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Joel 3

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1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompence me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;

5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:

6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head:

8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.

12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but The LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

17 So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 336

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336. And every mountain and island was moved out of its place. This symbolically means that all goodness of love and truth of faith vanished.

No one can see that this is the symbolic meaning except by recourse to the spiritual sense. It is the symbolic meaning because mountains mean people who possess the goodness of love, inasmuch as angels dwell upon mountains - those motivated by love toward the Lord on loftier mountains, and those motivated by love for the neighbor on less lofty ones. Consequently "every mountain" symbolizes all goodness of love. Islands mean people relatively removed from the worship of God, as may be seen in no. 34 above - here people who are impelled by faith, and not so much by the goodness of love. Therefore in an abstract sense "every island" means, symbolically, all truth of faith. To be moved out of their places means, symbolically, to go away.

It derives from the abodes of angels on mountains and hills, therefore, that mountains and hills in the Word symbolize heaven and the church where love toward the Lord and love for the neighbor are found, and in an opposite sense, hell where self-love and love of the world are found.

[2] It is apparent from the following passages that mountains and hills symbolize heaven and the church where love toward the Lord and love for the neighbor are found, thus where the Lord is present:

Lift up your eyes to the mountains, whence comes your help. (Psalms 121:1)

Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who proclaims... peace! (Nahum 1:15, cf. Isaiah 52:7)

Praise Jehovah..., you mountains and... hills...! (Psalms 148:7, 9)

A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; a mountain of hills is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you leap, you mountains, you hills of the mountain? Jehovah has desired to inhabit them; (Jehovah) also will inhabit them forever. (Psalms 68:15-16)

The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like the young of the flock... You travail, O earth, at the presence of the Lord... (Psalms 114:4-7)

I will bring forth a seed from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains, that My elect may inherit them, and My servants dwell there. (Isaiah 65:9)

(In the consummation of the age:) then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Matthew 24:16)

(O Jehovah,) Your righteousness is as the mountains of God. (Psalms 36:6)

Jehovah will go forth and fight... In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, opposite Jerusalem on the east. (Zechariah 14:3-4)

[3] Since the Mount of Olives symbolized Divine love, therefore during the days the Lord preached in the Temple, but during the nights He went out and spent the night on the Mount of Olives (Luke 21:37; 22:39, John 8:1). And therefore the Lord spoke upon that mountain with His disciples regarding His coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:3, Mark 13:3-4).

Since a mountain symbolized heaven and love, therefore Jehovah came down upon the top of Mount Sinai and proclaimed the Law (Exodus 19:20; 24:17). And therefore the Lord was transfigured before Peter, James and John on a high mountain (Matthew 17:1). Therefore Zion also was located on a mountain, and so, too, Jerusalem, and the two were called the mountain of Jehovah and the mountain of holiness in many places in the Word.

Mountains and hills have similar symbolic meanings elsewhere, as in Isaiah 7:25; 30:25; 40:9; 44:23; 49:11, 13; 55:12; Jeremiah 16:15-16; Psalms 65:6; 80:10; 104:5-10, 13.

[4] That mountains and hills symbolize these loves can be seen still more clearly from their opposite meaning, in which they symbolize hellish loves, namely, self-love and a love of the world, as is apparent from the following passages:

...the day of Jehovah... shall come... upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up... (Isaiah 2:12, 14)

Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. (Isaiah 40:4)

The mountains shall be overthrown, and its ascents shall fall... (Ezekiel 38:20-21)

Behold, I am against you, O... mountain, that destroys all the earth... ...I will make you a burnt mountain. (Jeremiah 51:25)

I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they are shaken, and all the hills are overthrown. (Jeremiah 4:23-25)

...a fire is kindled in my anger..., and it will set on fire the foundations of the mountains. (Deuteronomy 32:22)

I will lay waste the mountains and hills... (Isaiah 42:15)

Behold, (O Jacob,) I will make you like a threshing sledge... that you may thresh the mountains and crush them, and make the hills like chaff..., that the wind may carry them away. (Isaiah 41:15-16)

Give glory to Jehovah... before your feet stumble on the dark mountains... (Jeremiah 13:16)

Nor is anything else meant by the seven mountains on which the woman - namely Babylon - sat (Revelation 17:9). And so also elsewhere, as in Isaiah 14:13; Jeremiah 50:6; 9:10; Ezekiel 6:2-3; 34:6.

It can now be seen from this what is meant by the statement that "every mountain and island was moved out of its place," and later by the statement that "every island fled away, and the mountains were not found" (Revelation 16:20, no. 714).

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.