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Ezekiel 16

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1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

7 I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.

9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.

11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.

12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.

13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

18 And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.

19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.

20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,

21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.

23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;)

24 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.

25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.

26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.

28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.

29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.

30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;

31 In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;

32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!

33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.

34 And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.

35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:

36 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

38 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

40 They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.

41 And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.

42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.

44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.

45 Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.

48 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.

52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.

53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:

54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.

55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

56 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,

57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about.

58 Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the LORD.

59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.

61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.

62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:

63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.

   

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In general, birth order in the Bible reflects the progression of spiritual states, but the specifics of those states depends greatly on context: who the people in question are, and whether we’re talking about spiritual states as they flow to us from the Lord, or spiritual states as we advance through them to approach the Lord. For example, Esau was older than Jacob (by minutes, but it mattered), and as the elder represents a more internal spiritual state: the desire for good, and the ideas that flow from that desire. Jacob represents a more external state: the understanding of ideas that lead to good. The switched blessing, with Jacob getting the blessing Isaac meant for Esau, shows that to progress in life we need to put our understanding first for a while, though ultimately our loves will catch up and ultimately determine our true character. A similar thing happens when Jacob crosses his hands to give Ephraim, the younger of Joseph’s sons, the primary blessing over his older brother Manasseh. Both those cases describe blessings coming from the Lord, with the highest states coming from Him and extending down through lower states to get to us. There is a sort of opposite dynamic in the story of Leah and Rachel. There Jacob (representing the Lord himself, as a human, in His childhood) is advancing from more external states to more internal ones. In this case, then, the older daughter, Leah, represents a more external state which He had to work through to reach the more internal state represented by Rachael.

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Arcana Coelestia # 4748

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4748. 'And their camels carrying spices, and resin' and stacte' means interior natural truths. This is clear from the general meaning of 'camels' as things belonging to the natural man which serve the spiritual, and from their specific meaning as general facts within the natural man, dealt with in 3048, 3071, 3114, 3143, 3145, 4156; and from the meaning of 'spices, resin, and stacte' as interior natural truths joined to the good there, which are dealt with below. Among the ancients, sweet smelling and fragrant substances were used in their sacred worship; from these substances they obtained their frankincense and incense, similar substances being mixed with oil for their anointings. But no one today knows why those fragrances were used, for the reason that no knowledge at all exists of the fact that all aspects of the worship of the ancients had their origin in the spiritual and celestial things existing in heaven, or that those aspects of it corresponded to these. Mankind has been removing itself so far from spiritual and celestial things, immersing itself in natural, worldly, and bodily ones, that it lives in obscurity, many people having a negative attitude of mind to the existence of anything spiritual or celestial.

[2] The reason frankincense and incense were used among the ancients in sacred acts of worship is that 'odour' corresponds to perception, and 'a fragrant odour' - like that of the aromas which various kinds of spices have - to a pleasing and acceptable perception, as is the perception of truth derived from good, or of faith from charity. Indeed the correspondence of one to the other is such that, as often as it pleases the Lord, actual perceptions in the next life are converted into odours. Regarding these, see what has already been told from experience in 925, 1514, 1517-1519, 3577, 4624-4634. What specifically is meant here by 'spices, resin, and stacte' may be seen from other places where these three are mentioned. In general they mean interior truths within the natural, but those truths which are derived from the good there; for truths do not on their own constitute the natural, but good does by means of truths. Consequently variations exist, conditioned by what the truth joined to the good is like and therefore by what the good is like, since the particular nature of the good depends on what the truths are like.

[3] 'Gilead' means exterior good like that belonging to the senses, called pleasure, 4117, 4124, while 'Egypt' in the good sense means facts, which are the external truths of the natural man that correspond to, that is, are in accord with, that good, 1462. Therefore the reference to Ishmaelites from Gilead bringing down those aromatic commodities on camels to Egypt means bringing their own interior truths, based on their own facts, to the facts meant by 'Egypt', which matters are dealt with below. Interior truths are conclusions based on exterior truths, that is, on facts; for the facts belonging to the natural man are the means that enable conclusions to be drawn about interior truths and thereby to identify them, just as a person identifies another's state of mind in his facial expressions and in the twinkling of light in his eyes, as well as in his tone of voice and his gestures.

[4] Because such truths are the means by which a person's natural is made more perfect and also receives correction, healing is therefore associated with spices of this kind - with resin, for example, in Jeremiah,

Is there no balsamic resin in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why has not the healing of the daughter of my people arisen? Jeremiah 8:22.

In the same prophet,

Go up to Gilead to take resin, O virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain you have multiplied medicaments; there is no healing for you. Jeremiah 46:11.

In the same prophet,

Suddenly Babel has fallen and been broken; wail over her! Take resin for her pain; perhaps she will be healed. Jeremiah 51:8.

[5] Wares similar to this mean spiritual things, as is quite evident in John,

The merchants of the earth will weep and will mourn over Babel, that nobody buys their wares any longer, wares of gold and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel made of most precious wood, and bronze, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and incense, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and draught-cattle, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and the bodies and souls of people. Revelation 18:11-13.

These wares would never have been listed in this specific manner if each and all had not meant the kinds of things that exist in the Lord's kingdom and in His Church. Otherwise they would have been words that had no real meaning. It is well known that 'Babel' means those who turn all worship of the Lord into worship of themselves, so that profanity exists inwardly while outwardly they are doing what is holy. This being so, 'their wares' means the things which, for the sake of worship of themselves, they themselves have invented enthusiastically and skillfully, as well as doctrinal teachings and ideas of good and truth from the Word which they have twisted to suit themselves. Thus the individual wares mentioned in these verses mean specific features of their invention, 'cinnamon, incense, ointment, and frankincense' meaning truths that are derived from good, but with those people perverted truths and falsities that are the products of evil.

[6] Something similar may be seen in what is recorded in Ezekiel regarding the wares of Tyre,

Judah and the land of Israel, they were your traders. Wheat of minnith and pannag, and honey, and oil, and resin, they exchanged for your trading. Ezekiel 27:17.

Here also 'resin' means truth derived from good. To one who has no belief in the internal sense of the Word all these expressions will be mere words and so vessels with nothing in them, when in fact they hold Divine, celestial, and spiritual things within them.

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