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Ezekiel 38

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1 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

3 and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:

4 and I will turn you around, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords;

5 Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet;

6 Gomer, and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes; even many peoples with you.

7 Be prepared, yes, prepare yourself, you, and all your companies who are assembled to you, and be a guard to them.

8 After many days you shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought forth out of the peoples, and they shall dwell securely, all of them.

9 You shall ascend, you shall come like a storm, you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you, and all your hordes, and many peoples with you.

10 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: It shall happen in that day, that things shall come into your mind, and you shall devise an evil device:

11 and you shall say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to those who are at rest, who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates;

12 to take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn your hand against the waste places that are [now] inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten livestock and goods, who dwell in the middle of the earth.

13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions of it, shall tell you, Have you come to take the spoil? have you assembled your company to take the prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great spoil?

14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and tell Gog, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In that day when my people Israel dwells securely, shall you not know it?

15 You shall come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you, and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army;

16 and you shall come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land: it shall happen in the latter days, that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when I shall be sanctified in you, Gog, before their eyes.

17 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Are you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for [many] years that I would bring you against them?

18 It shall happen in that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh, that my wrath shall come up into my nostrils.

19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;

20 so that the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

21 I will call for a sword against him to all my mountains, says the Lord Yahweh: every man's sword shall be against his brother.

22 With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and sulfur.

23 I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7553

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7553. 'Behold, about this time tomorrow I am causing it to rain an extremely heavy hail' means falsities destroying all things of the Church among them. This is clear from the meaning of 'rain in the form of hail' as falsities arising from evil that destroy forms of the truth and good of faith, thus things of the Church. Those falsities are meant by 'rain in the form of hail' because then the raindrops are like stones and can destroy both men and beasts, as well as crops in the field, and also because they are pieces of ice. In general 'rain' means a blessing, or in the contrary sense a curse, 1445. When it means a blessing a flowing in and receiving of the truth of faith and the good of charity is meant; for that is a blessing. But when 'rain' means a curse falsity opposed to the truth of faith and evil opposed to the good of charity is meant, for these are a curse. 'Rain in the form of hail' however in general means a curse which is brought on by falsity arising from evil, in particular of falsity arising from evil that is opposed to the Church's truths and forms of good.

[2] These kinds of falsity are meant by 'rain in the form of hail' in the following places: In Ezekiel,

I will dispute with Gog with pestilence and blood; and deluging rain and hailstones, fire and brimstone will I cause to rain on him and on his hordes, and on the many peoples that are with him. Ezekiel 38:22.

'Gog' stands for external worship separated from internal, thus for those who, when charity has been annihilated, make Divine worship consist entirely in external observances. 'Hailstones' stands for falsities that arise from evil.

[3] In the same prophet,

Let My hand be against the prophets who see vanity and divine a lie. Say to those who daub [the wall] with what is not suitable that it will fall. There will come deluging rain from which you, O hailstones, will fall; and stormy wind will tear it apart. Ezekiel 13:9, 11.

'Prophets who are seers of vanity and diviners of a lie' stands for those who are teachers of evils and falsities. 'Those who daub [the wall] with what is unsuitable' stands for the fact that they fabricate falsities and make them look like the truth. These people are called 'hailstones' because of their falsities. But in the original language a different word, meaning intense hail, is used here and in the preceding quotation.

[4] In Isaiah,

Then Jehovah will cause His glorious voice 1 to be heard, and His arm will see repose, in the indignation of [His] anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, [in] scattering and deluging, and hailstones. Isaiah 30:30-31.

'Hailstones' stands for the laying waste of truth by means of falsities. In the same prophet,

Behold, powerful and strong is the Lord, like a deluge of hail, a killing tempest, like a deluge of mighty overflowing waters, He will cast them down to the earth with His hand. The hail will overturn the refuge of a lie, and the waters will deluge the hiding-place. 2 Isaiah 28:2, 17.

'A deluge' stands for being plunged into falsities, and so for undergoing vastation of truth, 705, 739, 790, 5725, 6853, 'a deluge of hail' for the destruction of truth by means of falsities. In David,

He struck their vine with hail, and their sycamore-fig trees with heavy hail. And He gave up 3 their beasts to the hail, and their flocks to coals of fire. He let loose on them His fierce anger. Psalms 78:47-49.

[5] In the same author,

He made their rain into hail, a flaming fire in their land; and He struck their vines and their fig trees, and broke to pieces the trees of their borders. Psalms 105:32-33.

'Hail' and 'rain' stand for the laying waste of truth and good by means of falsities arising from evil. 'Vine' stands for the truth and goodness of the internal Church, 'sycamore-fig' and 'fig' for the truths and forms of good of the external Church. In the same author,

He who gives snow like wool, He sprinkles the hear-frost like dust; He who discharges His hail like balls - who can stand before His cold? Psalms 147:16-17.

'Hail' stands for falsities arising from evils. In the same author,

He made darkness His hiding-place, and His surroundings His tent - darkness of waters, clouds of the heavens. From the brightness before Him, clouds passed with hail and coals of fire. Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice, hail, and coals of fire, so that He sent His arrows and scattered them. Psalms 18:11-14.

'Hail' stands for falsities arising from evils which lay waste truths and forms of good.

[6] In John,

The first angel sounded and there came hail, and fire mixed with blood; and it fell onto the earth so that a third part of the trees were burned, and all green grass was burned up. Revelation 8:7.

'Hail' stands for falsities arising from evil; 'fire mixed with blood' stands for evil desires together with falsified truths; 'the trees which were burned' stands for cognitions of truth that were destroyed by evil desires; and 'the green grass that was burned up' stands for known facts about truth that were destroyed in a similar way. For the meaning of 'fire' as evil desires, see 1297, 1861, 2446, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7314; of 'blood' as falsified truth, 4775, 6878, 7317, 7326; and of 'trees' as cognitions, 2722 (end), 2972.

[7] In Joshua,

It happened, when they fled before Israel on the descent of Beth Horon, that Jehovah cast down on them large [hail]stones from heaven, as far as Azekah, so that they died. Those who died from the hailstones were more than those whom the children of Israel killed with the sword. Joshua 10:11.

This refers to the five kings who camped against Gibeon. These kings and their peoples represented those who, being steeped in falsities arising from evils, therefore died from the hailstones. Balls of hail are called stones because 'stones' too mean falsities.

From all this one may see what is meant by 'hail' and by 'rain in the form of hail', namely falsities arising from evils. And since these falsities are meant, the laying waste of truth and good is also meant, for falsities arising from evils are what lay them waste.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, the glory of His voice

2. The Latin means they will deluge the hiding-place of waters, but the Hebrew means the waters will deluge the hiding-place, which Swedenborg has in his rough draft.

3. literally, shut up

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

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Isaiah 8:9

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9 Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered!