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Ezekiel 33

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1 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and tell them, When I bring the sword on a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;

3 if, when he sees the sword come on the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn't take warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be on his own head.

5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and didn't take warning; his blood shall be on him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul.

6 But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn't blow the trumpet, and the people aren't warned, and the sword comes, and take any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

7 So you, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

8 When I tell the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you don't speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.

9 Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he doesn't turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.

10 You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: Thus you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?

11 Tell them, As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, house of Israel?

12 You, son of man, tell the children of your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his disobedience; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither shall he who is righteous be able to live thereby in the day that he sins.

13 When I tell the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he has committed, therein shall he die.

14 Again, when I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;

15 if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.

16 None of his sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him: he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

17 Yet the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.

18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall even die therein.

19 When the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

20 Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. House of Israel, I will judge every one of you after his ways.

21 It happened in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city has been struck.

22 Now the hand of Yahweh had been on me in the evening, before he who was escaped came; and he had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more mute.

23 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

24 Son of man, they who inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.

25 Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?

26 You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and every one of you defiles his neighbor's wife: and shall you possess the land?

27 You shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him who is in the open field will I give to the animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.

28 I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.

29 Then shall they know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed.

30 As for you, son of man, the children of your people talk of you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, Please come and hear what is the word that comes forth from Yahweh.

31 They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don't do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.

32 Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they don't do them.

33 When this comes to pass, (behold, it comes), then shall they know that a prophet has been among them.

   

Dalle opere di Swedenborg

 

Apocalypse Revealed #270

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270. Having seven horns. This symbolizes the Lord's omnipotence.

The Word often mentions horns, and a horn everywhere symbolizes power. Consequently, when a horn is mentioned in connection with the Lord, it symbolizes omnipotence. Seven horns are specified, because seven symbolizes all (no. 10), thus all power or omnipotence.

That a horn symbolizes power, and when mentioned in connection with the Lord, omnipotence, can be seen from the following passages:

You who rejoice over nothing, who say, "Have we not taken horns for ourselves by our own strength?" (Amos 6:13)

I said... to the wicked, "Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high...." All the horns of the wicked I will cut off; the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. (Psalms 75:4-5, 10)

Jehovah... has exalted the horn of your adversaries. (Lamentations 2:17)

The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken... (Jeremiah 48:25)

...you have pushed with side and shoulder, and struck all the weak sheep with your horns... (Ezekiel 34:21)

(Jehovah) has exalted the horn of His people... (Psalms 148:14)

(Jehovah God of hosts,) the glory of their strength..., He has exalted our horn. (Psalms 89:17)

The brightness (of Jehovah God) will be like the light; He will have horns 1 coming from His hand, and the hiding of His power there. (Habakkuk 3:4)

...My arm shall strengthen (David)..., and in My name his horn shall be exalted. (Psalms 89:21, 24)

...Jehovah, my strength..., my rock...(my) horn... (Psalms 18:1-2, cf. 2 Samuel 22:3)

Arise..., O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron..., that you may break in pieces many peoples. (Micah 4:13)

(The Lord) has destroyed in His wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah..., (and) He has cut off... every horn of Israel. (Lamentations 2:2-3)

Powers are also symbolized by the horns of the dragon in Revelation 12:3; by the horns of the beast rising up out of the sea in Revelation 13:1; by the horns of the scarlet beast upon which the woman sat in Revelation 17:3, 7, 12; by the horns of the ram and the goat in Daniel 8:3-12, 20-22. The last symbolized the power of Divine truth in the church. And conversely, that that power would perish, by the horns of the altars in Bethel, in Amos:

...I will visit punishment on the transgressions of Israel, I will visit destruction on the altars of Bethel, so that the horns of the altar are cut off and fall to the ground. (Amos 3:14)

Note a piè di pagina:

1. Probably descriptive of rays of light.

  
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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.

Dalle opere di Swedenborg

 

Apocalypse Revealed #10

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10. John, to the seven churches. (1:4) This symbolically means, to all who are in the Christian world where the Word exists and where through it the Lord is known, and who turn to the church.

The seven churches mean, not seven churches, but all who are constituents of the church in the Christian world. For numbers in the Word symbolize properties, and seven symbolizes all things or all people, and so also fullness and completeness, and it occurs in the Word where the subject is something holy, and in an opposite sense, something profane. Consequently this number involves holiness, and in an opposite sense, profanation.

Numbers symbolize properties, or rather they serve as a class of adjectives to substantives, assigning some attribute to their subjects, because a number in itself is a natural quantity. For natural things are measured by numbers, but spiritual things by properties and their states. Therefore someone who does not know the symbolism of numbers in the Word, and particularly in the book of Revelation, cannot know the many secrets that it contains.

Now, because seven symbolizes all things or all people, it is apparent that the seven churches mean all people in the Christian world where the Word exists and where through it the Lord is known. If these live according to the Lord's commandments in the Word, they form the real church.

[2] It is because of this that the Sabbath was instituted on the seventh day, and that the seventh year was called a sabbatical year, and the forty-ninth year the year of Jubilee, which symbolized everything holy in the church.

It is because of this, too, that a week in Daniel and elsewhere symbolizes an entire period from beginning to end and is predicated of the church.

Similar things are symbolized by seven hereafter, as for example, by the seven golden lampstands, in the midst of which was the Son of Man (Revelation 1:13); by the seven stars in His right hand (1:16, 20); by the seven spirits of God (1:4; 4:5); by the seven lamps of fire (4:5); by the seven angels to whom were given seven trumpets (8:2); by the seven angels having the seven last plagues (15:5-6); by the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues (16:1; 21:9); by the seven seals with which the book was sealed (5:1).

Likewise in the following places: That their hands should be filled for seven days (Exodus 29:35). That they should be sanctified for seven days (Exodus 29:37). That when they were inaugurated they should go in seven days, clothed in holy garments (Exodus 29:30). That for seven days they should not go out of the Tabernacle while being initiated into the priesthood (Leviticus 8:33, 35). That atonement should be made for the altar seven times on its horns (Leviticus 16:18-19), and also seven times toward the east (Leviticus 16:12-15). That the water of separation should be sprinkled seven times toward the Tabernacle (Numbers 19:4). That Passover should be celebrated for seven days and unleavened bread eaten for seven days (Exodus 12:1ff., Deuteronomy 16:4-7).

So, too, that the Jews should be punished sevenfold for their sins (Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28), on which account David says, "Requite our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom" (Psalms 79:12). "Sevenfold" means fully.

[3] Also in these places:

The words of Jehovah are pure words, silver... in a furnace... purified seven times. (Psalms 12:6)

The hungry have ceased, until the barren has borne seven, while she who has many children has become feeble. (1 Samuel 2:5)

"The barren" is the church of the gentiles, who did not have the Word. "She who has many children" is the church of the Jews, who did have the Word. Similarly,

She will languish who has borne seven; she will breath out her soul. (Jeremiah 15:9)

Those who dwell in the cities of Israel will... set on fire and burn the weapons...; and they will make fires with them for seven years... ...they will bury Gog, and... for seven months... will be cleansing the land. (Ezekiel 39:9, 11-12)

(The unclean spirit) will take seven other spirits more wicked than himself... (Matthew 12:45)

Profanation is described there, and the seven spirits with which he would return symbolize all falsities of evil, thus a complete extinguishing of goodness and truth.

The seven heads of the dragon, and the seven jewels 1 on its heads (Revelation 12:3), symbolize the profanation of all goodness and truth.

This makes apparent that "seven" involves holiness or profanation, and symbolizes completeness and fullness.

Note a piè di pagina:

1. The word translated as "jewels" here means diadems or crowns in the original Greek and Latin, but the writer's definitions of the term elsewhere make plain that he regularly and consistently interpreted it to mean jewels or gems.

  
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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.

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