Jeremiah 19
1
Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
2
And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
3
And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
4
Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5
They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
6
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
7
And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
8
And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
9
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
10
Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
11
And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
12
Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
13
And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
14
Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,
15
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
Arcana Coelestia # 7918
7918. 'And you shall take a bunch of hyssop' means the outward means by which purification is effected. This is clear from the meaning of 'hyssop' as outward truth, the means by which purification is effected, dealt with below. It says that they were to take a bunch of hyssop because 'a bunch' is used to refer to truths and the arrangement of them, 5530, 5881, 7408. The reason why 'hyssop' means outward truth, the means of purification, is that all spiritual purification is effected by means of truths. For the earthly and worldly types of love from which a person has to be purified are not recognized except by means of truths. When these truths are instilled by the Lord a horror of those types of love, as of things unclean and damnable, is also at the same time instilled. The effect this horror has is that when something similar enters the person's thinking the feeling of horror returns, producing a loathing of those types of love. That is how a person is purified by truths, which serve as outward means. This was the reason why it was laid down that knives or 'small swords' made of flint should be used when circumcision took place, 'small swords' or knives made of flint being the truths of faith by means of which purification is effected, see 2799, 7044, and 'circumcision purification from filthy types of love, 2039, 2632, 3412, 3413, 4461, 7045.
[2] Since 'hyssop' had that meaning it was used in cleansings, which in the internal sense meant purifications from falsities and evils, as in the cleansing of leprosy in Moses,
The priest shall take for cleansing a leper two living clean birds, and cedarwood, and scarlet, and hyssop; and he shall dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird, and sprinkle over the one to be cleansed. Leviticus 14:4-7.
Hyssop was likewise used in the cleansing of the house, if leprosy was in it, Leviticus 14:49-51. The preparation of the water of separation by which cleansings were accomplished also involved the use of cedarwood and hyssop, Numbers 19:6, 18. 'Cedarwood' meant inward spiritual truth, whereas 'hyssop' meant outward [spiritual] truth. Thus 'cedarwood' is the means effecting purification more internally, 'hyssop' the means effecting it more externally. That 'hyssop' is a means of purification is plainly evident in David,
You will purge me with hyssop and I shall become clean; You will wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow. Psalms 51:7.
'Purging with hyssop and becoming clean' stands for external purification, 'washing and being made whiter than snow' for internal purification, 'snow' and 'whiteness' having reference to truth, 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319. 'Hyssop' means a very low kind of truth and 'cedar' a superior kind of truth, as is evident from the following words in the first Book of Kings, Solomon spoke about trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon even to the hyssop which comes out of the wall. 1 Kings 4:33.
Here 'the cedar' stands for the internal kind of truth and 'hyssop' for the external kind of truth that belong to intelligence.
