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Ezekiel 29

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1 In the tenth year, in the tenth [month], in the twelfth [day] of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt;

3 speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lieth in the midst of his rivers, that hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.

4 And I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales; and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, with all the fish of thy rivers which stick unto thy scales.

5 And I will cast thee forth into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open field; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered; I have given thee for food to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens.

6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am Jehovah, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.

7 When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and didst rend all their shoulders; and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.

8 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and will cut off from thee man and beast.

9 And the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. Because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it;

10 therefore, behold, I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even unto the border of Ethiopia.

11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

12 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

13 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples whither they were scattered;

14 and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth; and they shall be there a base kingdom.

15 It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.

16 And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance, when they turn to look after them: and they shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

17 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first [month], in the first [day] of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it.

19 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.

20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he served, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord Jehovah.

21 In that day will I cause a horn to bud forth unto the house of Israel, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

   

De obras de Swedenborg

 

Apocalypse Explained #715

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715. Having seven heads.- That this signifies the knowledge (scientia) of the holy things of the Word, which they have adulterated, and consequent insanity, but yet craftiness, is evident from the signification of head, as denoting intelligence and wisdom, and in the opposite sense insanity and folly, (concerning which see above, n. 553, 577, and that it also denotes craftiness, n. 577); and from the signification of seven, which denotes all men and all things, and is said of that which is holy (concerning which see above, n. 257), in this case therefore, of the holy things of the Word, which they have adulterated. As seven is used in reference to holy things, it is also, in the opposite sense, used in reference to those things when adulterated and profaned; for in the Word every expression has also an opposite sense, and the opposite of what is holy is what is profane. It is clear from these things that the seven heads, which the dragon was seen to have, do not mean heads, or seven, but the knowledge (scientia) of the holy things of the Word, which they have adulterated, and, consequent insanity, but yet craftiness.

[2] Insanity is signified by the head of the dragon, because the intelligence of the man of the church is from genuine truths from the Word. The truly human understanding is formed and perfected by means of natural, civil, moral, and spiritual truths, the interior understanding by means of spiritual truths, but the exterior by means of moral and civil truths; such therefore as the truths are, such is the understanding that is formed from them. All spiritual truths are from the Word, and make one with the good of love and of charity. When therefore a man places everything of the church and of heaven in faith, and separates the good of charity and of love from that faith, as those do who form the head of the dragon, as stated in the preceding article, then the interior understanding cannot be formed, consequently, instead of intelligence in spiritual things, they have insanity. For from a false principle falsities flow forth in a continual series, and, in consequence of the separation of the good of charity, they cannot possibly have any genuine truth, since all truth is of good, and in fact, is good in form. From this it is clear that the head of the dragon signifies insanity in spiritual things.

[3] The head of the dragon also signifies craftiness, because all those who form its head are merely natural and sensual, and if such have at the same time studied the Word and the doctrine of the church, and have seized upon falsities instead of truths, and have also confirmed these by knowledges (scientifice), they are crafty above all others. But this craftiness is not so manifest in the world as it is afterwards when they become spirits; for in the world they cover over their craftiness with external piety and feigned morality, which conceal it from view, but as the craftiness is in their spirit, it is plainly manifest when externals are removed, as is the case in the spiritual world. But it must be understood that the craftiness which is signified by the head of the dragon is craftiness in perverting the truths and goods of the Word by reasonings from fallacies and sophistries, also from persuasive things, by means of which the understanding is fascinated, thus by giving to falsities the appearance of truths. That this is the case is also evident from the serpent by which the first parents were seduced, which is said, "to have been more crafty than any wild beast of the field" (Genesis 3:1); for the signification of that serpent is similar to that of the dragon. Therefore the latter is also called "the old serpent that seduceth the whole world," in the ninth verse of this chapter.

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.