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Deuteronomy 28

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1 `And it hath been, if thou dost hearken diligently to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to observe to do all His commands which I am commanding thee to-day, that Jehovah thy God hath made thee uppermost above all the nations of the earth,

2 and all these blessings have come upon thee, and overtaken thee, because thou dost hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God:

3 `Blessed [art] thou in the city, and Blessed [art] thou in the field.

4 `Blessed [is] the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock.

5 `Blessed [is] thy basket and thy kneading-trough.

6 `Blessed [art] thou in thy coming in, and Blessed [art] thou in thy going out.

7 `Jehovah giveth thine enemies, who are rising up against thee -- smitten before thy face; in one way they come out unto thee, and in seven ways they flee before thee.

8 `Jehovah commandeth with thee the blessing in thy storehouses, and in every putting forth of thy hand, and hath blessed thee in the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee.

9 `Jehovah doth establish thee to Himself for a holy people, as He hath sworn to thee, when thou keepest the commands of Jehovah thy God, and hast walked in His ways;

10 and all the peoples of the land have seen that the name of Jehovah is called upon thee, and they have been afraid of thee.

11 `And Jehovah hath made thee abundant in good, in the fruit of the womb, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, on the ground which Jehovah hath sworn to thy fathers to give to thee.

12 `Jehovah doth open to thee his good treasure -- the heavens -- to give the rain of thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thy hand, and thou hast lent to many nations, and thou -- thou dost not borrow.

13 `And Jehovah hath given thee for head, and not for tail; and thou hast been only above, and art not beneath, for thou dost hearken unto the commands of Jehovah thy God, which I am commanding thee to-day, to keep and to do,

14 and thou dost not turn aside from all the words which I am commanding you to-day -- right or left -- to go after other gods, to serve them.

15 `And it hath been, if thou dost not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God to observe to do all His commands, and His statutes, which I am commanding thee to-day, that all these revilings have come upon thee, and overtaken thee:

16 `Cursed [art] thou in the city, and cursed [art] thou in the field.

17 `Cursed [is] thy basket and thy kneading-trough.

18 `Cursed [is] the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock.

19 `Cursed [art] thou in thy coming in, and cursed [art] thou in thy going out.

20 `Jehovah doth send on thee the curse, the trouble, and the rebuke, in every putting forth of thy hand which thou dost, till thou art destroyed, and till thou perish hastily, because of the evil of thy doings [by] which thou hast forsaken Me.

21 `Jehovah doth cause to cleave to thee the pestilence, till He consume thee from off the ground whither thou art going in to possess it.

22 `Jehovah doth smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with extreme burning, and with sword, and with blasting, and with mildew, and they have pursued thee till thou perish

23 `And thy heavens which [are] over thy head have been brass, and the earth which [is] under thee iron;

24 Jehovah giveth the rain of thy land -- dust and ashes; from the heavens it cometh down on thee till thou art destroyed.

25 `Jehovah giveth thee smitten before thine enemies; in one way thou goest out unto them, and in seven ways dost flee before them, and thou hast been for a trembling to all kingdoms of the earth;

26 and thy carcase hath been for food to every fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth, and there is none causing trembling.

27 `Jehovah doth smite thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and with emerods, and with scurvy, and with itch, of which thou art not able to be healed.

28 `Jehovah doth smite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;

29 and thou hast been gropling at noon, as the blind gropeth in darkness; and thou dost not cause thy ways to prosper; and thou hast been only oppressed and plundered all the days, and there is no saviour.

30 `A woman thou dost betroth, and another man doth lie with her; a house thou dost build, and dost not dwell in it; a vineyard thou dost plant, and dost not make it common;

31 thine ox [is] slaughtered before thine eyes, and thou dost not eat of it; thine ass [is] taken violently away from before thee, and it is not given back to thee; thy sheep [are] given to thine enemies, and there is no saviour for thee.

32 `Thy sons and thy daughters [are] given to another people, and thine eyes are looking and consuming for them all the day, and thy hand is not to God!

33 The fruit of thy ground, and all thy labour, eat up doth a people whom thou hast not known; and thou hast been only oppressed and bruised all the days;

34 and thou hast been mad, because of the sight of thine eyes which thou dost see.

35 `Jehovah doth smite thee with an evil ulcer, on the knees, and on the legs (of which thou art not able to be healed), from the sole of thy foot even unto thy crown.

36 `Jehovah doth cause thee to go, and thy king whom thou raisest up over thee, unto a nation which thou hast not known, thou and thy fathers, and thou hast served there other gods, wood and stone;

37 and thou hast been for an astonishment, for a simile, and for a byword among all the peoples whither Jehovah doth lead thee.

38 `Much seed thou dost take out into the field, and little thou dost gather in, for the locust doth consume it;

39 vineyards thou dost plant, and hast laboured, and wine thou dost not drink nor gather, for the worm doth consume it;

40 olives are to thee in all thy border, and oil thou dost not pour out, for thine olive doth fall off.

41 `Sons and daughters thou dost beget, and they are not with thee, for they go into captivity;

42 all thy trees and the fruit of thy ground doth the locust possess;

43 the sojourner who [is] in thy midst goeth up above thee very high, and thou goest down very low;

44 he doth lend [to] thee, and thou dost not lend [to] him; he is for head, and thou art for tail.

45 `And come upon thee have all these curses, and they have pursued thee, and overtaken thee, till thou art destroyed, because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep His commands, and His statutes, which he hath commanded thee;

46 and they have been on thee for a sign and for a wonder, also on thy seed -- to the age.

47 `Because that thou hast not served Jehovah thy God with joy, and with gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things --

48 thou hast served thine enemies, whom Jehovah sendeth against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in lack of all things; and he hath put a yoke of iron on thy neck, till He hath destroyed thee.

49 `Jehovah doth lift up against thee a nation, from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle it flieth; a nation whose tongue thou hast not heard,

50 a nation -- fierce of countenance -- which accepteth not the face of the aged, and the young doth not favour;

51 and it hath eaten the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, till thou art destroyed; which leaveth not to thee corn, new wine, and oil, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock, till it hath destroyed thee.

52 `And it hath laid siege to thee in all thy gates, till thy walls come down, the high and the fenced ones in which thou art trusting, in all thy land; yea, it hath laid siege to thee in all thy gates, in all thy land, which Jehovah thy God hath given to thee;

53 and thou hast eaten the fruit of thy body, flesh of thy sons and thy daughters (whom Jehovah thy God hath given to thee), in the siege, and in the straitness with which thine enemies do straiten thee.

54 `The man who is tender in thee, and who [is] very delicate -- his eye is evil against his brother, and against the wife of his bosom, and against the remnant of his sons whom he leaveth,

55 against giving to one of them of the flesh of his sons whom he eateth, because he hath nothing left to him, in the siege, and in the straitness with which thine enemy doth straiten thee in all thy gates.

56 `The tender woman in thee, and the delicate, who hath not tried the sole of her foot to place on the ground because of delicateness and because of tenderness -- her eye is evil against the husband of her bosom, and against her son, and against her daughter,

57 and against her seed which cometh out from between her feet, even against her sons whom she doth bear, for she doth eat them for the lacking of all things in secret, in the siege and in the straitness with which thine enemy doth straiten thee within thy gates.

58 `If thou dost not observe to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honoured and fearful name -- Jehovah thy God --

59 then hath Jehovah made wonderful thy strokes, and the strokes of thy seed -- great strokes, and stedfast, and evil sicknesses, and stedfast.

60 `And He hath brought back on thee all the diseases of Egypt, of the presence of which thou hast been afraid, and they have cleaved to thee;

61 also every sickness and every stroke which is not written in the book of this law; Jehovah doth cause them to go up upon thee till thou art destroyed,

62 and ye have been left with few men, instead of which ye have been as stars of the heavens for multitude, because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah thy God.

63 `And it hath been, as Jehovah hath rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so doth Jehovah rejoice over you to destroy you, and to lay you waste; and ye have been pulled away from off the ground whither thou art going in to possess it;

64 and Jehovah hath scattered thee among all the peoples, from the end of the earth even unto the end of the earth; and thou hast served there other gods which thou hast not known, thou and thy fathers -- wood and stone.

65 `And among those nations thou dost not rest, yea, there is no resting-place for the sole of thy foot, and Jehovah hath given to thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and grief of soul;

66 and thy life hath been hanging in suspense before thee, and thou hast been afraid by night and by day, and dost not believe in thy life;

67 in the morning thou sayest, O that it were evening! and in the evening thou sayest, O that it were morning! from the fear of thy heart, with which thou art afraid, and from the sight of thine eyes which thou seest.

68 `And Jehovah hath brought thee back to Egypt with ships, by a way of which I said to thee, Thou dost not add any more to see it, and ye have sold yourselves there to thine enemies, for men-servants and for maid-servants, and there is no buyer.'

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 657

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657. Seven angels having the seven last plagues. This symbolizes the evils and falsities that exist in the church in its last state exposed in their entirety by the Lord.

Seven angels symbolize the whole of heaven. However, because heaven is heaven owing not to the angels' own inherent qualities, but to the Lord, therefore the seven angels symbolize the Lord. Moreover, only the Lord can expose the evils and falsities that are present in the church. That angels symbolize heaven, and in the highest sense the Lord, may be seen in nos. 5, 258, 344, 465, 644, 647, 648 above.

Plagues symbolize evils and falsities - evils that are matters of love, and falsities that are matters of faith. For these are what are described in the following chapter, symbolized by the foul and noxious sore; by the blood as though of someone dead, causing every living creature to die; by the blood into which the waters of the rivers and springs were turned; by the heat of the fire that scorched people; by the unclean spirits looking like frogs, which were demons; and by the great hail.

The evils and falsities symbolized by all of these are the plagues here. Last plagues symbolize evils and falsities in the church's last state. Seven means, symbolically, all (nos. 10, 390). However, because the evils symbolized by the plagues in the following chapter are not all evils in particular, but all evils in general, seven here symbolically means all universally; for a universal entity embraces all of its constituents in particular.

It is apparent from this that John's seeing seven angels having the seven last plagues means symbolically that the evils and falsities that exist in the church and their character in its last state were exposed in their entirety by the Lord.

[2] That plagues symbolize spiritual plagues, which afflict people with respect to their souls and destroy them, and that these plagues or afflictions are evils and falsities, can be seen from the following passages:

From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness..., but a fresh wound not lanced; neither has it been bound up or softened... (Isaiah 1:6)

(Jehovah) is striking the peoples wrathfully with an incurable plague... (Isaiah 14:6)

(Jehovah,) remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand. (Psalms 39:10)

Your fracture is beyond hope...; for I have struck you with the affliction of an enemy... for the multitude of your iniquities; your sins have become many... But I will... heal you of your afflictions... (Jeremiah 30:12, 14, 17)

If you do not carefully keep all the words of (the Law)..., Jehovah will bring upon you... extraordinary plagues - great and prolonged plagues - (and) every plague... which is not written in this book of the Law... until you are destroyed. (Deuteronomy 28:58-59, 61)

No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your tent. (Psalms 91:10)

Edom shall become a desolation. Everyone who goes by... will hiss at all its plagues. (Jeremiah 49:17)

...she shall be a desolation. Everyone who passes by Babylon shall be dumbfounded, and hiss over all her plagues. (Jeremiah 50:13)

...plagues will come (upon Babylon) in one day... (Revelation 18:8)

(The two witnesses will) strike the earth with every plague... (Revelation 11:6)

The plagues in Egypt, which were in part like the plagues described in the following chapter, symbolized nothing else but evils and falsities. You may find the plagues in Egypt enumerated in no. 503 1 above. They are also called plagues in Exodus 9:14; 11:1.

It is apparent from this that plagues and afflictions mean, symbolically, nothing other than spiritual plagues and afflictions, which afflict people with respect to their souls and destroy them. So also in Isaiah 30:26; Zechariah 14:12, 15; Psalms 38:5, 11; Revelation 9:20; 16:21; Exodus 12:13; 30:12; Numbers 11:33; Luke 7:21; and elsewhere.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. No. 503:4.

  
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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.