La Biblia

 

Joshua 12

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1 Now these are the kings of the land, which the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land on the other side Jordan toward the rising of the sun, from the river Arnon unto mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east:

2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

3 And from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea on the east, the way to Beth-jeshimoth; and from the south, under Ashdoth-pisgah:

4 And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,

5 And reigned in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

6 Them did Moses the servant of the LORD and the children of Israel smite: and Moses the servant of the LORD gave it for a possession unto the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.

7 And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon even unto the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir; which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions;

8 In the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country; the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites:

9 The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;

10 The king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;

11 The king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;

12 The king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;

13 The king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;

14 The king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one;

15 The king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;

16 The king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one;

17 The king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;

18 The king of Aphek, one; the king of Lasharon, one;

19 The king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one;

20 The king of Shimron-meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one;

21 The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

22 The king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam of Carmel, one;

23 The king of Dor in the coast of Dor, one; the king of the nations of Gilgal, one;

24 The king of Tirzah, one: all the kings thirty and one.

   

Comentario

 

Strike

  

To strike or smite, when used in the Bible, means to attack, harm or destroy, and is usually in reference to an attack on someone's knowledge and intellect. This is actually true both when evil people strike good people, trying to destroy their understanding of spiritual things, and when the Lord is pictured as striking people (with plagues in Egypt, for example), which most often represents the dulling of the intellect and destruction of knowledge in evil people to prevent them from doing spiritual harm to others.

(Referencias: Apocalypse Revealed 498; Arcana Coelestia 1487, 6758, 6765, 7330, 7871, 9007, 9034, 9081, 9126, 10510)

De obras de Swedenborg

 

Apocalypse Revealed #498

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498. And to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. This symbolically means that people who wish to destroy these two essential elements of the New Church propel themselves into evils and falsities of every kind, as often as, and in the measure that, they do so.

The earth symbolizes the church (no. 285), and a plague symbolizes evil and falsity (no. 456). Thus to strike the earth with every plague means, symbolically, to ruin the church with evils and falsities of every kind.

Still, as in the case of earlier interpretations, this has to be understood, namely, that when people wish to strike these two essential elements of the New Church with plague, that is, when they wish to destroy them, which they are moved by evil to do by means of falsities, they propel themselves into evils and falsities of every kind. Moreover, because the natural sense is turned around when it becomes spiritual, therefore this statement, too, "as often as they desire," is similarly changed into "as often as and in the measure that they do." The reason is that to the extent someone destroys these two essential elements, to the same extent he destroys the truths of the Word, and to the extent he destroys the truths of the Word, to the same extent he propels himself into evils and falsities. For these two essential elements are truths of the Word, as may be clearly seen from two books containing the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, one being The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, and the other titled The Doctrine of Life in Accordance With the Precepts of the Decalogue.

This statement, that the two witnesses have the power to strike the earth with every plague as often as they desire, is similar to many others in the Word which attribute to Jehovah, that is, to the Lord, His striking people with a plague, and its being His will to do so, even though it is to be understood that He does not strike anyone, and that it is not His will to do so. For example, in Zechariah:

This shall be the plague with which Jehovah will strike all the people who fight against Jerusalem. (Zechariah 14:12ff.)

And in Jeremiah:

...I have stricken you with the plague of an enemy, with the chastisement of a tyrant, for the multitude of your iniquities... (Jeremiah 30:14)

And so on in many places elsewhere. See also no. 494 above.

  
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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.