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Deuteronomy 32

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1 `Give ear, O heavens, and I speak; And thou dost hear, O earth, sayings of my mouth!

2 Drop as rain doth My doctrine; Flow as dew doth My sayings; As storms on the tender grass, And as showers on the herb,

3 For the Name of Jehovah I proclaim, Ascribe ye greatness to our God!

4 The Rock! -- perfect [is] His work, For all His ways [are] just; God of stedfastness, and without iniquity: Righteous and upright [is] He.

5 It hath done corruptly to Him; Their blemish is not His sons', A generation perverse and crooked!

6 To Jehovah do ye act thus, O people foolish and not wise? Is not He thy father -- thy possessor? He made thee, and doth establish thee.

7 Remember days of old -- Understand the years of many generations -- Ask thy father, and he doth tell thee; Thine elders, and they say to thee:

8 In the Most High causing nations to inherit, In His separating sons of Adam -- He setteth up the borders of the peoples By the number of the sons of Israel.

9 For Jehovah's portion [is] His people, Jacob [is] the line of His inheritance.

10 He findeth him in a land -- a desert, And in a void -- a howling wilderness, He turneth him round -- He causeth him to understand -- He keepeth him as the apple of His eye.

11 As an eagle waketh up its nest, Over its young ones fluttereth, Spreadeth its wings -- taketh them, Beareth them on its pinions; --

12 Jehovah alone doth lead him, And there is no strange god with him.

13 He maketh him ride on high places of earth, And he eateth increase of the fields, And He maketh him suck honey from a rock, And oil out of the flint of a rock;

14 Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, and rams, sons of Bashan, And he-goats, with fat of kidneys of wheat; And of the blood of the grape thou dost drink wine!

15 And Jeshurun waxeth fat, and doth kick: Thou hast been fat -- thou hast been thick, Thou hast been covered. And he leaveth God who made him, And dishonoureth the Rock of his salvation.

16 They make Him zealous with strangers, With abominations they make Him angry.

17 They sacrifice to demons -- no god! Gods they have not known -- New ones -- from the vicinity they came; Not feared them have your fathers!

18 The Rock that begat thee thou forgettest, And neglectest God who formeth thee.

19 And Jehovah seeth and despiseth -- For the provocation of His sons and His daughters.

20 And He saith: I hide My face from them, I see what [is] their latter end; For a froward generation [are] they, Sons in whom is no stedfastness.

21 They have made Me zealous by `no-god,' They made Me angry by their vanities; And I make them zealous by `no-people,' By a foolish nation I make them angry.

22 For a fire hath been kindled in Mine anger, And it burneth unto Sheol -- the lowest, And consumeth earth and its increase, And setteth on fire foundations of mountains.

23 I gather upon them evils, Mine arrows I consume upon them.

24 Exhausted by famine, And consumed by heat, and bitter destruction. And the teeth of beasts I send upon them, With poison of fearful things of the dust.

25 Without bereave doth the sword, And at the inner-chambers -- fear, Both youth and virgin, Suckling with man of grey hair.

26 I have said: I blow them away, I cause their remembrance to cease from man;

27 If not -- the anger of an enemy I fear, Lest their adversaries know -- Lest they say, Our hand is high, And Jehovah hath not wrought all this.

28 For a nation lost to counsels [are] they, And there is no understanding in them.

29 If they were wise -- They deal wisely [with] this; They attend to their latter end:

30 How doth one pursue a thousand, And two cause a myriad to flee! If not -- that their rock hath sold them, And Jehovah hath shut them up?

31 For not as our Rock [is] their Rock, (And our enemies [are] judges!)

32 For of the vine of Sodom their vine [is], And of the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes [are] grapes of gall -- They have bitter clusters;

33 The poison of dragons [is] their wine And the fierce venom of asps.

34 Is it not laid up with Me? Sealed among My treasures?

35 Mine [are] vengeance and recompense, At the due time -- doth their foot slide; For near is a day of their calamity, And haste do things prepared for them.

36 For Jehovah doth judge His people, And for His servants doth repent Himself. For He seeth -- the going away of power, And none is restrained and left.

37 And He hath said, Where [are] their gods -- The rock in which they trusted;

38 Which the fat of their sacrifices do eat, They drink the wine of their libation! Let them arise and help you, Let it be for you a hiding-place!

39 See ye, now, that I -- I [am] He, And there is no god with Me: I put to death, and I keep alive; I have smitten, and I heal; And there is not from My hand a deliverer,

40 For I lift up unto the heavens My hand, And have said, I live -- to the age!

41 If I have sharpened the brightness of My sword, And My hand doth lay hold on judgment, I turn back vengeance to Mine adversaries, And to those hating Me -- I repay!

42 I make drunk Mine arrows with blood, And My sword devoureth flesh, From the blood of the pierced and captive, From the head of the freemen of the enemy.

43 Sing ye nations -- [with] his people, For the blood of His servants He avengeth, And vengeance He turneth back on His adversaries, And hath pardoned His land -- His people.'

44 And Moses cometh and speaketh all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea son of Nun;

45 and Moses finisheth to speak all these words unto all Israel,

46 and saith unto them, `Set your heart to all the words which I am testifying against you to-day, that ye command your sons to observe to do all the words of this law,

47 for it [is] not a vain thing for you, for it [is] your life, and by this thing ye prolong days on the ground whither ye are passing over the Jordan to possess it.'

48 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, in this self-same day, saying,

49 `Go up unto this mount Abarim, mount Nebo, which [is] in the land of Moab, which [is] on the front of Jericho, and see the land of Canaan which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession;

50 and die in the mount whither thou art going up, and be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother hath died in the mount Hor, and is gathered unto his people:

51 `Because ye trespassed against me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribath-Kadesh, the wilderness of Zin -- because ye sanctified Me not in the midst of the sons of Israel;

52 but over-against thou seest the land, and thither thou dost not go in, unto the land which I am giving to the sons of Israel.'

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 39

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39. And all the tribes of the earth shall wail over him. That this signifies that the falsities of the church will resist, is evident from the signification of wailing, as denoting to lament, to grieve, to be indignant, to be angry, to be averse from, thus also to resist; and from the signification of tribes, as denoting all truths and goods in the aggregate, and, in the opposite sense, all falsities and evils in the aggregate, concerning which we shall speak in what follows; and from the signification of the earth, as being the church (on which see above, n. 29). By all the tribes of the earth, therefore, is signified the whole church, and by their wailing over Him, is signified that truths and goods are no more, because falsities and evils are about to dominate and resist. For what the state of the church will be at its end is treated of in general in this verse, when there will be no longer any faith because no charity; that is, that the Lord will then reveal Himself, and that all will acknowledge Him who are in truths from good, and that those also shall see Him who are in falsities from evil, but that the falsities of the church will resist. (That the Apocalypse does not treat of the successive states of the church, but of its last state, or when it is at its end, may be seen above, n. 5; and that its end is when there is no faith because no charity, may be seen in the small work, The Last Judgment 33-39, and following numbers. When there is no faith because no charity, then falsities from evil reign, which offer opposition to truths from good.)

[2] Tribes are often mentioned in the Word, because the Israelitish people were divided into twelve tribes; and he who is ignorant of the internal sense of the Word supposes, that by tribes are meant the tribes of Israel; nevertheless, by tribes are not meant tribes, nor is Israel meant by Israel; but tribes mean all those who are in truths from good, and Israel means the church of the Lord. He who does not know this, will easily accept the common belief that the children of Israel were chosen before all others on the whole earth, and also that they will be introduced at last into the land of Canaan. Indeed, he will believe that heaven will consist chiefly of them; although, by the names of those tribes in the Word they are not meant, but those who are in truths from good, that is, those who belong to the church; by the twelve tribes, all, and by each one of them, some special truth and good pertaining to those who belong to the church.

[3] These things being understood, it is evident what is meant by these words in the Apocalypse:

"I heard the number of them which were sealed; and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the sons of Israel. Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Asher were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Naphtali were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasseh were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zebulun were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand" (7:4-8).

In this passage those who belonged to the Israelitish nation are not meant, but all those, however many they may be, who are in truths from good; for all these are sealed for heaven. The numbers one hundred and forty-four thousand and twelve thousand, also signify all, and each tribe signifies all those who are in that truth or good which is signified by its name.

(As may be evident from what is shown in Arcana Coelestia in regard to the following: what good and truth are signified by Judah, n. 3881, 6363; what by Reuben, n. 3861, 3866, 4605, 4731, 4734, 4761, 6342-6345; what by Gad, n. 3934, 3935; what by Asher, n. 3938, 3939, 6408; what by Naphtali, n. 3927, 3928 what by Manasseh, n. 3969, 5354, 6222, 6231, 6238, 6267, 6296 what by Simeon, n. 3869-3872, 4197, 4502, 4503, 5482, 5626, 5630; what by Levi, n. 3875, 3877, 4497, 4502, 4503; what by Issachar, n. 3956, 3957; what by Zebulun, n. 3960, 3961, 6383; what by Joseph, n. 3969, 3971, 4669, 6417; and what by Benjamin, n. 3969, 4592, 5411, 5413, 5443, 5639, 5686, 5688, 5689, 6440.

That all numbers in the Word signify things, see n. 482, 487, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 6175, 9488, 9659, 10217, 10253.

That twelve signifies all, and all things as to truths from good, see n. 577, 2089, 2129, 2130, 3272, 3858, 3913; also, the numbers 72, 144, 12,000, 144,000, because they arise from the number 12 by multiplication, n. 7973.

That numbers multiplied signify the same as the simple numbers from which they are produced by multiplication, see n. 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973.)

[4] He who does not know that numbers signify things, what the numbers twelve, one hundred and forty-four, and twelve thousand signify, and also what tribes and apostles signify, cannot know what is signified by those passages in the Apocalypse, where it is said, that the holy city, New Jerusalem,

"had a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and in the gates twelve angels, and names written which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; and the wall had twelve foundations, in which were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The wall was a hundred and forty and four cubits, and the length and the breadth of the city twelve thousand furlongs" (21:12, 14, 16, 17).

The signification of all these things may be seen explained in the little work, The New Jerusalem and its Doctrine, n. 1; where it is shown, that by Jerusalem is signified the church as to doctrine; by the wall, its truths of defence; by the gates, introductory truths; by the foundations, the knowledges upon which doctrine is founded; by twelve angels, and by twelve tribes, all truths and goods collectively; the same by the twelve apostles; and by the numbers twelve, one hundred and forty-four, and twelve thousand, all things and all persons.

[5] Moreover, he who knows that such things are signified by the twelve tribes may see the mystery involved in the names of the twelve tribes being engraved upon the precious stones of the Urim and Thummim, and also the signification of the breast-plate (Exodus 28:21; 39:10-15). (This arcanum may be seen unfolded in Arcana Coelestia 3858, 6335, 6640, 9863, 9865, 9873, 9874, 9905.) He may also see what is the signification of the twelve apostles sitting upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28), namely, that the Lord alone will judge every one by truths from good (n. 2129, 6397); also what things are meant by the predictions of Israel the father, concerning his sons (Gen. 49); and also the meaning of many other passages in the Word where the tribes are mentioned (as in Isaiah 19:13; 49:6; 63:17; Jeremiah 10:16; Ezekiel 48:1, and following verses; Psalm 122:3-5; Deuteronomy 32:8; Numbers 24:2; Apoc. 5:9; 7:4-9; 11:9; 13:7; 14:6; and elsewhere).

[6] And again, the meaning of the Lord's words about the consummation of the age and His coming, may be seen:

"After the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and much glory" (Matthew 14:29, 30).

(These words may be seen explained in detail in the work, Heaven and Hell 1; and in the following passages in Arcana Coelestia, where it is shown that the twelve tribes of Israel represented, and thence signified, all truths and goods collectively, thus all things of faith and love, n. 3858, 3926, 4060, 6335; that similar things are signified by the twelve apostles, n. 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397; and that they have various significations according to the order in which they are named, n. 3862, 3926, 3939, 4603, 6337, 6640, 10335.)

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.