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Hoseas 14

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1 Samaria skal bøte fordi det har vært gjenstridig mot sin Gud; for sverdet skal de falle, deres små barn skal knuses, og deres fruktsommelige kvinner opskjæres.

2 Vend om, Israel, til Herren din Gud! For du er falt ved din misgjerning.

3 Kom med [ydmyke] ord og vend om til Herren! Si til ham: Forlat all misgjerning og ta imot det gode vi kan yde - la oss betale med okser, med våre leber*! / {* d.e. med vÃ¥r takk og pris som offer; SLM 51, 19; 119, 108.}

4 Assur skal ikke hjelpe oss, på hester vil vi ikke ride, og vi vil ikke mere si til våre henders verk: Vår Gud! For det er hos dig den farløse finner miskunnhet.

5 Jeg vil læge deres frafall, jeg vil elske dem av hjertet; for min vrede har vendt sig fra dem.

6 Jeg vil være som dugg for Israel; han skal blomstre som en lilje, og han skal slå røtter som skogen på Libanon.

7 Hans skudd skal brede sig vidt utover, og hans løv skal skinne som oljetreet, og dufte skal han som Libanon.

8 De som sitter i hans skygge, skal atter avle korn og blomstre som vintreet; minnet om ham skal være som Libanons vin.

9 Efra'im! Hvad har jeg mere med avguder å gjøre? Jeg vil bønnhøre ham og se til ham; jeg er som en grønn cypress, det skal vise sig at din frukt kommer fra mig.

10 Hvem er vis, så han skjønner dette, forstandig, så han merker sig det? For Herrens veier er rette, og de rettferdige ferdes på dem, men overtrederne snubler der.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 459

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459. And idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood. This symbolically means that thus they engage in worship founded on nothing but falsities.

Idols in the Word symbolize falsities in worship, and therefore worshiping them symbolizes worship founded on falsities. Worshiping idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, then, symbolizes worship founded on falsities of every kind, and when taken in combination, worship founded on nothing but falsities. Moreover, the materials, figures, and garments of the idols among ancient peoples represented the falsities of religion on which they founded their worship. Idols of gold symbolized falsities regarding matters pertaining to God; idols of silver, falsities regarding matters pertaining to the spirit; idols of brass, falsities regarding charity; idols of stone, falsities regarding faith; and idols of wood, falsities regarding good works.

All of these falsities are held by people who do not repent, that is, who do not refrain from evils as being sins against God.

[2] Idols, which were carved and cast images, have this symbolic meaning in the spiritual sense in the following passages:

Everyone has been made stupid by knowledge; every metalsmith is has been put to shame by a carved image; for his cast image is a falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are futile, a work of errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish. (Jeremiah 10:14-15; 51:17-18)

(Carved images are) the work of the hands of the workman... They do not speak... They are both foolish and stupid; the wood is a worthless teacher... They are all the work of skillful men. (Jeremiah 10:3-5, 8-10)

What profit is the carved image, that its maker has carved it, ...and a teacher of lies, that the maker of the lie trusts in it...? ...in it there is no breath. (Habakkuk 2:18-19)

In that day a man will cast away to the moles and bats his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship... (Isaiah 2:18, 20)

...they made for themselves cast images of their silver, idols according to their skill, all of it the work of craftsmen. (Hosea 13:2)

I will sprinkle clean water on you, that you may be cleansed... from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. (Ezekiel 36:25)

Clean waters are truths; idols are falsities in worship.

You shall judge unclean the covering of your graven images of silver, and the attire of your cast images of gold. You will throw them away as a menstrual cloth; you will call it excrement. (Isaiah 30:22)

[3] Falsities in religion and thus in worship are precisely what are symbolically meant by the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone that Belshazzar, king of Babylon, praised (i.e., worshiped) when with his great men, wives and concubines he drank wine from the vessels of gold and silver taken from the temple in Jerusalem, on which account he was driven from mankind and became as a beast (Daniel 5:1-5ff.).

And so also in many other places, as in Isaiah 10:10-11; 21:9; 31:7; 40:19-20; 41:29; 42:17; 48:5, Leviticus 26:30.

Properly speaking, idols symbolize falsities in worship springing from people's own intelligence. How a person fashions them and afterward adapts them so that they appear to be true is fully described in Isaiah 44:9-20.

  
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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.

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Revelation 8

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1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.

3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;

9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, Woe, Woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!