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Ezekiel 23

पढाई करना

   

1 The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:

3 and they played the harlot in Egypt; they played the harlot in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.

4 And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bare sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

5 And Oholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians [her] neighbors,

6 who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

7 And she bestowed her whoredoms upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whomsoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.

8 Neither hath she left her whoredoms since [the days of] Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their whoredom upon her.

9 Wherefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

10 These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they slew with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments upon her.

11 And her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her whoredoms which were more than the whoredoms of her sister.

12 She doted upon the Assyrians, governors and rulers, [her] neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.

13 And I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.

14 And she increased her whoredoms; for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

15 girded with girdles upon their loins, with flowing turbans upon their heads, all of them princes to look upon, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their nativity.

16 And as soon as she saw them she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.

18 So she uncovered her whoredoms, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.

19 Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, remembering the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

20 And she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

21 Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in the handling of thy bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of thy youth.

22 Therefore, O Oholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side:

23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, [and] all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding upon horses.

24 And they shall come against thee with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against thee with buckler and shield and helmet round about; and I will commit the judgment unto them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.

25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal with thee in fury; they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.

26 They shall also strip thee of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.

27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom [brought] from the land of Egypt; so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

28 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy soul is alienated;

29 and they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare; and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

30 These things shall be done unto thee, for that thou hast played the harlot after the nations, and because thou art polluted with their idols.

31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thy hand.

32 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup, which is deep and large; thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much.

33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

34 Thou shalt even drink it and drain it out, and thou shalt gnaw the sherds thereof, and shalt tear thy breasts; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah.

35 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

36 Jehovah said moreover unto me: Son of man, wilt thou judge Oholah and Oholibah? then declare unto them their abominations.

37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass through [the fire] unto them to be devoured.

38 Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

39 For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of my house.

40 And furthermore ye have sent for men that come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent, and, lo, they came; for whom thou didst wash thyself, paint thine eyes, and deck thyself with ornaments,

41 and sit upon a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon thou didst set mine incense and mine oil.

42 And the voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets upon the hands of them [twain], and beautiful crowns upon their heads.

43 Then said I of her that was old in adulteries, Now will they play the harlot with her, and she [with them].

44 And they went in unto her, as they go in unto a harlot: so went they in unto Oholah and unto Oholibah, the lewd women.

45 And righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

46 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed to and fro and robbed.

47 And the company shall stone them with stones, and despatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

48 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

49 And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols; and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

   

स्वीडनबॉर्ग के कार्यों से

 

Arcana Coelestia #6432

इस मार्ग का अध्ययन करें

  
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6432. 'The blessings of the breasts' means with affections for goodness and truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'the breasts' as affections for goodness and truth. 'The breasts' means those affections because the breasts communicate with the generative organs, and for that reason they too belong to the province of conjugial love (regarding that province see 5050-5062). Now conjugial love corresponds to the heavenly marriage, which is a marriage of goodness and truth (for conjugial love comes down from that marriage, see 2618, 2728, 2729, 2803, 3132, 4434, 4835, 6179), and therefore 'the breasts' means affections for goodness and truth. In addition they derive that meaning from the fact that the breasts are what feed infants and so mean, through the affection that goes with breast-feeding, conjugial love when joined to the love of offspring.

[2] The same affections are also meant by 'the breasts' in Isaiah,

You will suck the milk of nations, and the breasts of kings you will suck. Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron silver. Isaiah 60:16-17.

'Sucking the breasts of kings' stands for good obtained from truth, for by 'kings' truths are meant, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148. 'The milk of nations' and 'the breasts of kings' plainly mean some profoundly spiritual matter, for those words would otherwise be meaningless. The fact that goodness and truth are meant is clear from the words that follow, which are 'Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron silver'; for 'bronze' is natural good, 425, 1551, and 'gold' celestial good, 113, 1551, 1552, 5658; 'iron' is natural truth, 425, 426, and 'silver' spiritual truth, 1551, 2954, 5658, 6112.

[3] In Ezekiel,

As regards increase, I gave you to be like the seed of the field, out of which you grew up and matured and reached full beauty; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Ezekiel 16:7.

This refers to Jerusalem, which here means the Ancient spiritual Church. 'Breasts that were formed' stands for interior affections for goodness and truth, 'your hair had grown for exterior affections belonging to the natural - 'hair' being the natural as regards truth, see 3301, 5247, 5569-5573. These words plainly contain a spiritual sense which is not visible in the letter, for without that sense why would it say of Jerusalem that its breasts were formed and its hair had grown?

[4] In the same prophet,

Two women, the daughters of one mother, committed whoredom in Egypt. In their youth they committed whoredom; there their breasts were squeezed, and there they contemplated their virgin busts. Ezekiel 23:2-3, 8, 21.

This passage in Ezekiel states that the two women are Jerusalem and Samaria, by whom Churches are meant in the internal sense. The statement that in their youth they committed whoredom with Egypt means that they falsified the truths of the Church by their use of factual knowledge - 'committing whoredom' is falsifying truths, see 2466, 4865, and 'Egypt' is factual knowledge, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 5700, 5702. Consequently 'their breasts were squeezed' stands for affections for goodness and truth that became perverted through falsifications. The fact that the women's whoredom and the squeezing of their breasts mean such things can be seen by those who are prepared to look into what is meant in the description of those women.

[5] In Hosea,

Contend with your mother, let her remove her whoredoms from her sight, 1 and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest perhaps I strip her naked, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. Hosea 2:1, 3.

'Mother' here stands for the Church, 289, 2691, 2717, 3703, 4257, 5581, whoredoms' for falsifications of truth, 2466, 4865, 'adulteries' for adulterations of good, 2466, 2729, 3399. Consequently 'adulteries from between her breasts' stands for adulterated affections for goodness and truth, 'stripping naked' for depriving of all truth, 1073, 4958, 5437, 'making like a wilderness, setting like a dry land, and slaying with thirst' for the annihilation of all truth.

[6] In the same prophet,

Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. Hosea 9:14.

'Dry breasts' stands for affections for neither truth nor good. In Isaiah,

O women without anxiety, stand still, hear My voice; O confident daughters, perceive My speech with your ears. Strip and make yourself bare, and gird [sackcloth] around your waist 2 - people beating themselves on their breasts for the fields of unmixed wine, and the fruitful vine. Isaiah 32:9, 11-12.

'Daughters' stands for affections, 2362, 3024, 3963, 'being stripped bare' for being deprived of truth, 1073, 4958, 5433, 'girding [sackcloth] around one's waist' for suffering grief over good that has been lost, 'beating on breasts' for suffering grief over the good of truth that has been lost. Since these things are meant, it also says 'for the fields of unmixed wine, and the fruitful vine'; for 'the field' is the Church in respect of good, thus the Church's good, 2971, 3196, 3310, 3766, and 'vine' is the spiritual Church, and therefore the good of truth, 5113, 6375, 6376.

[7] In the Book of Revelation,

I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe, and surrounded by a golden girdle around the breasts. Revelation 1:12-13.

'Golden lampstands' are truths of good, 'the Son of Man' is Divine Truth, 'surrounded by a golden girdle around the breasts' the good of love. Anyone may deduce from the holiness of the Word that the things John saw concealed within themselves realities such as belong to the Lord's kingdom and His Church; for what holiness would there be in making predictions about kingdoms in the world? From this one may recognize that they are heavenly things that are meant by 'lampstands' and by 'the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe, and surrounded by a golden girdle around the breasts'.

[8] In Luke,

A certain woman lifted up her voice out of the crowd; 3 she said about Jesus, Blessed is the womb that carried You, and the breasts that You sucked. But Jesus said, Rather than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Luke 11:27-28.

The Lord's reply shows what 'blessed is the womb' and what 'the breasts' mean - 'those who hear the Word of God and keep it', thus affections for truth which exist with those who hear the Word or God, and affections for good which exist with those who keep it, that is, put it into practice.

फुटनोट:

1. literally, faces

2. literally, upon your loins

3. literally, the people

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

स्वीडनबॉर्ग के कार्यों से

 

Arcana Coelestia #5247

इस मार्ग का अध्ययन करें

  
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5247. 'And he clipped [his hair and beard]' means a casting aside and the change made so far as the coverings of the exterior natural were concerned. This is clear from the meaning of 'clipping' - that is, clipping the head and beard - as casting aside the coverings of the exterior natural. For 'hair' which was clipped means the exterior natural, see 3301. Also, both hair on the head and that composing the beard correspond in the Grand Man to the exterior natural. This explains why in the light of heaven sensory-minded people - that is, those who have had no belief in anything apart from that which is natural, and have had no desire to understand how anything more internal or purer can exist apart from that which they can perceive with their senses - have a hairy appearance in the next life. They look so hairy that their faces are scarcely anything else than hairy beards. I have seen faces covered with hair like these on many occasions. But rationally-minded people, that is, spiritually-minded ones, with whom the natural has played a correctly subordinate role, are seen with tidy hair. Indeed from the state of people's hair in the next life one can tell what the natural with them is like. The reason spirits appear with hair on their heads is that in the next life spirits look exactly like people on earth. This too is why the Word sometimes includes a description of the hair of the angels people have seen.

[2] From all this one may now see what is meant by 'clipping', as in Ezekiel,

The priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, shall put off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments, and they shall not sanctify the people in their own garments. And they shall not shave their head and shall not let their hair grow long; they shall surely clip their heads. Ezekiel 44:15, 19-20.

This refers to a new Temple and a new priesthood, that is, to a new Church. 'Putting on other garments' means holy truths; 'not shaving their head, and not letting their hair grow long, but surely clipping their heads' means not casting aside the natural but taking measures to make it conformable, and so to make it subordinate. Anyone who believes that the Word is indeed holy can see that these and all the other details mentioned by the prophet which describe a new land, a new city, and a new Temple and priesthood must not be taken literally. The statement, for example, that the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, will minister there, at which time they will put off their ministerial garments and put on new ones, and will also clip their heads, is not meant literally; rather, each and all the details given by the prophet have as their meaning such things as are aspects of a new Church.

[3] The following rules were laid down for the high priest, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, in Moses,

The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated 1 to wear the garments, shall not shave his head or rend his garments. Leviticus 21:10.

The sons of Aaron shall not introduce any baldness on their head or shave the corner of their beard. They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God. Leviticus 21:5-6.

You shall purify the Levites like this: Sprinkle over them the water of expiation, and they shall pass a razor over their flesh and wash their garments, and they shall be pure. Numbers 8:7.

These rules would never have been given unless they had held holy ideas within them. Can there be anything holy or anything of the Church in the actual rule forbidding the high priest to shave his head or rend his garments, or in the actual rule forbidding the sons of Levi to introduce any baldness on their head or shave the corner of their beard, or in that commanding the Levites to shave their flesh with a razor when they underwent purification? Rather, the possession of an external or natural man made subordinate to the internal or spiritual man, both of which have thereby been made subordinate to the Divine, is the holy idea within those rules; and it is also what angels perceive when man reads about them in the Word.

[4] The same goes for what is said about a Nazirite who was holy to Jehovah. If someone next to him happened to die suddenly and so defile his consecrated head, the Nazirite was required to clip his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he had to clip it. On the day that the days of his Naziriteship were completed he had to clip his consecrated head at the door of the Tent of Meeting and to take the hair from his head and put it on the fire which was under the sacrifice of peace offerings, Numbers 6:8, 9, 13, 18. For the meaning of a Nazirite and what aspect of holiness he represented, see 3301. No one can possibly understand why anything holy existed within the Nazirite's hair unless he knows from correspondence what is meant by 'the hair' and from this what aspect of holiness a Nazirite's hair corresponded to. Nor can anyone likewise understand how the source of Samson's strength lay in his hair, which he told Delilah about in the following description,

No razor has come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite of God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength will depart from me, and I shall become weak and be like anyone else. And Delilah called a man who shaved off the seven locks of his hair; and his strength departed from him. After that, when the hair on his head began to grow, even as it had been shaved off, his strength returned to him. Judges 16:17, 19, 22.

Without any knowledge of correspondence who can see that the Lord's Divine Natural was represented by 'a Nazirite', or that 'Naziriteship' had no other meaning than this, or that Samson's strength was due to that representation?

[5] Anyone who does not know, and more so one who does not believe that the Word has an internal sense, and that the sense of the letter serves to represent the real things contained in the internal sense, will recognize scarcely anything holy at all in these matters, when in fact the greatest holiness lies within them. Anyone who does not know, and more so one who does not believe that the Word has an internal sense that is intrinsically holy cannot know what the following texts enfold within them: In Jeremiah,

Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. Cut off the hair of your Naziriteship and throw it away. Jeremiah 7:28-29.

In Isaiah,

On that day the Lord will shave by means of a razor hired at the crossing-places of the River - by means of the king of Asshur - the head and the hair of the feet; and it will consume the beard also. Isaiah 7:20.

In Micah,

Make yourself bald, and shave your head for the children of your delight; extend your baldness like an eagle, for they have departed from you. Micah 1:16.

Nor will anyone know the aspect of holiness contained in the reference to Elijah's being a man covered with hair, who wore a skin girdle around his loins, 2 Kings 1:8. Nor will he know why the children who called Elisha baldhead were torn apart by the bears out of the forest, 2 Kings 2:23-24.

[6] Both Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word, and so represented the Word itself, specifically the prophetical part, see Preface to Genesis 18, and 2762. Being covered with hair and having a skin girdle meant the literal sense, 'a man covered with hair' meaning that sense so far as truths were concerned, 'wearing a skin girdle around his loins' so far as forms of good were concerned. For the literal sense is the natural sense of the Word since it employs ideas formed from things that exist in the world, whereas the internal sense is the spiritual sense because it employs ideas formed from things existing in heaven. These two senses are related to each other in the way that the internal and the external are related in the human being. But because the internal can have no existence without the external, the external being the last and lowest degree of order within which the internal is held in being, the calling of Elisha 'baldhead' therefore meant the shameful accusation made against the Word that it lacked so to speak an external and so lacked a sense suited to man's capacity to understand it.

[7] From all this one may see that every particular detail in the Word is holy. However, this holiness within the Word is discerned by no one unless he is acquainted with the internal sense; yet an inkling of it flows from heaven into someone who believes that the Word is holy. The internal sense known to the angels is the channel through which that influx comes; and even if the person has no understanding of that sense it nevertheless stimulates an affection in him, because the affection felt by the angels who know that sense is communicated to him. From this it is also evident that the Word was given to man so that he might have a means of communication with heaven and so that by flowing into him Divine Truth in heaven might stimulate affection in him.

फुटनोट:

1. literally, whose hand has been filled

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