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Amos 9

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1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.

2 Though they dig into the place of the dead, thence shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they are hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:

4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

5 And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell in it shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

6 It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: the LORD is his name.

7 Are ye not as children of the Cushites to me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel from the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Assyrians from Kir?

8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

9 For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not overtake nor fall upon us.

11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up their breaches; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, who are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.

14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 9552

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9552. 'Its pomegranates' means factual knowledge of good. This is clear from the meaning of 'pomegranates' as factual knowledge of good. There is factual knowledge of good and factual knowledge of truth; the former is meant by 'pomegranates' and the latter by 'flowers' which embellished the lampstand all around. The fact that factual knowledge of good is meant by 'pomegranates' is clear from other places where they are mentioned, as in Moses,

A land of wheat and barley, and of the vine and of the fig and of the pomegranate. Deuteronomy 8:8.

And in Haggai,

Is seed not as yet in the barn? And [has nothing whatever borne fruit,] even to the vine, or the fig tree, or the pomegranate? Haggai 2:19.

'Wheat and barley' and 'seed in the barn' mean things that are celestial, both internal and external, 'the vine, the fig tree, and the pomegranate' those that are spiritual and natural, in their proper order. The lowest of these is factual knowledge, which exists on the natural and sensory level of the human mind; and this is why 'the pomegranate' is mentioned last.

[2] In Zephaniah,

Jehovah will destroy Asshur. Flocks will repose in the midst of her, every wild animal of [that] nation. The spoonbill also and the duck will lodge in its pomegranates. 1 Zephaniah 2:13-14.

'The spoonbill and the duck in its pomegranates' stands for falsities arising from evil that are present in factual knowledge of good. In Amos,

I saw the Lord standing over the altar, and He said, Strike the pomegranate, 2 that the posts may shake; that is, split them all on the head. The last of them I will kill with the sword. Amos 9:1.

'Striking the pomegranate' stands for destroying factual knowledge of good by means of falsities arising from evil. 'The posts' are said 'to shake' then because 'the posts' are the truths of the natural, 7847. 'Killing the last with the sword' stands for destroying in that way the lowest of these; for 'the sword' is truth battling against falsity and destroying it, or falsity battling against truth and destroying it, 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102, 8294.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The original Hebrew word is thought to describe capitals shaped like pomegranates.

2. What this refers to exactly, whether to capitals or to people of high rank, is not clear.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.