Arcana Coelestia # 374
374. That 'the voice of blood' 1 means violence done to charity is clear from many places in the Word where 'voice' stands for everything that accuses, and 'blood' for all sin, especially hatred. For anyone who hates his brother murders him in his own heart, as the Lord teaches,
You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills will be liable to judgement. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgement. Whoever indeed says to his brother, Raca! will be liable to the Sanhedrin. And whoever says You fool! will be liable to the Gehenna of fire. Matthew 5:21-22.
These sayings denote degrees of hatred. Hatred is contrary to charity; and though a person does not actually commit murder, the intention to do so is still there, and by whatever possible method. It is external restraints alone which prevent murder actually being committed. And this is why all hatred is called blood, as in Jeremiah,
How well you direct Your way in the quest for love! Yes, in your skirts the blood of needy innocent souls is found. Jeremiah 2:33-34.
[2] And since hatred is meant by blood, so is every kind of wickedness, for hatred is the source of all wickedness, as in Hosea,
Perjuring, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they commit robbery, and blood' has followed on blood. 1 Therefore the land will mourn and every inhabitant will anguish. Hosea 4:2-3.
And in Ezekiel,
Will you judge the city of blood' and declare to her all her abominations? A City that sheds blood' in the midst of her. By your blood which you have shed you have become guilty. Ezekiel 22:2-4, 6, 9.
This is referring to the lack of compassion. In the same prophet,
The land is full of the judgement of blood, 1 and the city is full of violence. Ezekiel 7:23.
And in Jeremiah,
For the sins of the prophets of Jerusalem, the iniquities of her priests who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous, they wander blind in the streets; they are defiled with blood. Lamentations 4:13-14.
In Isaiah,
When the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and wiped away from its midst the blood 1 of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Isaiah 4:4.
In the same prophet,
Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Isaiah 59:3.
In Ezekiel,
I passed by you and saw you weltering in your blood, 1 and I said to you, Live in your blood 1 I indeed said to you, Live in your blood. 1 Ezekiel 16:6, 22.
This refers to the abominations of Jerusalem, which are called 'blood' 1 . Lack of compassion, and hatred, in the last times a real so described as blood in Revelation 16:3-4. The plural 'bloods' is used because all forms of iniquity and abomination well up out of hatred, just as all forms of good and holiness do out of love. Anyone therefore who hates his neighbour would murder him if he could, and he does do so in whatever way he can. That is to say, he does him violence, which is strictly the meaning here of 'voice of blood'. 1
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. literally, bloods
Lamentations 3
1
I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2
He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3
Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.
4
My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.
5
He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.
6
He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
7
He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.
8
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9
He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
10
He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
11
He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
12
He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13
He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14
I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
15
He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
16
He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
17
You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
18
I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.
19
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20
My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21
This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.
22
[It is of] Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail.
23
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24
Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25
Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
26
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
27
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28
Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29
Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
30
Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.
31
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32
For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33
For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35
To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36
To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve.
37
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it?
38
Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39
Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
41
Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42
We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.
43
You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.
44
You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45
You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
46
All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47
Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction.
48
My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49
My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission,
50
Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.
51
My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52
They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54
Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
55
I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
56
You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
57
You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.
58
Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
59
Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60
You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.
61
You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,
62
The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
63
You see their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
64
You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
65
You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66
You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
