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Ezekiel 46

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1 `Thus said the Lord Jehovah: The gate of the inner court that is looking eastward is shut the six days of work, and on the day of rest it is opened, and in the day of the new moon it is opened;

2 and come in hath the prince the way of the porch of the gate at the outside, and he hath stood by the post of the gate, and the priests have made his burnt-offering, and his peace-offerings, and he hath bowed himself by the opening of the gate, and hath gone forth, and the gate is not shut till the evening.

3 And bowed themselves have the people of the land at the opening of that gate, on sabbaths, and on new moons, before Jehovah.

4 `And the burnt-offering that the prince bringeth near to Jehovah on the day of rest [is] six lambs, perfect ones, and a ram, a perfect one.

5 And the present [is] an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs a present, the gift of his hand, and of oil a hin for an ephah.

6 And on the day of the new moon a bullock, a son of the herd, a perfect one, and six lambs and a ram, they are perfect.

7 And with an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, he prepareth a present, and for the lambs as his hand attaineth, and of oil a hin for an ephah.

8 `And in the coming in of the prince, the way of the porch of the gate he cometh in, and by its way he goeth out.

9 And in the coming in of the people of the land before Jehovah at appointed times, he who hath come in the way of the north gate to bow himself, goeth out the way of the south gate, and he who hath come in the way of the south gate, goeth out by the way of the north gate: he doth not turn back the way of the gate by which he came in, but over-against it he goeth out.

10 And the prince in their midst in their coming in cometh in, and in their going out he goeth out.

11 `And in feasts, and in appointed times, the present is an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for lambs the gift of his hand, and of oil a hin for an ephah.

12 And when the prince maketh a free-will burnt-offering, or free-will peace-offerings, to Jehovah, then he hath opened for himself the gate that is looking eastward, and he hath made his burnt-offering and his peace-offerings as he doth in the day of rest, and he hath gone out, and he hath shut the gate after his going out.

13 `And a lamb, son of a year, a perfect one, thou dost make a burnt-offering daily to Jehovah; morning by morning thou dost make it.

14 And a present thou dost make for it morning by morning, a sixth part of the ephah, and of oil a third part of the hin, to temper with the fine flour, a present to Jehovah, by a statute age-during -- continually;

15 and prepare ye the lamb, and the present, and the oil, morning by morning, a continual burnt-offering.

16 `Thus said the Lord Jehovah: When the prince giveth a gift to any of his sons, his inheritance it [is], to his sons it [is]; their possession it [is] by inheritance.

17 And when he giveth a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it hath been to him till the year of freedom, and it hath turned back to the prince, only the inheritance of his sons is theirs.

18 And the prince doth not take of the inheritance of the people to oppress them, out of their possession, out of his own possession he doth cause his sons to inherit, so that My people are not scattered each from his possession.'

19 And he bringeth me in through the entrance that [is] by the side of the gate, unto the holy chambers, unto the priests, that are looking northward, and lo, there [is] a place in their two sides westward.

20 And he saith unto me, `This [is] the place where the priests do boil the guilt-offering and the sin-offering, where they bake the present, so as not to bring [it] out unto the outer court, to sanctify the people.'

21 And he bringeth me out unto the outer court, and causeth me to pass over unto the four corners of the court, and lo, a court in a corner of the court, a court in a corner of the corner.

22 In the four corners of the court [are] perfume courts, forty long, and thirty broad, one measure [is] to the four corners.

23 And a row [is] round about in them, round about to them four, and made with boilers under the rows round about.

24 And he saith unto me, `These [are] the houses of those boiling where the ministrants of the house boil the sacrifice of the people.'

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4482

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4482. 'Behold, the land is broad and spacious before them' means extension, that is to say, of truth which is the truth of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as the Church, dealt with just above in 4480, and from the meaning of 'broad and spacious' as extension as regards truths, and so as regards those taught by doctrine. When in the Word the measurements of something are given, it is not those measurements that are meant in the internal sense but the essential characteristics of a state that is being described. For measurements involve spatial dimensions and in the next life there are no intervals of space, as there are no periods of time, but states which correspond to these, see 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 3404, 4321. That being so, lengths, breadths, and heights, which are spatial measurements, mean the aspects of a state - length meaning holiness, height good, and breadth truth, see 650, 1613, 3433, 3434. This then is why 'the land is broad and spacious' means the extension of truth which is the truth of doctrine within the Church.

[2] Anyone who does not know of the existence of anything spiritual in the Word other than that which stands out in the literal sense is bound to be amazed by the statement that 'the land is broad and specious' means the extension of truth which is the truth of doctrine within the Church. But the truth of this statement may be established from places where 'breadth' is mentioned in the Word, as in Isaiah,

Asshur will go through Judah, it will deluge it and pass through and will reach even to the neck; and the outstretchings of its wings will fill the breadth of the land. Isaiah 8:8.

In David,

O Jehovah, You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have made my feet stand in a broad place. Psalms 31:8.

In the same author,

Out of my distress I called on Jah; He answered me in a broad place. Psalms 118:5.

In Habakkuk,

I am rousing the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, marching' into the breadths of the earth. Habakkuk 1:6.

'Breadths' here means nothing other than the truth of the Church.

[3] The reason why breadth has this meaning is that in the spiritual world, that is, in heaven, the Lord is the centre of all, for He is the Sun there. Those in a state of good are more interior, their exact position towards the middle being determined by the character and the amount of the good present in them. This is why 'height' is used in reference to good. Those who are in a similar degree of good are also in a similar degree of truth, and so dwell so to speak at the same distance from the centre, or one might say, dwell on the same contour; and this is why 'breadth' is used in reference to truths. Therefore when a person reads the Word the angels present with him do not understand by 'breadth' anything other than truths. When in the Historical sections, for example, the ark, the altar, the temple, and the spaces outside cities are referred to, states of good and truth are perceived by the dimensions indicating the lengths, breadths, and heights of these. The same is so with the new earth, new Jerusalem, and new Temple - described in Chapters 40-47 of Ezekiel - by which heaven and a new Church are meant, as may be seen from the detailed descriptions in those chapters. So also in John where it is said of the New Jerusalem that it will be foursquare, 'its length being as great as its breadth', Revelation 21:16.

[4] Things which in the spiritual world are interior are described as those that are higher, while those that are exterior are described by those that are lower, 2148, for while in the world, no one can conceive of interior things and exterior ones in any other way, for the reason that he dwells within space and time, and things that belong to space and time have entered in among the ideas comprising his thought and have conditioned the majority of these. From this it is also evident that expressions which give the spatial measurements of things such as the height, length, and breadth of them, are in the spiritual sense expressions used to indicate the magnitude of affections for good and affections for truth.

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