Revelation 21
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And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth did pass away, and the sea is not any more;
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and I, John, saw the holy city -- new Jerusalem -- coming down from God out of the heaven, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband;
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and I heard a great voice out of the heaven, saying, `Lo, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them -- their God,
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and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and the death shall not be any more, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor shall there be any more pain, because the first things did go away.'
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And He who is sitting upon the throne said, `Lo, new I make all things; and He saith to me, `Write, because these words are true and stedfast;'
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and He said to me, `It hath been done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End; I, to him who is thirsting, will give of the fountain of the water of the life freely;
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he who is overcoming shall inherit all things, and I will be to him -- a God, and he shall be to me -- the son,
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and to fearful, and unstedfast, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the liars, their part [is] in the lake that is burning with fire and brimstone, which is a second death.'
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And there came unto me one of the seven messengers, who have the seven vials that are full of the seven last plagues, and he spake with me, saying, `Come, I will shew thee the bride of the Lamb -- the wife,'
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and he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and did shew to me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God,
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having the glory of God, and her light [is] like a stone most precious, as a jasper stone clear as crystal,
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having also a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve messengers, and names written thereon, which are [those] of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel,
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at the east three gates, at the north three gates, at the south three gates, at the west three gates;
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and the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
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And he who is speaking with me had a golden reed, that he may measure the city, and its gates, and its wall;
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and the city lieth square, and the length of it is as great as the breadth; and he did measure the city with the reed -- furlongs twelve thousand; the length, and the breadth, and the height, of it are equal;
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and he measured its wall, an hundred forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, that is, of the messenger;
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and the building of its wall was jasper, and the city [is] pure gold -- like to pure glass;
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and the foundations of the wall of the city with every precious stone have been adorned; the first foundation jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
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the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprasus; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.
21
And the twelve gates [are] twelve pearls, each several one of the gates was of one pearl; and the broad-place of the city [is] pure gold -- as transparent glass.
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And a sanctuary I did not see in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, is its sanctuary, and the Lamb,
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and the city hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon, that they may shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp of it [is] the Lamb;
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and the nations of the saved in its light shall walk, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it,
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and its gates shall not at all be shut by day, for night shall not be there;
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and they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it;
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and there may not at all enter into it any thing defiling and doing abomination, and a lie, but -- those written in the scroll of the life of the Lamb.
Apocalypse Revealed # 356
356. Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed. (7:7) This symbolizes spiritual love, which is love for the neighbor or charity, in those people who will be part of the New Heaven and of the Lord's New Church.
In the highest sense Simeon symbolizes providence; in the spiritual sense, love for the neighbor or charity; and in the natural sense, obedience and giving ear.
In the first two series the subject was people who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom. In this series, now, the subject is people who are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom. Their love is termed a spiritual love, which is love for the neighbor and charity.
Simeon and his tribe represented this love and thus symbolize it in the Word because he was born after Reuben and was the next before Levi, and these three - Reuben, Simeon and Levi - in that sequence symbolized truth in the intellect or faith, truth in the will or charity, and truth in practice or good work, like Peter, James and John. As Simeon and his tribe consequently represented truth in the will, which is both charity and obedience, therefore he was given a name derived from a word meaning to hear, and to hear symbolizes both to understand truth and to will it or obey - to understand it in the phrase to "hear someone," and to will it and obey in the phrase to "listen to someone" or hearken.
[2] We will say something here about love for the neighbor or charity. Love for the neighbor is a love of obeying the Lord's commandments, especially those in the second table of the Ten Commandments, namely, you shall not kill, you shall not commit whoredom, you shall not steal, you shall not bear witness falsely, and you shall not covet anything that is your neighbor's. A person who wills not to do these things because they are sins, loves his neighbor. For someone who hates his neighbor, and who out of hatred wishes to kill him, does not love his neighbor. Someone who wishes to commit whoredom with his neighbor's wife, does not love his neighbor. Neither does someone who wishes to steal and plunder his neighbor's goods love his neighbor, and so on.
Paul, too, teaches this in these words:
...he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit whoredom," "You shall not kill," "You shall not steal," "You shall not be a false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ...Charity therefore is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13:8-10)
