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Jeremiah 50

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1 The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

3 For out of the north there cometh a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell in it, they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.

4 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.

5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces towards it, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

6 My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place.

7 All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.

8 Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth from the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.

9 For lo, I will raise and cause to come against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.

10 And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD.

11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of my heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;

12 Your mother shall be greatly confounded; she that bore you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13 Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14 Put yourselves in array against Babylon on every side: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.

15 Shout against her on every side; she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do to her.

16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.

17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

18 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

19 And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead.

20 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD.

25 The LORD hath opened his armory, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of The LORD GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

26 Come against her from the utmost border, open her store-houses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.

27 Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

28 The voice of them that flee and escape from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.

29 Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, encamp against it on every side; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do to her: for she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

30 Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD.

31 Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.

32 And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all around him.

33 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.

34 Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

36 A sword is upon the liars; and they shall be sottish: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.

37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.

38 A drouth is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the isles, shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, saith the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.

41 Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the borders of the earth.

42 They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.

43 The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands became feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.

44 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan to the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

45 Therefore hear ye the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.

46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 584

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584. Verse 20. And the rest of the men who were not killed in these plagues, signifies who did not perish by the cupidities above mentioned. This is evident from the signification of "the rest of the men who were not killed," as being all those who did not perish. "To be killed" signifies in the Word to be killed spiritually, which is to perish in eternal death (See above, n. 547, 572). Also from the signification of "these plagues," as being the cupidities above mentioned, namely, those signified by "fire, smoke, and brimstone going out of the mouth of the horses," which signify the cupidities that arise from the love of evil and the love of falsity, also the lusts of destroying the truths and goods of the church by the falsities of evil (as may be seen above, n. 578. These are called "plagues," because "plagues" signify in the Word such things as destroy the spiritual life, consequently the church in men, and which therefore induce death understood in the spiritual sense. These in brief have reference to the cupidities springing from the loves of self and of the world; for these loves are the roots from which evils and falsities of every genus and species spring up and grow.

[2] Such also is the signification of "plagues" in the following passages in Revelation:

The two witnesses have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague as often as they will (Revelation 11:6).

Again:

Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof was exceeding great (Revelation 16:21).

Again:

In one day shall the plagues of Babylon come, death and mourning and famine (Revelation 18:8).

And again:

I saw seven angels having the seven last plagues, through which is to be finished the wrath of God (Revelation 15:1, 6, 8). That "plagues" mean such things as induce upon man spiritual death, consequently that wholly destroy and devastate the church with men in particular and thus in general, will be seen in the explanation of the passages that follow, where "plagues" are mentioned, and especially where "the seven last plagues" are treated of.

[3] "Plagues" have a like meaning in the following passages in the prophets. In Isaiah:

The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, in the day that Jehovah shall bind up the breach of His people, and shall heal the wound of their plague (Isaiah 30:26).

In Jeremiah:

It is desperate for thy bruise, thy plague is sore. I have smitten thee with the plague of an enemy. I will make health to ascend upon thee; I will heal thee of thy plague (Jeremiah 30:12, 14, 17).

In the same:

Everyone that passeth by Edom shall hiss at all the plagues thereof (4 Jeremiah 49:17).

In the same:

Everyone that passeth by Babylon shall hiss at all her plagues (Jeremiah 50:13).

In Moses:

If they will 1 not take heed to do all the words of the law, Jehovah will make thy plagues wonderful, great plagues and lasting, and evil and lasting diseases. Also every disease and every plague which is not written in the book of this law will Jehovah secretly send upon thee until thou be destroyed (Deuteronomy 28:58, 59, 61).

"Plagues" here signify spiritual plagues, which destroy the soul, not the body, and which are enumerated in this chapter of Deuteronomy (verses 20-68).

[4] What "plagues" signify in the spiritual sense is described by correspondences in Zechariah:

This shall be the plague wherewith Jehovah will plague all the peoples that shall wage war against Jerusalem; his flesh shall waste away as he standeth upon his feet, and his eyes shall waste away in their sockets, and his tongue shall waste away in his mouth. So shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, of the ass, and of every beast that shall be in those camps, as this plague (Zechariah 14:12, 15).

This is said of those who endeavor to destroy the truths of the church by falsities; "Jerusalem" signifies the church in respect to the truths of doctrine, and "to wage war against it" means to endeavor to destroy these truths by falsities. That "one's flesh shall waste away as he standeth upon his feet" signifies that with those who attempt this, all the will of good will perish, and that they will thus become merely corporeal-natural, for "flesh" signifies the will and its good or evil; "feet" signify the things of the natural man, therefore "to stand upon the feet" signifies to live from such things only; "his eyes shall waste away in their sockets" signifies that all understanding of truth will perish, "eyes" signifying that understanding; "his tongue shall waste away in his mouth" signifies that all perception of truth and affection of good will perish. (This prophecy is explained above, n. 455.) Almost the same things are signified by "the plagues of the horse, the mule, the camel, the ass, and every beast," for the "plague" of these signifies the loss of all understanding of truth, as well spiritual as natural; and "the plague of the beast" signifies the loss of all affection for good.

[5] In Luke:

In the same hour in which John sent unto Him, Jesus cured many of diseases and plagues of evil spirits; and on many that were blind He bestowed sight (Luke 7:21).

"The plagues of evil spirits" mean the obsessions and calamitous conditions then inflicted upon men by evil spirits, all of which however signify correspondent spiritual states; for all the healings of diseases performed by the Lord signified spiritual healings, and from this the miracles of the Lord were Divine; as this, that "on many that were blind He bestowed sight," which signified that to those who were in ignorance of truth He gave the understanding of the truths of doctrine:

The wounds [plagas] that the robbers inflicted on the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke 10:30);

also signifies spiritual wounds, which were the falsities and evils infused into sojourners and Gentiles by the scribes and Pharisees. (See above, n. 444, where this parable is explained in its spiritual sense.)

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. Latin has "they will," the Hebrew "thou whilt," as also in Apocalypse Explained 696; Arcana Coelestia 2826, 6752.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

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Jeremiah 51:62

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62 Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.