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Zephanias 3

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1 Væ provocatrix, et redempta civitas, columba !

2 non audivit vocem, et non suscepit disciplinam ; in Domino non est confisa, ad Deum suum non appropinquavit.

3 Principes ejus in medio ejus quasi leones rugientes ; judices ejus lupi vespere, non relinquebant in mane.

4 Prophetæ ejus vesani, viri infideles ; sacerdotes ejus polluerunt sanctum, injuste egerunt contra legem.

5 Dominus justus in medio ejus non faciet iniquitatem ; mane, mane judicium suum dabit in lucem, et non abscondetur ; nescivit autem iniquus confusionem.

6 Disperdidi gentes, et dissipati sunt anguli earum ; desertas feci vias eorum, dum non est qui transeat ; desolatæ sunt civitates eorum, non remanente viro, neque ullo habitatore.

7 Dixi : Attamen timebis me, suscipies disciplinam ; et non peribit habitaculum ejus, propter omnia in quibus visitavi eam : verumtamen diluculo surgentes corruperunt omnes cogitationes suas.

8 Quapropter exspecta me, dicit Dominus, in die resurrectionis meæ in futurum : quia judicium meum ut congregem gentes, et colligam regna, et effundam super eos indignationem meam, omnem iram furoris mei : in igne enim zeli mei devorabitur omnis terra.

9 Quia tunc reddam populis labium electum, ut invocent omnes in nomine Domini, et serviant ei humero uno.

10 Ultra flumina Æthiopiæ, inde supplices mei ; filii dispersorum meorum deferent munus mihi.

11 In die illa non confunderis super cunctis adinventionibus tuis, quibus prævaricata es in me, quia tunc auferam de medio tui magniloquos superbiæ tuæ, et non adjicies exaltari amplius in monte sancto meo.

12 Et derelinquam in medio tui populum pauperem et egenum : et sperabunt in nomine Domini.

13 Reliquiæ Israël non facient iniquitatem, nec loquentur mendacium, et non invenietur in ore eorum lingua dolosa, quoniam ipsi pascentur, et accubabunt, et non erit qui exterreat.

14 Lauda, filia Sion ; jubila, Israël : lætare, et exsulta in omni corde, filia Jerusalem.

15 Abstulit Dominus judicium tuum ; avertit inimicos tuos. Rex Israël Dominus in medio tui : non timebis malum ultra.

16 In die illa dicetur Jerusalem : Noli timere ; Sion : Non dissolvantur manus tuæ.

17 Dominus Deus tuus in medio tui fortis, ipse salvabit : gaudebit super te in lætitia, silebit in dilectione sua, exsultabit super te in laude.

18 Nugas, qui a lege recesserant, congregabo, quia ex te erant : ut non ultra habeas super eis opprobrium.

19 Ecce ego interficiam omnes qui afflixerunt te in tempore illo : et salvabo claudicantem, et eam quæ ejecta fuerat congregabo : et ponam eos in laudem, et in nomen, in omni terra confusionis eorum,

20 in tempore illo quo adducam vos, et in tempore quo congregabo vos. Dabo enim vos in nomen, et in laudem omnibus populis terræ, cum convertero captivitatem vestram coram oculis vestris, dicit Dominus.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 494

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494. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire will proceed from their mouth and devour their enemies. (11:5) This symbolically means that anyone who wishes to destroy these two essential elements perishes from a hellish love.

To want to harm the two witnesses means, symbolically, to wish to destroy the two essential elements of the New Church, namely, an acknowledgment of the Lord as being God of heaven and earth even as to His humanity, and a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments. To be shown that these are the two witnesses, see no. 490 above.

Fire's proceeding from their mouth means, symbolically, that hellish love will do so; and its devouring their enemies means, symbolically, that those who harm them will perish because of it. Here, however, it is not to be supposed that fire will issue from the mouth of the witnesses, but that it will do so from people who wish to destroy these two essential elements of the New Church, meant by the two witnesses (no. 490). The fire is the fire of hell; for people who do not live according to the Ten Commandments, and who do not turn to God, their Savior and Redeemer, cannot help but be caught up in a hellish love and perish.

[2] The case is the same as elsewhere in the Word where we are told that Jehovah sends fire that consumes the wicked, or that Jehovah does other things like that out of the fire of His wrath, anger, or fury, which mean not that they come from Jehovah, but that they do so from the hellish love of the wicked.

We read of instances like that in the Word because that is how they appear, and the Word in its literal sense was composed in terms of appearances and things that correspond.

Since we are told that fire proceeded from their mouth, and this means that it originated from people caught up in a hellish love, we will cite some passages where fire is said to issue from Jehovah:

The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, will consume it. (Isaiah 30:33)

Smoke went up from His nostrils, and fire from His mouth...; coals were kindled by it. (Psalms 18:8)

(I will) pour out on them... the wrath of My anger; for all the earth shall be devoured in the fire of My zeal. (Zephaniah 3:8)

...behold, Jehovah will come with fire... for retribution in the wrath of His anger, and His rebuke in flames of fire. (Isaiah 66:15)

You will be visited by Jehovah... with the flame of devouring fire. (Isaiah 29:6, cf. 30:30)

And so on in many places elsewhere.

  
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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.