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Ezekiel 21

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1 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop [your word] toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel;

3 and tell the land of Israel, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.

4 Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:

5 and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.

6 Sigh therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your thighs and with bitterness you will sigh before their eyes.

7 It shall be, when they tell you, Why do you sigh? that you shall say, Because of the news, for it comes; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.

8 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished;

10 it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it condemns every tree.

11 It is given to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword, it is sharpened, yes, it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the killer.

12 Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh.

13 For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that condemns shall be no more? says the Lord Yahweh.

14 You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one who is deadly wounded, which enters into their rooms.

15 I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is pointed for slaughter.

16 Gather yourselves together, go to the right, set yourselves in array, go to the left, wherever your face is set.

17 I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

18 The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,

19 Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they both shall come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city.

20 You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.

21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows back and forth, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver.

22 In his right hand was the divination [for] Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.

23 It shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken.

24 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand.

25 You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,

26 thus says the Lord Yahweh: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; this [shall be] no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.

27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [him].

28 You, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;

29 while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day is come in the time of the iniquity of the end.

30 Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, will I judge you.

31 I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.

32 You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be remembered no more: for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

   

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Apocalypse Explained #126

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126. And I will give thee the crown of life, signifies wisdom and eternal happiness therefrom. This is evident from the signification of "crown," as being wisdom, in reference to those who are in the spiritual affection of the knowledges of truth and good (of which more in what follows); and from the signification of "life," as being eternal happiness, which is also called life eternal. Those who are in the spiritual affection of truth and good, and who are here treated of, have eternal happiness, because heaven with man is implanted by means of the knowledges of truth and good from the Word. He who believes that heaven is implanted by other means is much deceived; for man is born merely natural, with the faculty of becoming spiritual, and he becomes spiritual by means of truths from the Word and a life according to them. Who can ever become spiritual unless he has some knowledge of the Lord, of heaven, of the life after death, of faith, and of love, and of the other things that are means of salvation? If man had no knowledge of these things he would remain natural; and a merely natural man can have nothing in common with the angels of heaven, who are spiritual. Man has two minds, one exterior, the other interior.

The exterior mind is called the natural mind, but the interior is called the spiritual mind. The former or natural mind is opened by means of the knowledges of the things that are in the world; but the latter or spiritual mind by means of the knowledges of the things that are in heaven, which the Word teaches, and the church from the Word; by means of these man becomes spiritual when he knows them and lives according to them.

[2] This is meant by the Lord's words in John:

Except a man has been born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

"Water" signifies the truths of faith, and "spirit" a life according to them (See above, n. 71); and in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 202-209). Most people at this day believe that they are to come into heaven solely by virtue of holy worship in temples and by adorations and prayers; but such of them as do not care for the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, and who fail to imbue with these the life, as well as the memory, remain natural as before, and do not become spiritual; for their holy worship, adorations, and prayers, do not proceed from any spiritual origin; since their spiritual mind has not been opened by the knowledges of spiritual things and a life according to them, but is empty; and worship that proceeds from what is empty is merely natural gesture, with nothing spiritual in it. If such persons are insincere and unjust in respect to moral and civil life, their holy worship, adorations, and prayers have within them what repels heaven from them, instead of opening heaven to them as they believe; for their holy worship is like a vessel containing things putrid and filthy, which are oozing forth, or like a splendid garment investing a body covered with ulcers. I have seen many thousands of such cast into hell. But wholly different are holy worship, adorations, and prayers with those who are in the knowledges of truth and good and in a life according to them; with such these acts are pleasing to the Lord, for they are the effects wrought by their spirit in the body, or the effects of their faith and love, thus they are not merely natural gestures, but spiritual acts.

From this it can be seen that the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, and a life according to them, alone make man spiritual; and that in him who is thereby made spiritual, angelic wisdom from the Lord can be implanted together with eternal happiness. Angels derive happiness from no other source than from wisdom.

[3] A "crown" signifies wisdom, because all things by which man is clothed or distinguished derive their signification from the part of man that they clothe or distinguish (See Arcana Coelestia 9827), and "crown" signifies wisdom, because it is a sign upon the head, and "head" in the Word signifies wisdom, for there wisdom resides. So in Ezekiel:

I decked thee with ornaments, I put bracelets upon thy hands; and a chain upon thy throat. And I put a jewel upon thy nose, and earrings in thine ears, and a crown of adorning upon thy head (Ezekiel 16:11, 12).

Jerusalem, which signifies the church, is here treated of, such as it was when it was established by the Lord; by these various insignia are meant, in the spiritual sense, such things as are of the church; and each one takes its signification from the part to which it is applied, and "the crown of adorning" here means wisdom. (But what is meant by "ornament," may be seen in Arcana Coelestia 10536, 10540; by "bracelets," n. 3103, 3105; by "chain" n . 5320; by "jewel," n. 4551; by "earrings," n. 4551, 10402) Wisdom, which is from the knowledges of truth and good from the Word and from a life according to them, is likewise signified by "crown" in many other passages in the Word (as in Isaiah 28:5; Jeremiah 13:18; Lamentations 5:15, 16; Ezekiel 21:25, 26; 23:42; Zechariah 6:11-14; Psalms 89:38, 39; Psalms 132:17, 18; Job 19:9; Revelation 3:11; 4:4). The crowning of kings is from ancient times, when men were familiar with representatives and significatives, and it was known that "kings" represented the Lord in respect to Divine truth, and that a "crown" was intended to signify wisdom (that "kings" represented the Lord in respect to Divine truth, see Arcana Coelestia 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4581, 4966, 5068, 6148); that those that are in truths are called "kings" and "king's sons" see above n. 31; and as these are called "kings" in the Word, and kings have crowns, so here where these are treated of it is said that they were to receive "the crown of life."

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.