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Ezekiel 32

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1 And it cometh to pass, in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first of the month, hath a word of Jehovah been unto me, saying,

2 `Son of man, lift up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and thou hast said unto him: A young lion of nations thou hast been like, And thou [art] as a dragon in the seas, And thou comest forth with thy flowings, And dost trouble the waters with thy feet, And thou dost foul their flowings.

3 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: And -- I have spread out for thee My net, With an assembly of many peoples, And they have brought thee up in My net.

4 And I have left thee in the land, On the face of the field I do cast thee out, And have caused to dwell upon thee every fowl of the heavens, And have satisfied out of thee the beasts of the whole earth.

5 And I have put thy flesh on the mountains, And filled the valleys [with] thy hugeness,

6 And watered the land with thy flowing, From thy blood -- unto the mountains, And streams are filled from thee.

7 And in quenching thee I have covered the heavens, And have made black their stars, The sun with a cloud I do cover, And the moon causeth not its light to shine.

8 All luminaries of light in the heavens, I make black over thee, And I have given darkness over thy land, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah,

9 And I have vexed the heart of many peoples, In My bringing in thy destruction among nations, Unto lands that thou hast not known.

10 And I have made many peoples astonished at thee, And their kings are afraid at thee with trembling, In My brandishing My sword before their faces, And they have trembled every moment, Each for his life -- in the day of thy fall.

11 For thus said the Lord Jehovah: A sword of the king of Babylon entereth thee,

12 By swords of the mighty I cause thy multitude to fall, The terrible of nations -- all of them, And they have spoiled the excellency of Egypt, And destroyed hath been all her multitude.

13 And I have destroyed all her beasts, From beside many waters, And trouble them not doth a foot of man any more, Yea, the hoofs of beasts trouble them not.

14 Then do I cause their waters to sink, And their rivers as oil I cause to go, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

15 In My making the land of Egypt a desolation, And desolated hath been the land of its fulness, In My smiting all the inhabitants in it, And they have known that I [am] Jehovah.

16 A lamentation it [is], and they have lamented her, Daughters of the nations do lament her, For Egypt, and for all her multitude, they lament her, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

17 And it cometh to pass, in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth of the month, hath a word of Jehovah been unto me, saying,

18 `Son of man, Wail for the multitude of Egypt, And cause it to go down, It -- and the daughters of honourable nations, Unto the earth -- the lower parts, With those going down to the pit.

19 Than whom hast thou been more pleasant? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised.

20 In the midst of the pierced of the sword they fall, [To] the sword she hath been given, They drew her out, and all her multitude.

21 Speak to him do the gods of the mighty out of the midst of sheol, With his helpers -- they have gone down, They have lain with the uncircumcised, The pierced of the sword.

22 There [is] Asshur, and all her assembly, Round about him [are] his graves, All of them [are] wounded, who are falling by sword,

23 Whose graves are appointed in the sides of the pit, And her assembly is round about her grave, All of them wounded, falling by sword, Because they gave terror in the land of the living.

24 There [is] Elam, and all her multitude, Round about [is] her grave, All of them wounded, who are falling by sword, Who have gone down uncircumcised unto the earth -- the lower parts, Because they gave their terror in the land of the living, And they bear their shame with those going down to the pit.

25 In the midst of the wounded they have appointed a bed for her with all her multitude, Round about him [are] her graves, All of them uncircumcised, pierced of the sword, For their terror was given in the land of the living, And they bear their shame with those going down to the pit, In the midst of the pierced he hath been put.

26 There [is] Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude, Round about him [are] her graves, All of them uncircumcised, pierced of the sword, For they gave their terror in the land of the living,

27 And they lie not with the mighty, Who are falling of the uncircumcised, Who have gone down to sheol with their weapons of war, And they put their swords under their heads, And their iniquities are on their bones, For the terror of the mighty [is] in the land of the living.

28 And thou, in the midst of the uncircumcised art broken, And dost lie with the pierced of the sword.

29 There [is] Edom, her kings, and all her princes, Who have been given up in their might, With the pierced of the sword, They with the uncircumcised do lie, And with those going down to the pit.

30 There [are] princes of the north, All of them, and every Zidonian, Who have gone down with the pierced in their terror, Of their might they are ashamed, And they lie uncircumcised with the pierced of the sword, And they bear their shame with those going down to the pit.

31 Then doth Pharaoh see, And he hath been comforted for all his multitude, The pierced of the sword -- Pharaoh and all his force, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

32 For I have given his terror in the land of the living, And he hath been laid down in the midst of the uncircumcised, With the pierced of the sword -- Pharaoh, and all his multitude, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!'

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 51

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51. Having in His right hand seven stars. (1:16) This symbolizes all concepts of goodness and truth in the Word, which exist therefore in angels in heaven and in people in the church.

When angels are below the heavens, a great number of what look like little stars appear around them, and likewise around spirits who, when they lived in the world, acquired concepts of goodness and truth for themselves from the Word, or truths of life and doctrine. These little stars appear fixed, however, in the case of those who possess genuine truths from the Word, but wandering in the case of those who possess falsified truths.

(Regarding these little stars, and the stars appearing in the sky there, I could relate marvelous things, but that is not the subject of this work.)

It is apparent from this that stars symbolize concepts of goodness and truth from the Word.

The Son of Man's having them in His right hand means, symbolically, that they come from the Lord alone through the Word. Seven symbolically means all, as may be seen in no. 10 above.

[2] That stars symbolize concepts of goodness and truth from the Word may be seen also from the following passages:

(I will) turn the earth into a wasteland... ...the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. (Isaiah 13:9-10)

The earth that will be turned into a wasteland is the church, in which, having been laid waste, concepts of goodness and truth in the Word are not seen.

When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens... All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you, and bring darkness upon your land. (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

Darkness upon the land is the darkness of falsities in the church.

The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. (Joel 2:10; 3:15)

...after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven... (Matthew 24:29, cf. Mark 13:24)

The stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs... (Revelation 6:13)

...a star (fell) from heaven to the earth. (Revelation 9:1)

Stars falling from heaven do not mean stars, but concepts of goodness and truth perishing.

[3] This is still more apparent from the statement that a dragon swept down a third of the stars from heaven, in Revelation 12:4, and the statement that a he-goat cast down some of the stars and trampled them, in Daniel 8:8-11. That is why the next verse in Daniel goes on to say that it cast truth to the ground (Daniel 8:12).

Stars also symbolize concepts of goodness and truth in the following passages:

(Jehovah) counts... the stars; He gives all of them names. (Psalms 147:4)

Praise (Jehovah), all you stars of light! (Psalms 148:3)

The stars from their courses fought... (Judges 5:20)

From this it is apparent what is meant by the following statement in Daniel:

The intelligent shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, ...those turning many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:3)

The intelligent are people concerned with truths, and those turning many to righteousness are those concerned with goodness.

  
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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.