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Deuteronomy 8

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1 `All the command which I am commanding thee to-day ye observe to do, so that ye live, and have multiplied, and gone in, and possessed the land which Jehovah hath sworn to your fathers;

2 and thou hast remembered all the way which Jehovah thy God hath caused thee to go these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble thee to try thee, to know that which [is] in thy heart, whether thou dost keep His commands or not.

3 `And He doth humble thee, and cause thee to hunger and doth cause thee to eat the manna (which thou hast not known, even thy fathers have not known), in order to cause thee to know that not by bread alone doth man live, but by every produce of the mouth of Jehovah man doth live.

4 `Thy raiment hath not worn out from off thee, and thy foot hath not swelled these forty years,

5 and thou hast known, with thy heart, that as a man chastiseth his son Jehovah thy God is chastising thee,

6 and thou hast kept the commands of Jehovah thy God, to walk in His ways, and to fear Him.

7 `For Jehovah thy God is bringing thee in unto a good land, a land of brooks of waters, of fountains, and of depths coming out in valley and in mountain:

8 a land of wheat, and barley, and vine, and fig, and pomegranate; a land of oil olive and honey;

9 a land in which without scarcity thou dost eat bread, thou dost not lack anything in it; a land whose stones [are] iron, and out of its mountains thou dost dig brass;

10 and thou hast eaten, and been satisfied, and hast blessed Jehovah thy God, on the good land which he hath given to thee.

11 `Take heed to thyself, lest thou forget Jehovah thy God so as not to keep His commands, and His judgments, and His statutes which I am commanding thee to-day;

12 lest thou eat, and hast been satisfied, and good houses dost build, and hast inhabited;

13 and thy herd and thy flock be multiplied, and silver and gold be multiplied to thee; and all that is thine be multiplied:

14 `And thy heart hath been high, and thou hast forgotten Jehovah thy God (who is bringing thee out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants;

15 who is causing thee to go in the great and the terrible wilderness -- burning serpent, and scorpion, and thirst -- where there is no water; who is bringing out to thee waters from the flinty rock;

16 who is causing thee to eat manna in the wilderness, which thy fathers have not known, in order to humble thee, and in order to try thee, to do thee good in thy latter end),

17 and thou hast said in thy heart, My power, and the might of my hand, hath made for me this wealth:

18 `And thou hast remembered Jehovah thy God, for He it [is] who is giving to thee power to make wealth, in order to establish His covenant which He hath sworn to thy fathers as [at] this day.

19 `And it hath been -- if thou really forget Jehovah thy God, and hast gone after other gods, and served them, and bowed thyself to them, I have testified against you to-day that ye do utterly perish;

20 as the nations whom Jehovah is destroying from your presence, so ye perish; because ye hearken not to the voice of Jehovah your God.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 409

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409. And it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. This symbolically means that consequently all the Word's truths had been completely falsified.

Rivers symbolize truths in abundance, because waters symbolize truths (no. 50); and springs of water or fountains symbolize the Word (no. 384). The meaning is that the Word's truths had been completely falsified, because in the next verse we are told that a third of the waters became wormwood, and wormwood symbolizes hellish falsity (no. 410).

[2] That rivers symbolize truths in abundance can be seen from the following passages:

...I am doing a new thing... ...I will give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. (Isaiah 43:19-20)

...I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and rivers on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants. (Isaiah 44:3)

Then... the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert plain. (Isaiah 35:6)

I will open rivers in the heights, and put fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. (Isaiah 41:18)

(Jehovah) has founded (the world) upon the seas, ...established it upon the rivers. (Psalms 24:2)

I will set His hand over the sea, and His right hand on the rivers. (Psalms 89:25)

Was Jehovah angry with the rivers? Was Your anger against the rivers? Was Your wrath against the sea, that You rode on Your horses...? (Habakkuk 3:8)

There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God... (Psalms 46:4)

He showed me a pure river of water of life..., proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1)

He split the rocks in the wilderness, and made the great abysses drink... ...He struck the rock..., and rivers flowed out... (Psalms 78:15-16, 20, cf. 105:41)

The waters will fail in the sea, and the river will be... dried up. (Isaiah 19:5-7; cf. 42:15; 50:2, Nahum 1:4, Psalms 107:33, Job 14:11)

(Jesus said, "If anyone comes to Me,) as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37-38)

And so, too, elsewhere, such as Isaiah 33:21, Jeremiah 17:7-8, Deuteronomy 8:7.

[3] In an opposite sense, however, rivers symbolize falsities in abundance, as can be seen from the following:

(It) will send ambassadors by sea... to a nation... downtrodden, whose land the rivers have despoiled. (Isaiah 18:2)

If not for Jehovah on our side..., ...the waters would have overwhelmed us, (and) the river would have gone over our soul. (Psalms 124:2, 4-5)

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. (Isaiah 43:2)

The cords of death surrounded me, and the rivers of Belial terrified me. (Psalms 18:5)

(The dragon) spewed water out of its mouth like a river after the woman, that it might cause her to be swallowed up by the stream. (Revelation 12:15)

...behold, Jehovah will cause to rise over them the waters of the river, strong and many..., and it will... overflow and pass through, and reach up to the neck. (Isaiah 8:7-8)

...the floods came, and... rushed upon that house; and (yet) it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. (Matthew 7:25; cf. 7:27, Luke 6:48-49)

Rivers here, too, stand for falsities in abundance, because the rock symbolizes the Lord in relation to Divine truth.

Rivers also symbolize temptations or trials, because temptations or trials are inundations of falsities.

  
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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.