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Ezekiel 21

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1 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,

2 `Son of man, set thy face unto Jerusalem, and prophesy unto the holy places, and prophesy unto the ground of Israel;

3 and thou hast said unto the ground of Israel: Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against thee, And have brought out My sword from its scabbard, And have cut off from thee righteous and wicked.

4 Because that I have cut off from thee righteous and wicked, Therefore go out doth My sword from its scabbard, Unto all flesh, from south to north.

5 And known have all flesh that I, Jehovah, Have brought out My sword from its scabbard, It doth not turn back any more.

6 And thou, son of man, sigh with breaking of loins, yea, with bitterness thou dost sigh before their eyes,

7 and it hath come to pass, when they say unto thee, For what art thou sighing? that thou hast said: Because of the report, for it is coming, And melted hath every heart, And feeble hath been all hands, And weak is every spirit, And all knees go -- waters, Lo, it is coming, yea, it hath been, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

8 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,

9 `Son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said, Thus said Jehovah, say: A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished.

10 So as to slaughter a slaughter it is sharpened. So as to have brightness it is polished, Desire hath rejoiced the sceptre of my son, It is despising every tree.

11 And he giveth it for polishing, For laying hold of by the hand. It is sharpened -- the sword -- and polished, To give it into the hand of a slayer.

12 Cry and howl, son of man, For it hath been among My people, It [is] among all the princes of Israel, Cast unto the sword have been My people. Therefore strike on thy thigh,

13 Because [it is] a trier, And what if even the sceptre it is despising? It shall not be, an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

14 And thou, son of man, prophesy, And smite hand on hand, And bent is the sword a third time, The sword of the wounded! It [is] the sword of the wounded -- the great one, That is entering the inner chamber to them.

15 To melt the heart, and to multiply the ruins, By all their gates I have set the point of a sword. Ah, it is made for brightness, Wrapt up for slaughter.

16 Take possession of the right, place thyself at the left, Whither thy face is appointed.

17 And I also, I smite My hand on my hand, And have caused My fury to rest; I, Jehovah, have spoken.'

18 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,

19 `And thou, son of man, appoint for thee two ways, for the coming in of the sword of the king of Babylon; from one land they come forth, both of them, and a station prepare thou, at the top of the way of the city prepare [it].

20 A way appoint for the coming of the sword, Unto Rabbath of the sons of Ammon, And to Judah, in Jerusalem -- the fenced.

21 For stood hath the king of Babylon at the head of the way, At the top of the two ways, to use divination, He hath moved lightly with the arrows, He hath asked at the teraphim, He hath looked on the liver.

22 At his right hath been the divination -- Jerusalem, To place battering-rams, To open the mouth with slaughter, To lift up a voice with shouting, To place battering-rams against the gates, To pour out a mount, to build a fortification.

23 And it hath been to them as a false divination in their eyes, Who have sworn oaths to them, And he is causing iniquity to be remembered to be caught.

24 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your causing your iniquity to be remembered, In your transgressions being revealed, For your sins being seen, in all your doings, Because of your being remembered, By the hand ye are caught.

25 And thou, wounded, wicked one, Prince of Israel, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end!

26 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Turn aside the mitre, and bear away the crown, This -- not this -- the low make high, And the high make low.

27 An overturn, overturn, overturn, I make it, Also this hath not been till the coming of Him, Whose [is] the judgment, and I have given it.

28 And thou, son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah concerning the sons of Ammon, and concerning their reproach: and thou hast said: A sword, a sword, open for slaughter, Polished to the utmost for brightness!

29 In the seeing for thee of a vain thing, In the divining for thee of a lie, To put thee on the necks of the wounded of the wicked, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end.

30 Turn [it] back unto its scabbard, In the place where thou wast produced, In the land of thy birth I do judge thee.

31 And I have poured on thee Mine indignation, With fire of My wrath I blow against thee, And have given thee into the hand of brutish men -- artificers of destruction.

32 To the fire thou art for fuel, Thy blood is in the midst of the land, Thou art not remembered, For I, Jehovah, have spoken!'

   

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Arcana Coelestia #4926

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4926. 'And she said, Why have you made a breach upon yourself?' means this truth's apparent separation from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'a breach' as an infringement upon and perversion of truth through its separation from good, dealt with below. Here 'making a breach' plainly means pulling away the twice-dyed thread from the hand and so separating good; for good is meant by 'twice-dyed', 4922. As regards this separation being an apparent one, this follows from the fact that it appeared to the midwife that a separation had taken place; but in reality it was not the twin with the twice-dyed thread who came out but his brother, who represents truth. On these matters, see what has been shown immediately above in 4925, where it is shown that good is in actual fact the firstborn but that truth appears to be such. This can be illustrated further still from the functions and members within the human body. The appearance is that the members and organs are first and that the functions these perform are subsequent; for the organs and members present themselves to the eye and are also known before their functions are seen or known. But in spite of this appearance the functions are prior to the members and organs since these derive their existence from the functions they serve and so receive their own forms to accord with these functions. Indeed the function itself gives them these forms and accommodates them to itself. If this were not so, all the individual parts of the human body could not possibly act together in so harmonious a way that they make a single whole. The same may be said about good and truth. The appearance is that truth is first, but in reality good is, in that good gives truths the forms they take and accommodates them to itself. Therefore regarded essentially truths are nothing else than goods which have been given form, that is, they are the forms good takes. In relation to good, truths are also like the internal organs and the fibres of the body in relation to the functions these perform. Also, regarded essentially good is nothing else than the function.

[2] The meaning of 'a breach' as an infringement upon truth and a perversion of it through its separation from good is also clear from other places in the Word, as in David,

Our storehouses are full, yielding food and still more food; our flocks are thousands, and ten thousands in our streets, our oxen are laden; there is no breach. Psalms 144:13-14.

This refers to the Ancient Church as it was in its youth. 'The food' with which 'the storehouses are full' stands for spiritual food, that is, for truth and good. 'Flocks' and 'oxen' stand for forms of good, internal and external. 'There is no breach' stands for the fact that truth has not suffered any infringement upon it or perversion of it through separation from good.

[3] In Amos,

I will raise up the tent of David that is fallen down, and I will close up their breaches, and I will restore its destroyed places; and I will build it as in the days of old. Amos 9:11.

This refers to a Church where good is present. 'The tent of David that is fallen down' means the good of love and charity received from the Lord. For 'a tent' meaning that good, see 414, 1102, 2145, 2152, 3312, 4128, 4391, 4599, and 'David' the Lord, 1888. 'Closing up the breaches' stands for correcting falsities which have entered in through the separation of truth from good. 'Building it as in the days of old' stands for as the state of the Church was in ancient times. In the Word that state at that time is called 'the days of eternity', 'the days of old', and also 'of generation upon generation'.

[4] In Isaiah,

He that is of you is building the waste places of old; raise up the foundations of generation upon generation, and may you be called the one repairing the breach, the one restoring paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12.

This refers to a Church where charity and life are the essential thing. 'Repairing the breach' again stands for correcting falsities which have crept in through the separation of good from truth, the origin of all falsity. 'Restoring paths to dwell in' stands for truths which are linked to good, for 'paths' or ways are truths, 627, 2333, and 'dwelling in' is used in reference to good, 2268, 2451, 2712, 3613.

[5] In the same prophet,

You saw that the breaches of the city of David were very many, and you collected the waters of the lower pool. Isaiah 22:9.

'The breaches of the city of David' stands for falsities of doctrine. 'The waters of the lower pool' stands for traditions by which they introduced blemishes into the truths contained in the Word, Matthew 15:1-6; Mark 7:1-13. In Ezekiel,

You have not gone up into the breaches and made a hedge for the house of Israel, so that you might stand in war on the day of Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:5.

In the same prophet,

I sought from among them a man making a hedge and standing in the breach before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. Ezekiel 22:30.

'Standing in the breach' stands for defending and guarding against the intrusion of falsities. In David,

Jehovah said He would destroy the people, unless Moses His chosen had stood in the breach before Him. Psalms 106:23.

'Standing in the breach' again means guarding against the intrusion of falsities; 'Moses' here meaning the Word - see Preface to Chapter 18 of Genesis, and 4859 (end).

[6] In Amos,

They will drag out the last of you with fish-hooks; you will go out through the breaches, every one from her own region; and you will cast down the palace. Amos 4:2-3.

'Going out through the breaches' stands for doing so through falsities resulting from reasonings. 'The palace' means the Word and consequently the truth of doctrine that is grounded in good. And because 'breaches' means falsity which arises through the separation of good from truth, the same is also meant in the representative sense by 'strengthening and repairing the breaches of the house of Jehovah', 2 Kings 12:5, 7-8, 12; 22:5. In the second Book of Samuel,

It grieved David that Jehovah had made a breach into Uzzah; therefore he called that place Perez Uzzah. 2 Samuel 6:8.

This refers to Uzzah, who died because he touched the ark. 'The ark' represented heaven, or in the highest sense the Lord, and therefore Divine Good. But 'Uzzah' represented that which ministers, and so represents truth since truth ministers to good. This separation is meant by 'a breach into Uzzah'.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia #2152

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2152. 'From the tent door' means from the holiness that was the Lord's at that time. This is clear from the meaning of 'tent' as holiness, and from the meaning of 'door' as the entrance to holiness, dealt with above in 2145.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.