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Ezekiel 16

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1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

7 I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.

9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.

11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.

12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.

13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

18 And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.

19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.

20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,

21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.

23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;)

24 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.

25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.

26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.

28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.

29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.

30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;

31 In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;

32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!

33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.

34 And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.

35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:

36 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

38 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

40 They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.

41 And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.

42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.

44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.

45 Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.

48 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.

52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.

53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:

54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.

55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

56 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,

57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about.

58 Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the LORD.

59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.

61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.

62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:

63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.

   

Commentaire

 

Husband

  
Älteres Paar im Kücheninterieur, by Friedrich Friedländer (1825–1901)

In general, men are driven by intellect and women by affections, and because of this men in the Bible generally represent knowledge and truth and women generally represent love and the desire for good. This generally carries over into marriage, where the man's growing knowledge and understanding and the woman's desire to be good and useful are a powerful combination. In many cases in the Bible, then, "husband" refers to things of truth and understanding, much as "man" does. Magnificent things can happen in a true marriage, though, when both partners are looking to the Lord. If a husband opens his heart to his wife, it's as though she can implant her loves inside him, transforming his intellectual urges into a love of growing wise. She in turn can grow in her love of that blooming wisdom, and use it for joy in their married life and in their caring for children and others in their life. Many couples, even in heaven, stay in that state -- called "Spiritual" -- growing deeper and deeper to eternity. There is the potential, though, for the couple to be transformed: through the nurturing love of his wife the husband can pass from a love of growing wise to an actual love of wisdom itself, and the wife can be transformed from the love of her husband's wisdom into the wisdom of that love -- the actual expression of the love of the Lord they have built together. In that state -- called "Celestial" -- the husband represents love and the desire for good, and the wife represents truth and knowledge.

Des oeuvres de Swedenborg

 

Apocalypse Explained #439

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439. Of the tribe Naphtali twelve thousand sealed, signifies regeneration and temptation. This is evident from what is represented and thence signified by "Naphtali" and his tribe, as meaning temptation and the state after it; and as temptations occur for the sake of regeneration, regeneration too is signified by "Naphtali." (That those who are regenerated undergo temptations see in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 187-201.) That "Naphtali" and thence the tribe named from him, signify temptation and the state after it, and accordingly regeneration, can be seen from the words of Rachel, when Bilhah her handmaid bare him, which are these:

And Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, With wrestlings of God have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed; and she called his name Naphtali (Genesis 30:7, 8).

"Wrestlings of God" signify spiritual temptations; and as Rachel represented the internal church, which is spiritual, and Leah the external church, which is natural, Rachel's wrestling with her sister and prevailing signifies evidently the combat between the spiritual and the natural, since every temptation is a combat between the spiritual man and the natural; for the spiritual man loves and wills the things that are of heaven, since it is in heaven, while the natural man loves and wills the things that are of the world, since it is in the world; consequently the desires of the two are opposite, which gives rise to collision and combat, and this is called temptation.

[2] That "Naphtali" signifies temptation and the state after it, and thence regeneration, is further evident from the following passages. From the blessing he received from his father Israel:

Naphtali is a hind let loose; giving sayings of elegance (Gen. 49:21).

"Naphtali" here signifies the state after temptation, which state is full of joy from affection, that the spiritual and the natural, and good and truth, have been conjoined, for these are conjoined by temptations; "a hind let loose" signifies the freedom of the natural affection; "giving sayings of elegance," signifies gladness of mind. (This is more fully explained in Arcana Coelestia, n. 6412-6414.)

[3] Again, from the blessing he received from Moses:

And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with the good pleasure and full of the blessing of Jehovah; possess thou the west and the south (Deuteronomy 33:23).

This, too, describes the state after temptation, in which man is filled with every good of love and with truths therefrom; for after temptations he is filled with joy, and good bears fruit, and truth is multiplied with him; to be filled with the good of love is meant by "satisfied with the good pleasure of Jehovah;" and to be filled with truths therefrom is signified by "full of the blessing of Jehovah;" the consequent affection of truth and illustration are signified by "possess thou the west and the south," the affection of truth is signified by "the west," and illustration by "the south." It is said "possess thou the west and the south," because those who are raised up into heaven after having been instructed are carried through the west to the south, that is, through the affection of truth into the light of truth.

[4] "Naphtali" has a similar signification in the song of Deborah and Barak, in the book of Judges:

Zebulun, a people that devoted their soul to death, and Naphtali upon the heights of the field (Judges 5:18).

These were the two tribes that fought against Sisera, the captain of the host of Jabin, king of Canaan, and conquered him, the other ten tribes remaining quiet; and this represented the spiritual combat against the evils that infest the church; as is evident also from the prophetic song of Deborah and Barak, of which this is the subject. Only the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali fought, because "Zebulun" signifies the conjunction of good and truth which constitutes the church, and "Naphtali" the combat against the evils and falsities that infest it and that resist the conjunction of good and truth, consequently the two signify reformation and regeneration; "the heights of the field" signify the interiors of the church, from which combat is maintained. Again "Zebulun and Naphtali" together also signify reformation and regeneration by means of temptations (in Isaiah 8:22; 9:1, 2; also in Matthew 4:12-16).

[5] In the highest sense however "Zebulun and Naphtali" signify the uniting of the Divine and the Human in the Lord, for the highest sense treats solely of the Lord, in general of the glorification of His Human, and the subjugation of the hells, and the arranging of the heavens by Him. In this sense Zebulun and Naphtali are mentioned in David:

They have seen Thy goings, O God; the goings of my God, my King in the midst of the sanctuary. The singers went before, the minstrels after, in the midst of the maidens playing on timbrels. Bless ye God in the assemblies, the Lord from the fountain of Israel. There little Benjamin is set over them, the princes of Judah their company, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali. Thy God hath commanded thy strength; put on strength, O God; this Thou hast wrought for us out of Thy temple at Jerusalem; kings shall bring oblations to Thee. Rebuke the wild beast of the reed, the congregation of the mighty among the calves of the peoples; trampling upon the plates of silver, He hath scattered the peoples, they desire combats. Those that are fat shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hasten her hands unto God (Psalms 68:24-31).

This treats in the spiritual sense of the coming of the Lord, of the glorification of His Human, of the subjugation of the hells, and the consequent salvation. Celebration of the Lord because of His coming is described in these words: "They have seen Thy goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. The singers went before, the minstrels after, in the midst of the maidens playing on timbrels. Bless ye God in the assemblies, the Lord from the fountain of Israel." (What the particulars here signify see explained above, n. 340.) The innocence of the Lord, by which He wrought and accomplished all things, is signified by "there little Benjamin is set over them;" Divine truth from Divine good is signified by "the princes of Judah their company;" His glorification, or the uniting of the Divine and Human by His own power, is signified by "the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali;" that from this the Lord's Human has Divine power is signified by "thy God hath commanded thy strength; put on strength, O God; this Thou hast wrought for us out of Thy temple at Jerusalem," "temple" meaning here the Lord's Divine Human, and "Jerusalem" the church for which He did this. The subjugation of the hells is signified by "rebuke the wild beast of the reed, the congregation of the mighty, among the calves of the peoples; trampling upon the plates of silver, He hath scattered the peoples, they desire combats;" "the wild beast of the reed and the congregation of the mighty" mean the knowing faculty of the natural man perverting the truths and goods of the church; "the calves of the people" mean the goods of the church; "the plates of silver" mean the truths of the church; "He hath scattered the people, they desire combats," signifies to pervert truths and reason against them.

[6] The subjugation of the hells means the subjugation of the natural man; for evils from hell are in the natural man, for in it, too, are the delights of the love of self and of the world and the knowledges [scientifica] that confirm these delights; and when these delights are regarded as ends and become dominant they are against the goods and truths of the church. That when the natural man has been subjugated it supplies accordant knowledges [scientifica)], and also cognitions of truth and good, is signified by "those that are fat shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall hasten her hands unto God." "Egypt" meaning the natural man in respect to knowledges [scientifica], and "Ethiopia" the natural man in respect to cognitions of good and truth. From these few instances the signification of "Naphtali" and his tribe in the Word can be seen, namely, that it signifies in the highest sense the Lord's own power, by which He subjugated the hells and glorified His Human, in the internal sense temptation and the states after temptation, and in the external sense resistance by the natural man; therefore "Naphtali" signifies also reformation and regeneration, because these are results of temptations.

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