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Ezekiel 21

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

2 `Son of man, set thy face unto Jerusalem, and prophesy unto the holy places, and prophesy unto the ground of Israel;

3 and thou hast said unto the ground of Israel: Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against thee, And have brought out My sword from its scabbard, And have cut off from thee righteous and wicked.

4 Because that I have cut off from thee righteous and wicked, Therefore go out doth My sword from its scabbard, Unto all flesh, from south to north.

5 And known have all flesh that I, Jehovah, Have brought out My sword from its scabbard, It doth not turn back any more.

6 And thou, son of man, sigh with breaking of loins, yea, with bitterness thou dost sigh before their eyes,

7 and it hath come to pass, when they say unto thee, For what art thou sighing? that thou hast said: Because of the report, for it is coming, And melted hath every heart, And feeble hath been all hands, And weak is every spirit, And all knees go -- waters, Lo, it is coming, yea, it hath been, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

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

9 `Son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said, Thus said Jehovah, say: A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished.

10 So as to slaughter a slaughter it is sharpened. So as to have brightness it is polished, Desire hath rejoiced the sceptre of my son, It is despising every tree.

11 And he giveth it for polishing, For laying hold of by the hand. It is sharpened -- the sword -- and polished, To give it into the hand of a slayer.

12 Cry and howl, son of man, For it hath been among My people, It [is] among all the princes of Israel, Cast unto the sword have been My people. Therefore strike on thy thigh,

13 Because [it is] a trier, And what if even the sceptre it is despising? It shall not be, an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

14 And thou, son of man, prophesy, And smite hand on hand, And bent is the sword a third time, The sword of the wounded! It [is] the sword of the wounded -- the great one, That is entering the inner chamber to them.

15 To melt the heart, and to multiply the ruins, By all their gates I have set the point of a sword. Ah, it is made for brightness, Wrapt up for slaughter.

16 Take possession of the right, place thyself at the left, Whither thy face is appointed.

17 And I also, I smite My hand on my hand, And have caused My fury to rest; I, Jehovah, have spoken.'

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

19 `And thou, son of man, appoint for thee two ways, for the coming in of the sword of the king of Babylon; from one land they come forth, both of them, and a station prepare thou, at the top of the way of the city prepare [it].

20 A way appoint for the coming of the sword, Unto Rabbath of the sons of Ammon, And to Judah, in Jerusalem -- the fenced.

21 For stood hath the king of Babylon at the head of the way, At the top of the two ways, to use divination, He hath moved lightly with the arrows, He hath asked at the teraphim, He hath looked on the liver.

22 At his right hath been the divination -- Jerusalem, To place battering-rams, To open the mouth with slaughter, To lift up a voice with shouting, To place battering-rams against the gates, To pour out a mount, to build a fortification.

23 And it hath been to them as a false divination in their eyes, Who have sworn oaths to them, And he is causing iniquity to be remembered to be caught.

24 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your causing your iniquity to be remembered, In your transgressions being revealed, For your sins being seen, in all your doings, Because of your being remembered, By the hand ye are caught.

25 And thou, wounded, wicked one, Prince of Israel, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end!

26 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Turn aside the mitre, and bear away the crown, This -- not this -- the low make high, And the high make low.

27 An overturn, overturn, overturn, I make it, Also this hath not been till the coming of Him, Whose [is] the judgment, and I have given it.

28 And thou, son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah concerning the sons of Ammon, and concerning their reproach: and thou hast said: A sword, a sword, open for slaughter, Polished to the utmost for brightness!

29 In the seeing for thee of a vain thing, In the divining for thee of a lie, To put thee on the necks of the wounded of the wicked, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end.

30 Turn [it] back unto its scabbard, In the place where thou wast produced, In the land of thy birth I do judge thee.

31 And I have poured on thee Mine indignation, With fire of My wrath I blow against thee, And have given thee into the hand of brutish men -- artificers of destruction.

32 To the fire thou art for fuel, Thy blood is in the midst of the land, Thou art not remembered, For I, Jehovah, have spoken!'

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 759

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759. "And the merchants of the earth have become rich owing to the potencies of her delights." This symbolizes the greater and lower in rank in the Roman Catholic hierarchy who by their dominion over sacred things strive for Divine majesty and superregal glory, who continually seek to establish it by multiplying the number of monasteries and possessions under their control, and by collecting and accumulating the world's treasures without end, and who thus procure for themselves physical and natural delights and gratifications by claiming for themselves a celestial and spiritual dominion.

The merchants of Babylon can only mean the greater and lower in rank in their church hierarchy, because in verse 23 of this chapter we are told that they are the great men of the earth. And the potencies of her delights with which they have become rich can only mean the dogmas that are the means by which they acquire for themselves dominion over people's souls, and so also over their possessions and wealth. People know that they collect these without end and swell their treasuries with them, and also that they make merchandise of the sanctities of the church, by selling salvation, for example, or heaven, in exchange for offerings and gifts made to monasteries and their saints and images, or in exchange for masses, indulgences and various dispensations.

[2] Who cannot see that if the papal dominion had not been broken at the time of the Protestant Reformation, Roman Catholics would have scraped together the possessions and wealth of all the kingdoms in the whole of Europe? And that then they would have made themselves the sole lords, and everyone else their servants? Do they not have the greatest part of their wealth from preceding centuries when they had power over emperors and kings, whom they could excommunicate and depose if they did not obey? And do they not still have annual incomes that are immense, and treasuries full of gold, silver, and precious stones?

The same barbarous lust for dominion is still lodged in the hearts of many of them, and is restrained only by a fear of its loss if it should extend beyond accepted limits.

Of what use, however, are such great incomes, treasures and possessions to them, other than to be delighted by them, to pride themselves on having them, and to establish their dominion to eternity?

It can be seen from this what is here symbolized by merchants of the earth who have become rich owing to the potencies of Babylon's delights.

They are called merchants also in Isaiah:

(The inhabitants of Babylon) are as stubble. Fire has burned them; they do not deliver their soul from the power of the flame... Such are... your merchants from your youth. (Isaiah 47:14-15)

[3] In the Word, to be a merchant or trader means, symbolically, to be engaged in procuring for oneself spiritual riches, which are concepts of truth and goodness, and in an opposite sense, concepts of falsity and evil, and to use the first to gain heaven, and the second to gain the world. For that reason the Lord likened the kingdom of heaven to a merchant seeking beautiful pearls (Matthew 13:45-46), and the people in the church to servants who were given talents with which to trade and gain more (Matthew 25:14-30), or who were given ten minas with which to likewise trade and gain more (Luke 19:12-26).

Moreover, because Tyre symbolizes the church in respect to its concepts of truth and goodness, therefore the whole of chapter twenty-seven in Ezekiel has trading and gain as its subject, and we are told concerning Tyre:

In your wisdom and your understanding you have gained... for yourself... gold and silver into your treasuries; and by the great wisdom in your trading you have increased your riches... (Ezekiel 28:4-5)

And elsewhere:

...Tyre... has been laid waste..., whose merchants are princes, and its traders the honorable of the earth. (Isaiah 23:1, 8)

Also, the corrupt church among Jews in the land of Canaan is called the land of trade (Ezekiel 16:3, 29; 21:30; 29:14).

  
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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.