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КнигаСудей 16

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1 Пришел однажды Самсон в Газу и, увидев там блудницу, вошел к ней.

2 Жителям Газы сказали: Самсон пришел сюда. И ходилиони кругом, и подстерегали его всю ночь в воротах города, и таились всю ночь, говоря: до света утреннего подождем, и убьем его.

3 А Самсон спал до полуночи; в полночь же встав, схватил двери городских ворот с обоими косяками, поднял их вместе сзапором, положил на плечи свои и отнес их на вершину горы, которая на пути к Хеврону.

4 После того полюбил он одну женщину, жившую на долине Сорек; имя ей Далида.

5 К ней пришли владельцы Филистимские и говорят ей: уговори его, ивыведай, в чем великая сила его и как нам одолеть его, чтобы связать его и усмирить его; а мы дадим тебе за то каждый тысячу сто сиклей серебра.

6 И сказала Далида Самсону: скажи мне, в чем великая сила твоя и чемсвязать тебя, чтобы усмирить тебя?

7 Самсон сказал ей: если свяжут меня семью сырыми тетивами, которые незасушены, то я сделаюсь бессилен и буду как и прочие люди.

8 И принесли ей владельцы Филистимские семь сырых тетив, которые не засохли, и она связала его ими.

9 (Между тем один скрытно сидел у нее в спальне.) И сказала ему: Самсон! Филистимляне идут на тебя. Он разорвал тетивы, как разрывают нитку из пакли,когда пережжет ее огонь. И не узнана сила его.

10 И сказала Далида Самсону: вот, ты обманул меня и говорил мне ложь; скажи же теперь мне, чем связать тебя?

11 Он сказал ей: если свяжут меня новыми веревками, которые не были вделе, то я сделаюсь бессилен и буду, как прочие люди.

12 Далида взяла новые веревки и связала его и сказала ему: Самсон! Филистимляне идут на тебя.(Между тем один скрытно сидел в спальне.) И сорвал он их с рук своих, как нитки.

13 И сказала Далида Самсону: все ты обманываешь меня и говоришь мне ложь; скажи мне, чем бы связать тебя? Он сказал ей: если ты воткешь семь кос головы моей в ткань и прибьешь ее гвоздем к ткальной колоде .

14 и прикрепила их к колоде, и сказала ему: Филистимляне идут на тебя, Самсон! Онпробудился от сна своего и выдернул ткальную колоду вместе с тканью.

15 И сказала ему Далида : как же ты говоришь: „люблю тебя", а сердце твое не со мною? вот, ты трижды обманул меня, и не сказал мне, в чем великая сила твоя.

16 И как она словами своими тяготила его всякий день и мучила его, то душе его тяжело стало до смерти.

17 И он открыл ей все сердце свое, и сказал ей: бритва не касаласьголовы моей, ибо я назорей Божий от чрева матери моей; если же остричь меня, то отступит от меня сила моя; я сделаюсь слаб и буду, как прочие люди.

18 Далида, видя, что он открыл ей все сердце свое, послала и звала владельцев Филистимских, сказав им: идите теперь; он открыл мне все сердце свое. И пришли к ней владельцы Филистимские и принесли серебро в руках своих.

19 И усыпила его Далида на коленях своих, и призвала человека, и велела ему остричь семь кос головы его. И начал он ослабевать, и отступила от него сила его.

20 Она сказала: Филистимляне идут на тебя, Самсон! Он пробудился от сна своего,и сказал: пойду, как и прежде, и освобожусь. А не знал, что Господь отступил от него.

21 Филистимляне взяли его и выкололи ему глаза, привели его в Газу и оковали его двумя медными цепями, и он молол в доме узников.

22 Между тем волосы на голове его начали расти, где они были острижены.

23 Владельцы Филистимские собрались, чтобы принести великую жертвуДагону, богу своему, и повеселиться, и сказали: бог наш предал Самсона,врага нашего, в руки наши.

24 Также и народ, видя его, прославлял бога своего, говоря: бог наш предал в руки наши врага нашего и опустошителя земли нашей, который побил многих из нас.

25 И когда развеселилось сердце их, сказали: позовите Самсона, пусть он позабавит нас. И призвали Самсона из дома узников, и он забавлял их,и поставили его между столбами.

26 И сказал Самсон отроку, который водил его за руку: подведи меня, чтобы ощупать мне столбы, на которых утвержден дом,и прислониться к ним.

27 Дом же был полон мужчин и женщин; там были все владельцы Филистимские, и на кровле было до трех тысяч мужчин и женщин, смотревших на забавляющего их Самсона.

28 И воззвал Самсон к Господу и сказал: Господи Боже! вспомни меня и укрепи меня только теперь, о Боже! чтобы мне в один разотмстить Филистимлянам за два глаза мои.

29 И сдвинул Самсон с места два средних столба, на которых утвержден был дом, упершись в них, в один правою рукою своею, а в другой левою.

30 И сказал Самсон: умри, душа моя, с Филистимлянами! И уперся всею силою, и обрушился дом на владельцев и на весь народ, бывший в нем. И было умерших, которых умертвил Самсон при смерти своей, более, нежели сколькоумертвил он в жизни своей.

31 И пришли братья его и весь дом отца его, и взяли его, и пошли и похоронили его между Цорою и Естаолом, во гробе Маноя, отца его. Он был судьею Израиля двадцать лет.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Judges 16

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth

Judges 16: Samson and Delilah; Samson dies with the Philistines.

In this final chapter about Samson, he becomes involved with two women, and both episodes lead him to fight for his life.

The first woman was a prostitute from Gaza, a Philistine town. When the men of Gaza heard that Samson was visiting this woman, they lay in wait for him all night, so that they could kill him in the morning. Samson foiled their plot by sneaking out at midnight. As he was leaving, he took the gates of the city and its two posts, put them upon his shoulders, and took them to the top of a hill facing Hebron, a town in Israel.

Some time later, Samson began to love an Israelite woman called Delilah, whose name means “lustful pining”. The lords of the Philistines bribed her to find out the source of Samson’s strength, so that they could take him prisoner. After deceiving her three times and evading her almost-daily questions, Samson finally admitted that his strength lay in his hair; if it were cut, he would be like any other man.

Delilah told this to the the lords of the Philistines, and they paid her the bribe. She lulled Samson to sleep, and had a man shave off all of Samson’s hair. She called out as she had the first three times: “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke, but he was as weak as a normal man. The Philistines took him captive, gouged out his eyes, and forced him to work as a mill grinder in prison. However, while he was in prison, his hair began to grow back.

When the Philistines gathered to make a great sacrifice in the temple of their god, Dagon, to celebrate the capture of Samson, 3000 Philistine men and women were there, plus all of their kings. Samson was brought in as a spectacle to be mocked. He could feel his strength returning, and asked the boy leading him to let him lean against the two central columns of the temple. Samson prayed to the Lord, and pushed the columns until the temple collapsed, killing everyone there. That day, Samson brought about the death of more Philistines than he had in his life. His family took his body, and buried him between Zorah (“stricken”) and Eshtaol (“supplication”) in his father’s tomb.

*****

This chapter demonstrates the temptations and potential pitfalls of faith-alone spirituality, specifically through the women that Samson was involved with. Both of these episodes - the first with the prostitute from Gaza, and the second with Delilah - highlight Samson’s brazen passions and his apparent faults and weaknesses. Samson represents our determination to overcome the draw of faith alone, which the hells employ in order to ensnare us, and then rule us. The Lord’s teachings through the Word often precipitate a struggle within us between our lusts from the hells and our spiritual intentions (see Swedenborg’s work, Apocalypse Revealed 678[2] and Apocalypse Revealed 798[2]).

Seizing the gates and gateposts stands for changing the focus of our spiritual view. Gates represent the entry and exit points to our hearts and minds, through which we receive the Lord and the Word, but also the influences of hell (see Swedenborg’s work, Divine Providence 119). The top of the hill stands for a mind raised up toward God, and ‘facing Hebron’ is representative of a new focus on the unity between us and the Word, for Hebron means ‘joined, brotherhood, unity’.

After three failed attempts, Delilah discovered that Samson’s strength lay in his hair, which had never been cut. Hair stands for the power and beauty of the Word in its literal sense, and our faithfulness in abiding by its truths (see Swedenborg’s works, Arcana Caelestia 9836[2] and Doctrine of the Lord 15[8]).

Samson’s imprisonment and abuse by the Philistines symbolize a period of spiritual turmoil, during which we are misled by the hells. Blindness corresponds to our inability to see or recognize truths; ‘grinding grain at the mill’ is like molding truths from the Word to support our own purposes - in this case, faith alone spirituality (Arcana Caelestia 10303[5] and Arcana Caelestia 10303[6]). Yet all the while, our ability to follow the Lord will gradually restrengthen, represented by Samson’s hair growing back.

In the last moments of his life, Samson brought down the temple of Dagon, killing three thousand of the Philistines at once. The two supporting columns of the Philistine temple stand for what is evil and what is false; when evil and falsity are toppled, the whole system of belief collapses. In sacrificing his life, Samson demonstrated the highest of all divine and heavenly loves (see Arcana Caelestia 2077[2]).

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Apocalypse Revealed # 798

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798. Since we say that these Roman Catholics have no conjunction of goodness and truth, because they do not have in them a marriage of the Lord and the church, therefore we must say something here about the power of opening and closing heaven, which goes along with the power of forgiving and retaining sins, 1 a power that they claim for themselves as the successors of Peter and the Apostles.

(The Lord said to Peter,) ."..on this rock 2 I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:18-19)

The Divine truth meant by Peter, on which the Lord will build His church, is the truth confessed by Peter at the time, when He said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).

The keys of the kingdom of heaven are this, that whatever that rock, meaning the Lord, has bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever it has loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven, and it means that the Lord has power over heaven and earth, as He also says in Matthew 28:18, thus the power of saving people who from a heartfelt faith have that confession of Peter.

[2] The Lord's Divine operation to save mankind takes place from the firsts of creation through the lasts of it, and this is what we mean when we say that whatever He has bound or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven. The last elements by which the Lord operates are those on earth, and indeed, in people. For this reason, that the Lord Himself might be present in the lasts of creation as He is in the firsts of it, He came into the world and assumed human form.

To be shown that every Divine operation of the Lord takes place from the firsts of creation through the lasts of it, thus from Himself in the firsts of it and from Himself in the lasts of it, see Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 217-219 221. Also that this is why the Lord is called the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Almighty, nos. 29-31, 38, 57 above.

[3] Who that is willing cannot see that a person's salvation depends on a continual operation of the Lord in the person from his first infancy to the end of his life, and that it is a work purely Divine, one that can never be granted to any man? It is so Divine that it requires the combination of omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. Moreover, that a person's reformation and regeneration, thus his salvation, is wholly the work of the Lord's Divine providence, may be seen from beginning to end in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence.

[4] The Lord's advent itself into the world had as its sole end the salvation of mankind. For this reason He assumed human form, banished the hells, and glorified Himself, and took on omnipotence also in the lasts of creation, which is what is meant by His sitting at the right hand of God. 3

What then is more abominable than to found a religion which sanctions the idea that that Divine power and authority are a man's and no longer the Lord's? Or that heaven will be opened or closed if only a clergyman says, "I absolve you," or "I excommunicate you"? Or that a sin is forgiven, even a heinous one, if only he says, "I forgive it"?

The world holds many devils who, to avoid temporal punishment, use artful schemes and gifts to seek and obtain absolution for their diabolical wickedness. Who can be so insane as to believe that the power exists to let devils into heaven?

[5] We said at the end of no. 790 that Peter represented the church's truth of faith, James the church's charity, and John the good works of the people in the church, and that the twelve Apostles together represented the church in respect to all of its components. Their representing these things is clearly apparent from the Lord's words to them in Matthew:

...when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you... will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matthew 19:28, cf. Luke 22:30)

These words can have no other symbolic meaning than that the Lord will judge all people according to the goods and truths of the church. If this were not the meaning of these words, but if instead the Apostles themselves were meant, all in that great city Babylon who call themselves successors of the Apostles could also claim for themselves, from Pope down to monk, that they will sit on as many thrones as their number, and will judge all throughout the entire world.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. See John 20:21-23.

2. There is a play on words here in the original Greek, which the Lord uses to draw a connection between Peter (Pétros) and a rock (pétra), a play reflected in the Latin Petrus and petra.

3Mark 16:19

  
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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.