Bible

 

Zephaniah 2

Studie

   

1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you nation that has no shame,

2 before the appointed time when the day passes as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Yahweh comes on you, before the day of Yahweh's anger comes on you.

3 Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of Yahweh's anger.

4 For Gaza will be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation. They will drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron will be rooted up.

5 Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of Yahweh is against you, Canaan, the land of the Philistines. I will destroy you, that there will be no inhabitant.

6 The sea coast will be pastures, with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks.

7 The coast will be for the remnant of the house of Judah. They will find pasture. In the houses of Ashkelon, they will lie down in the evening, for Yahweh, their God, will visit them, and restore them.

8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the insults of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.

9 Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.

10 This they will have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Yahweh of Armies.

11 Yahweh will be awesome to them, for he will famish all the gods of the land. Men will worship him, everyone from his place, even all the shores of the nations.

12 You Cushites also, you will be killed by my sword.

13 He will stretch out his hand against the north, destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as the wilderness.

14 Herds will lie down in the midst of her, all the animals of the nations. Both the pelican and the porcupine will lodge in its capitals. Their calls will echo through the windows. Desolation will be in the thresholds, for he has laid bare the cedar beams.

15 This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, "I am, and there is none besides me." How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 1666

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

1666. That 'all [these] were gathered together at the valley of Siddim' means that they were immersed in the unclean things that go with evil desires becomes clear from the meaning of 'the valley of Siddim', dealt with below at verse 10, which says that 'the valley of Siddim was pits after pits of bitumen', that is, it was full of bitumen-pits, which mean the filthy and unclean things that go with evil desires, 1299. The same may be seen from the fact that Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim meant evil desires and false persuasions, which are by their very nature unclean. That they are unclean anyone inside the Church may see; and in the next life it is clearly seen in what happens there. Spirits such as are immersed in these unclean things desire nothing better than to spend their time in places full of stagnant water, mire, and excrement, so that their very disposition carries such things with it. The emanation of such unclean things from them is detected as soon as they come near the sphere of good spirits, especially when they desire to infest the good, that is, to band together and attack them. All this shows what is meant by the valley of Siddim.

[2] 'Which is the Salt Sea' means the foul things which accompany derivative falsities. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'the Salt Sea', which would seem to be the same place as 'the valley of Siddim', for the words used are 'the valley of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea'. But the latter phrase has been added for the reason that 'the Salt Sea' means the falsities that burst forth from evil desires; indeed not one such desire exists which does not produce falsities. The life belonging to evil desires may be compared to a coal fire, and the falsities to the dim light that comes from it. Just as fire cannot exist without light, neither can evil desire do so without falsity. Every evil desire stems from some filthy love, for that which is loved is desired and is therefore called desire, the desire itself containing within itself an extension of that particular love. And what favors or supports that love or desire is called falsity. This shows why the phrase 'the Salt Sea' has here been added to 'the valley of Siddim'.

[3] Since evil desires and falsities are what vastate a person, that is, deprive him of all the life belonging to the love of good and to the affection for truth, such vastation is described in various places as a salt region, as in Jeremiah,

He who makes flesh his arm will be like a bare shrub in the solitary place, and will not see when good comes; and he will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land, and not inhabited. Jeremiah 17:5-6.

In Ezekiel,

Its swamps and its marshes are not healed, they will be given up to salt. Ezekiel 47:11.

In David,

Jehovah turns rivers into a wilderness, and the outgoings of waters into a dryness, a fruitful land into a salty waste because of the wickedness of those inhabiting it. Psalms 107:33-34.

In Zephaniah,

Moab will be like Sodom, and the children of Ammon like Gomorrah, a place abandoned to the nettle, and a saltpit, and a desolation for ever. Zephaniah 2:9.

[4] In Moses,

The whole land will be brimstone and salt, a burning; it will not be sown, and it will not sprout, nor will any plant come up on it, as at the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Admah and Zeboiim. Deuteronomy 29:23.

'The whole land will be brimstone and salt, a burning' stands for goods and truths that have been vastated - 'brimstone' for the vastation of good, 'salt' for the vastation of truth. Indeed heat and saltiness are destructive of the land and its crops in the way that evil desire is destructive of goods, and falsity of truths. Since 'salt' meant vastation, it was also customary to sow the cities they had destroyed with salt, to prevent their being rebuilt, as in Judges 9:45. Salt is also used in the contrary sense to mean that which renders fertile, and that which so to speak adds flavor.

[1666a] Verse 4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

'Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer' means that evils and falsities did not reveal themselves in childhood but were subservient to apparent goods and truths. 'And in the thirteenth year they rebelled' means the onset of temptations in childhood.

  
/ 10837  
  

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