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Ezekiel 32

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1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou didst come forth with thy rivers, and disturb the waters with thy feet, and render their rivers foul.

3 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.

4 Then will I leave thee upon the land, and I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.

5 And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy hight.

6 I will also water with thy blood the land in which thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.

7 And when I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.

9 I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.

10 Yes, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall.

11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.

12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall lay waste the pomp of Egypt, and all its multitude shall be destroyed.

13 I will destroy also all its beasts from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man disturb them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts disturb them.

14 Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD.

15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that of which it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell in it, then shall they know that I am the LORD.

16 This is the lamentation with which they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

17 It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.

19 Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.

20 They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.

21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of the grave with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

22 Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:

23 Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is around her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.

24 There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.

25 They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are around him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that are slain.

26 There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are around him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.

27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to the grave, with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

28 Yes, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the sword.

29 There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, who with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.

30 There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, who are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.

31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.

32 For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 859

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859. That Gog and Magog symbolize people who engage in external worship without any internal worship can be seen from chapter 38 in Ezekiel, where Gog is the subject from beginning to end, and from chapter 39 there, verses 1-16. But that these are symbolized by Gog and Magog is not clearly apparent there except through knowing the spiritual sense, which, because it has been revealed to me, will be disclosed. First, the contents of those two chapters:

The contents of chapter 38 in Ezekiel are as follows: The subject is people who attend to the Word's literal sense only, and whose worship is therefore an external worship without any internal worship, meant by Gog (verses 1, 2). That each and every component of that worship will perish (verses 3-7). That such worship will overwhelm the church and destroy it, so that it will be caught up in outward shows without any inward realities (verses 8-16). That the state of the church will change therefore (verse 17-19). That the truths and goods of religion will consequently perish and be replaced by false ones (verses 20-23).

[2] The contents of chapter 39 in the same prophetic book are as follows: Regarding people who attend to the Word's literal sense only and whose worship is an external one, that they will come into the church meant by Gog and perish (verses 1-6). That this will be the case when the Lord makes His advent and establishes His church (verses 7-8). That this church will then dispel all the people's evils and falsities (verses 9-10). It will entirely destroy them (verses 11-16). That the New Church to be established by the Lord will be instructed in truths and goods of every kind, and infused with goods of every kind (verses 17-21). That because of its evils and falsities, the previous church will be destroyed (verses 23-24). That the Lord will then gather together His church from all nations (verses 25-29).

[3] We must say something, however, about people who engage in external worship without any internal, spiritual worship. They are the kind of people who go often to church on the sabbath and on holy days, who sing hymns then and pray, who listen to sermons and attend then to the preacher's eloquence, but pay little or no attention to the substance, and who are moved somewhat by prayers uttered with feeling, such as that they are sinners, without reflecting on themselves or on their life; who also partake annually of the sacrament of the Holy Supper; who pour out prayers morning and evening, and pray also before midday and evening meals; and who also converse at times about God, heaven and eternal life, and know how to cite as well then some passages from the Word and to pretend to be Christians, even though they are not. For after they have done all these things, they think nothing of adulterous affairs and obscenities, of vengeance and hatred, of covert theft and robbery, of lying and blasphemy, and of lusting for and intending evils of every kind.

People of this character do not believe in any God, still less in the Lord. If asked what the good and truth of religion are, they do not know and think it of no great moment for them to know. In a word, they live for themselves and the world, thus for their inherent disposition and body, and not for God and the neighbor, thus not for their spirit and soul. It is apparent from this that their worship is an external worship without any internal worship. They also readily accept the heresy of faith alone, especially when they are told that a person cannot do good of himself, and that they are not under the yoke of the law. That is the reason we are told that the dragon will go out to lead astray the nations, Gog and Magog.

In the original Hebrew, too, Gog and Magog mean a roof and deck, which is something external.

  
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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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Ezekiel 39

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1 You, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:

2 and I will turn you around, and will lead you on, and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north; and I will bring you on the mountains of Israel;

3 and I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.

4 You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the peoples who are with you: I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the animals of the field to be devoured.

5 You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.

6 I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who dwell securely in the islands; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

7 My holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I allow my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, the holy One in Israel.

8 Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh; this is the day about which I have spoken.

9 Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years;

10 so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord Yahweh.

11 It shall happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of the sea; and it shall stop those who pass through: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude; and they shall call it The valley of Hamon Gog.

12 Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.

13 Yes, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown in the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord Yahweh.

14 They shall set apart men of continual employment, who shall pass through the land, and, with those who pass through, those who bury those who remain on the surface of the land, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.

15 Those who pass through the land shall pass through; and when any sees a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, until the undertakers have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog.

16 Hamonah shall also be the name of a city. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

17 You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood.

18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.

19 You shall eat fat until you be full, and drink blood until you are drunk, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

20 You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, says the Lord Yahweh.

21 I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.

22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day and forward.

23 The nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me, and I hid my face from them: so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword.

24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions did I to them; and I hid my face from them.

25 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name.

26 They shall bear their shame, and all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against me, when they shall dwell securely in their land, and none shall make them afraid;

27 when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations.

28 They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them to their own land; and I will leave none of them any more there;

29 neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.