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Lamentations 4

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1 How is the gold become dim! [how] is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

3 Even the jackals draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst: The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.

5 Those who did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

6 For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her.

7 Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.

8 Their appearance is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

9 Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 Yahweh has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.

12 The kings of the earth didn't believe, neither all the inhabitants of the world, That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

13 [It is] because of the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

14 They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments.

15 Depart! they cried to them, Unclean! depart, depart, don't touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more live [here].

16 The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; he will no more regard them: They didn't respect the persons of the priests, they didn't favor the elders.

17 Our eyes do yet fail [in looking] for our vain help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

18 They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets: Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky: They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits; Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

21 Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz: The cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked.

22 The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into captivity: He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 305

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305. And another horse, fiery red, went out. (6:4) This symbolizes an understanding of the Word among them extinguished as to goodness and thus extinguished as regards their life.

A horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word (no. 298), and a fiery red color symbolizes good extinguished. To be shown that the color white is predicated of truths, because it takes its origin from the light of the sun in heaven, and that the color red is predicated of goods, because it takes its origin from the fire of the sun in heaven, see nos. 167, 231 above.

A fiery red, on the other hand, is predicated of good extinguished, because a fiery red means a hellish red, which takes its origin from hellfire, which is a love of evil. A fiery red, being a hellish red, is hideous and dreadful, because it has no spark of life in it, but is totally lifeless. So it is that a fiery red horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word extinguished as to goodness. This, too, can be seen from the description of its rider, that it was granted him "to take peace from the earth, so that people might kill one another," as said next.

Moreover, it was the second living creature, which was like a calf, symbolizing the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its affection (no. 242), that said, "Come and see," thus showing that the people described had no affection for good, thus no goodness, among them.

That redness is predicated of both a love of good and a love of evil, can be seen from the following passages:

Who... washed his garment in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes, with eyes redder than wine, and teeth whiter than milk. (Genesis 49:11-12)

This is said in reference to the Lord.

Who is this who comes from Edom..., red as to apparel, and apparel like that of one who treads in the winepress? (Isaiah 63:1-2)

This, too, said in reference to the Lord.

Her Nazirites were whiter than snow and brighter white than milk. Redder were they in their bones than rubies... (Lamentations 4:7)

Redness in these places is predicated of a love of good. In the following places it is predicated of a love of evil:

The shield... is made reddish, and the... men are in crimson. The chariots come with flaming torches...; their appearance is like that of torches... (Nahum 2:3-4)

Though your sins have been like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they have been red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

This is also the symbolic meaning of the fiery red dragon in Revelation 12:3, and of the fiery red horse standing among the myrtle trees in Zechariah 1:8.

Similar meanings are predicated of colors that derive their hue from the color red, such as scarlet and crimson.

  
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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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Revelation 5

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1 I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals.

2 I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?"

3 No one in heaven above, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look in it.

4 And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look in it.

5 One of the elders said to me, "Don't weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome; he who opens the book and its seven seals."

6 I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

7 Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

8 Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

9 They sang a new song, saying, "You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,

10 and made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign on earth."

11 I saw, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands;

12 saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!"

13 I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!"

14 The four living creatures said, "Amen!" The elders fell down and worshiped.