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Jeremiah 18

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1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.

3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels.

4 When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

5 Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

6 House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, House of Israel.

7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;

8 if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.

9 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

10 if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

11 Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

12 But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.

13 Therefore thus says Yahweh: Ask now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

14 Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?

15 For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;

16 to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

18 Then they said, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

19 Give heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.

20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.

21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, [and] their young men struck of the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

23 Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me; don't forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you; deal you with them in the time of your anger.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 5536

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5536. 'You have bereaved me [of my children]' means that thus no Church existed any longer. This is clear from the representation of Jacob, the one who says this about himself, as the good of truth, dealt with in 3659, 3669, 3677, 3775, 4234, 4273, 4538 (and as the good of truth is represented, so also is the Church because good is the essential element of the Church. It therefore amounts to the same whether you say the good of truth or the Church, for the person who has the good of truth present with him has the Church present with him. 'Jacob' represents the Church, see 4286, 4520, and that being so his sons represent the truths known to the Church, 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512); and from the meaning of 'bereaving' as depriving the Church of its truths and forms of good, such as those here which are represented by Joseph, Benjamin, and Simeon, to whom reference is made directly after the words 'you have bereaved me'.

[2] 'Bereaving' is depriving the Church of its truths for the reason that the Church is likened to a marriage. Good is likened to the husband and truth to the wife, while the truths born from that marriage are likened to 'the sons' and the forms of good to 'the daughters', and so on. When therefore a state of bereavement or an action causing this is mentioned, the meaning is that the Church has been deprived of its truths and as a consequence ceases to be a Church. The expressions 'bereft' and 'bereavement' are also used in various other places in the Word, as in

Ezekiel,

I will send famine and evil wild animals upon you, and I will make you bereft. Ezekiel 5:17.

In the same prophet,

When I cause evil wild animals to pass through the land and they leave it bereft so that it becomes a desolation, with the result that no one passes through on account of the wild animals. Ezekiel 14:15.

In Leviticus,

I will send into you the wild animals of the field, which will leave you bereft and will cut off your beasts, 1 and make you few in number, so that your roads are laid waste. Leviticus 26:22.

[3] In these quotations 'famine' stands for an absence of cognitions of good and truth and the consequent desolation, 'evil wild animals' for falsities derived from evils, and 'the land' for the Church. 'Sending famine and evil wild animals, and leaving the land bereft' stands for destroying the Church by means of falsities derived from evils and so depriving it completely of truths. In Jeremiah,

I will winnow them with a winnowing-fork in the gates of the land; I will bereave, I will destroy My people. Jeremiah 15:7.

Here also 'bereaving' stands for depriving of truths. In the same prophet,

Give their children over to the famine, and cause them to be wiped out by the power of the sword, 2 so that their wives become bereaved [of children] and widows. Jeremiah 18:11.

'So that their wives become bereaved and widows' stands for their being left without truths or good.

[4] In Hosea,

As for the Ephraimites, their glory will fly away like a bird, away from birth, and from the belly, and from conception. Even if they bring up their sons, I will make them bereft of human beings. Hosea 9:11-12.

Here the meaning is similar. In Ezekiel,

I will cause human beings to walk upon you, even My people; and those human beings will by inheritance take possession of you and you will be an inheritance to them; no more will you bereave them [of their children]. Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Because they say to you, You have been one devouring human beings and one bereaving your peoples [of children]. Ezekiel 36:12-13.

Here also 'bereaving' stands for depriving of truths.

[5] In Isaiah,

Now hear this, you lover of pleasures, sitting securely, saying in her 3 heart, I am, and there is no one else like me; a widow I shall not sit, nor shall I know bereavement [of children]. But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day-bereavement and widowhood. Isaiah 47:8-9.

This refers to the daughter of Babel and to Chaldea, that is, to those who are outwardly holy but inwardly unholy and who call themselves the Church by virtue of that outward holiness. 'Bereavement and widowhood' stands for a deprivation of truth and good. In the same prophet,

Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather together, they come to you. The children of your bereavements will say again in your ears, The place is too narrow for me; yield me a place to dwell in. But you will say in your heart, Who has begotten these for me, when yet I am bereft [of children] and alone, an exile and one who has been displaced? Who therefore has brought these up? I was left, alone. These, where were they? Isaiah 49:18, 20-21.

This refers to Zion, which is the celestial Church, and to its fruitfulness after it had been laid waste. 'The sons of bereavements' stands for the truths of which it was deprived when laid waste, but which were restored and underwent enormous increase.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. i.e. cattle

2. literally, cause them to flow down by means of the hand of the sword

3. The Latin means your but the Hebrew means her, which Swedenborg has in another place where he quotes this verse.

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

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