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Ezekiel 16

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1 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,

2 `Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, and thou hast said:

3 Thus said the Lord Jehovah to Jerusalem: Thy birth and thy nativity [Are] of the land of the Canaanite, Thy father the Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.

4 As to thy nativity, in the day thou wast born, Thou -- thy navel hath not been cut, And in water thou wast not washed for ease, And thou hast not been salted at all, And thou hast not been swaddled at all.

5 No eye hath had pity on thee, to do to thee any of these, To have compassion on thee, And thou art cast on the face of the field, With loathing of thy person. In the day thou hast been born -- thou!

6 And I do pass over by thee, And I see thee trodden down in thy blood, And I say to thee in thy blood, Live, And I say to thee in thy blood, Live.

7 A myriad -- as the shoot of the field I have made thee, And thou art multiplied, and art great, And comest in with an excellent adornment, Breasts have been formed, and thy hair hath grown -- And thou, naked and bare!

8 And I pass over by thee, and I see thee, And lo, thy time [is] a time of loves, And I spread My skirt over thee, And I cover thy nakedness, And I swear to thee, and come in to a covenant with thee, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, And thou dost become Mine.

9 And I do wash thee with water, And I wash away thy blood from off thee, And I anoint thee with perfume.

10 And I clothe thee with embroidery, And I shoe thee with badger's skin, And I gird thee with fine linen, And I cover thee with figured silk.

11 And I adorn thee with adornments, And I give bracelets for thy hands, And a chain for thy neck.

12 And I give a ring for thy nose, And rings for thine ears, And a crown of beauty on thy head.

13 And thou dost put on gold and silver, And thy clothing [is] fine linen, And figured silk and embroidery, Fine flour, and honey, and oil thou hast eaten, And thou art very very beautiful, And dost go prosperously to the kingdom.

14 And go forth doth thy name among nations, Because of thy beauty -- for it [is] complete, In My honour that I have set upon thee, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

15 And thou dost trust in thy beauty, And goest a-whoring because of thy renown, And dost pour out thy whoredoms On every passer by -- to him it is.

16 And thou dost take of thy garments, And dost make to thee spotted high-places, And dost go a-whoring upon them, They are not coming in -- nor shall it be!

17 And thou dost take thy beauteous vessels Of My gold and My silver that I gave to thee, And dost make to thee images of a male, And dost go a-whoring with them,

18 And dost take the garments of thy embroidery, And thou dost cover them, And My oil and My perfume thou hast set before them.

19 And My bread, that I gave to thee, Fine flour, and oil, and honey, that I caused thee to eat. Thou hast even set it before them, For a sweet fragrance -- thus it is, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

20 And thou dost take thy sons and thy daughters Whom thou hast born to Me, And dost sacrifice them to them for food. Is it a little thing because of thy whoredoms,

21 That thou dost slaughter My sons, And dost give them up in causing them to pass over to them?

22 And with all thine abominations and thy whoredoms, Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, When thou wast naked and bare, Trodden down in thy blood thou wast!

23 And it cometh to pass, after all thy wickedness, (Wo, wo, to thee -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah),

24 That thou dost build to thee an arch, And dost make to thee a high place in every broad place.

25 At every head of the way thou hast built thy high place, And thou dost make thy beauty abominable, And dost open wide thy feet to every passer by, And dost multiply thy whoredoms,

26 And dost go a-whoring unto sons of Egypt, Thy neighbours -- great of appetite! And thou dost multiply thy whoredoms, To provoke Me to anger.

27 And lo, I have stretched out My hand against thee, And I diminish thy portion, And give thee to the desire of those hating thee, The daughters of the Philistines, Who are ashamed of thy wicked way.

28 And thou goest a-whoring unto sons of Asshur, Without thy being satisfied, And thou dost go a-whoring with them, And also -- thou hast not been satisfied.

29 And thou dost multiply thy whoredoms On the land of Canaan -- toward Chaldea, And even with this thou hast not been satisfied.

30 How weak [is] thy heart, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, In thy doing all these, The work of a domineering whorish woman.

31 In thy building thine arch at the head of every way, Thy high place thou hast made in every broad place, And -- hast not been as a whore deriding a gift.

32 The wife who committeth adultery -- Under her husband -- doth receive strangers.

33 To all whores they give a gift, And -- thou hast given thy gifts to all thy lovers, And dost bribe them to come in unto thee, From round about -- in thy whoredoms.

34 And the contrary is in thee from women in thy whoredoms, That after thee none doth go a-whoring; And in thy giving a gift, And a gift hath not been given to thee; And thou art become contrary.

35 Therefore, O whore, hear a word of Jehovah,

36 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of thy brass being poured forth, And thy nakedness is revealed in thy whoredoms near thy lovers, And near all the idols of thy abominations, And according to the blood of thy sons, Whom thou hast given to them;

37 Therefore, lo, I am assembling all thy lovers, To whom thou hast been sweet, And all whom thou hast loved, Besides all whom thou hast hated; And I have assembled them by thee round about, And have revealed thy nakedness to them, And they have seen all thy nakedness.

38 And I have judged thee -- judgments of adultresses, And of women shedding blood, And have given thee blood, fury, and jealousy.

39 And I have given thee into their hand, And they have thrown down thine arch, And they have broken down thy high places, And they have stript thee of thy garments, And they have taken thy beauteous vessels, And they have left thee naked and bare.

40 And have caused an assembly to come up against thee, And stoned thee with stones, And thrust thee through with their swords,

41 And burnt thy houses with fire, And done in thee judgments before the eyes of many women, And I have caused thee to cease from going a-whoring, And also a gift thou givest no more.

42 And I have caused My fury against thee to rest, And My jealousy hath turned aside from thee, And I have been quiet, and I am not angry any more.

43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, And dost give trouble to Me in all these, Lo, even I also thy way at first gave up, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, And I did not this thought for all thine abominations.

44 Lo, every one using a simile, Doth use a simile concerning thee, saying: As the mother -- her daughter!

45 Thy mother's daughter thou [art], Loathing her husband and her sons, And thy sisters' sister thou [art], Who loathed their husbands and their sons, Your mother [is] a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

46 And thine elder sister [is] Samaria, she and her daughters, Who is dwelling at thy left hand, And thy younger sister, who is dwelling on thy right hand, [is] Sodom and her daughters.

47 And -- in their ways thou hast not walked, And according to their abominations done, As a little thing it hath been loathed, And thou dost more corruptly than they in all thy ways.

48 I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Sodom thy sister hath not done -- she and her daughters -- As thou hast done -- thou and thy daughters.

49 Lo, this hath been the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, Arrogancy, fulness of bread, and quiet ease, Have been to her and to her daughters, And the hand of the afflicted and needy She hath not strengthened.

50 And they are haughty and do abomination before Me, And I turn them aside when I have seen.

51 As to Samaria, as the half of thy sins -- she hath not sinned, And thou dost multiply thine abominations more than they, And dost justify thy sisters by all thy abominations that thou hast done.

52 Thou also -- bear thy shame, That thou hast adjudged to thy sisters, Because of thy sins that thou hast done more abominably than they, They are more righteous than thou, And thou, also, be ashamed and bear thy shame, In thy justifying thy sisters.

53 And I have turned back [to] their captivity, The captivity of Sodom and her daughters, And the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, And the captivity of thy captives in their midst,

54 So that thou dost bear thy shame, And hast been ashamed of all that thou hast done, In thy comforting them.

55 And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, Do turn back to their former state, And Samaria and her daughters Do turn back to their former state, And thou and thy daughters do turn back to your former state.

56 And thy sister Sodom hath not been for a report in thy mouth, In the day of thine arrogancy,

57 Before thy wickedness is revealed, As [at] the time of the reproach of the daughters of Aram, And of all her neighbours, the daughters of the Philistines, Who are despising thee round about.

58 Thy devices and thine abominations, Thou hast borne them, an affirmation of Jehovah.

59 For thus said the Lord Jehovah: I have dealt with thee as thou hast done, In that thou hast despised an oath -- to break covenant.

60 And I -- I have remembered My covenant with thee, In the days of thy youth, And I have established for thee a covenant age-during.

61 And thou hast remembered thy ways, And thou hast been ashamed, In thy receiving thy sisters -- Thine elder with thy younger, And I have given them to thee for daughters, And not by thy covenant.

62 And I -- I have established My covenant with thee, And thou hast known that I [am] Jehovah.

63 So that thou dost remember, And thou hast been ashamed, And there is not to thee any more an opening of the mouth because of thy shame, In My receiving atonement for thee, For all that thou hast done, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!'

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1186

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1186. That 'Asshur' is reasoning is clear from the meaning of 'Asshur' or Assyria in the Word, where in every case it stands for those things that belong to reason. It stands for them in both senses, namely for rational things and for reasonings - reason and rational things being used strictly speaking to mean things that are true, and reasoning and reasonings to mean those that are false. Because 'Asshur' means reason and reasoning it is very frequently linked with Egypt, which means facts, for reason and reasoning are based on facts. That Asshur means reasoning is clear in Isaiah,

Woe to Asshur, the rod of My anger, he does not think what is right and his heart does not consider what is right He has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have intelligence. Isaiah 10:5, 7, 13.

Here 'Asshur' stands for reasoning, and therefore he is referred to as 'not thinking and not considering what is right', and it is said that 'he acts by his own wisdom, for he has intelligence'.

[2] In Ezekiel,

Two women, the daughters of one mother, committed whoredom in Egypt. In their youth they committed whoredom. One committed whoredom and doted on her lovers, on Asshur (the Assyrians), her neighbours, clothed in violet, leaders and governors, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses The sons of Babel came to her and they defiled her with their whoredom. Ezekiel 23:2-3, 5-6, 17.

Here 'Egypt' stands for facts, 'Asshur' for reasoning, 'the sons of Babel' for falsities springing from evil desires.

[3] In the same prophet,

Jerusalem, you committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt, you committed whoredom with the sons of Asshur, you multiplied your whoredom even into the land of Canaan towards Chaldaea. Ezekiel 16:26, 28-29.

Here likewise 'Egypt' stands for facts, 'Asshur' for reasoning. Reasoning, based on facts, concerning spiritual and celestial things is called 'whoredom' both here and elsewhere in the Word. Anyone may see that committing whoredom with Egyptians and with Assyrians is not the meaning.

[4] In Jeremiah,

Israel, what have you to do with the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of Shihor? And what have you to do with the way to Asshur, to drink the waters of the River (the Euphrates)? Jeremiah 2:18, 36.

Here likewise 'Egypt' stands for facts, 'Asshur' for reasoning. In the same prophet,

Israel is a scattered flock; the lions have driven him away. First the king of Asshur has devoured him, and last this king of Babel has removed his bones. Jeremiah 50:17-18

'Asshur' stands for reasoning concerning spiritual things.

[5] In Micah,

And this will be peace, when Asshur comes into our land and when he treads our palaces, and we will set up over him seven shepherds and eight princes of men and they will rule the land of Asshur with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in its gates; and he will deliver [us] from Asshur when he comes into our land and when he treads our border. Micah 5:5-6.

This refers to Israel, or the spiritual Church, concerning which it is said that 'Asshur will not enter in', that is, reasoning will not do so. 'The land of Nimrod' stands for the kind of worship meant by Nimrod, which has interior evils and falsities within it.

[6] The fact that in the Word 'Asshur' also means reason present with the member of the Church, by means of which reason he sees clearly what is true and what is good, is clear in Hosea,

They will tremble like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove from the land of Asshur. Hosea 11:11.

Here 'Egypt' stands for the knowledge a member of the Church possesses, 'Asshur' for his reason. That 'a bird' means facts that are known and understood, and 'a dove' rational good, has been shown already.

[7] In Isaiah,

On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Asshur, and Asshur will come into Egypt and Egypt into Asshur, and the Egyptians will serve Asshur. 1 On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom Jehovah Zebaoth will bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Asshur the work of My hands, and Israel My heritage. Isaiah 19:23-25.

This refers to the spiritual Church, meant by Israel, 'Asshur' being its reason, and 'Egypt' its knowledge. These three constitute the intellectual powers of the member of the spiritual Church which come in that order one after another. In other places where Asshur is mentioned it means the rational, true or false, as in Isaiah 20:1-6; 23:13; 27:13; 30:31; 31:8; 36, 37; 52:4; Ezekiel 27:23-24; Ezekiel 31:3-18; 32:22; Micah 7:12; Zephaniah 2:13; Zechariah 10:11; Psalms 83:8. 'Asshur' stands for reasoning in Hosea 5:13; 7:11; 10:6; 11:5; 12:1; 14:3; and in Zechariah 10:10, where the reference is to Ephraim who means the intellectual part of the mind, though in this instance when perverted.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The Hebrew of this text in Isaiah may be read in two different ways - serve Asshur or serve with Asshur. Most English versions of Isaiah prefer the second of these.

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