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Iga aləs i tənṭut eṣəm Xawa fəlas ənta a təṃosat anna n aytedan kul.
Arcana Coelestia #303
303. Man makes a life for himself out of all his convictions, that is, out of what he acknowledges and believes. The things of which he is not convinced, that is, which he does not acknowledge and believe, have no influence at all on his mind. Consequently nobody is capable of profaning holy things except him who has been convinced of them and so acknowledges them and yet denies them. People who do not acknowledge are capable of knowing, but they are in the same position as those who do not know. They are like people who know things which are nothing at all. Of such a nature were the Jews around the time of the Lord's Coming. And when people are such they are in the Word called 'vastated', that is, faith no longer exists. That being so, no harm is done if the inner contents of the Word are disclosed to them, for they are in that case like the people who seeing do not see, and like the people who hearing do not hear and who have a heart made fat, to whom the Lord referred through Isaiah,
Go and say to this people, Hearing hear, but do not understand; and seeing see, but do not comprehend. Make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy, and plaster over their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and their heart understands, and they turn again to be healed. Isaiah 6:9-10.
[2] Furthermore mysteries of faith are not disclosed until people reach this point, that is to say, have been so vastated that they no longer believe, the purpose of the vastation being, as has been stated, to make them incapable of profaning. This too the Lord states plainly in Isaiah in the verses immediately following those quoted above,
I said, How long, O Lord? And He said, Until cities are made so desolate that they have no inhabitant, and houses have no man; and the land will be made utterly desolate, and Jehovah will remove man far away. Isaiah 6:11-12.
'Man' refers to the person who is wise, that is, who acknowledges and believes. Such was the condition of the Jews, as has been stated, around the time of the Lord's Coming. And they are for the same reason still kept by means of their desires, in particular by their avarice, in such a state of vastation that if they heard a thousand times over about the Lord and heard that in every detail the representatives of the Church with them mean the Lord, they would still acknowledge and believe nothing. This then was the reason why the people before the Flood were expelled from the garden of Eden and were vastated, even to the point of their being incapable of acknowledging anything that was true.
Isaiah 5
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Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
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He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a winepress therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
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"Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.
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What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
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Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down.
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I will lay it a wasteland. It won't be pruned nor hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it."
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For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
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Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!
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In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: "Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
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For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah."
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Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
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The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don't respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
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Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
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Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it.
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So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
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but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
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Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.
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Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope;
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Who say, "Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!"
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Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
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Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
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Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;
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who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!
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Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
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Therefore Yahweh's anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them, and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.
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He will lift up a banner to the nations from far, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
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None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
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whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses' hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
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Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver.
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They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
