiors, which are perfect love and perfect mercy. And when people turn away from the Lord and refuse his love, it is described as the Lord “hiding his face.”

(Odkazy: Heaven and Hell 91)