聖書

 

Soudců 15

勉強

   

1 Stalo se pak po několika dnech, v čas žně pšeničné, že chtěje navštíviti Samson ženu svou, a přinésti s sebou kozlíka, řekl: Vejdu k ženě své do pokoje. A nedopustil mu otec její vjíti.

2 I řekl otec její: Domníval jsem se zajisté, že ji máš v nenávisti, protož dal jsem ji tovaryši tvému. Zdaliž není sestra její mladší pěknější než ona? Nechať jest tedy tvá místo oné.

3 I řekl jim Samson: Nebuduť já potom vinen Filistinským, když jim zle učiním.

4 Odšed tedy Samson, nalapal tři sta lišek, a vzav pochodně, obrátil jeden ocas k druhému, a dal vše jednu pochodni mezi dva ocasy do prostředka.

5 Potom zapálil ty pochodně, a pustil do obilí Filistinských, a popálil, jakž sžaté tak nesžaté, i vinice i olivoví.

6 I řekli Filistinští: Kdo je to učinil? Jimž odpovědíno: Samson zeť Tamnejského, proto že vzal ženu jeho a dal ji tovaryši jeho. Tedy přišedše Filistinští, spálili ji ohněm i otce jejího.

7 Tedy řekl jim Samson: Ač jste učinili tak, však až se lépe vymstím nad vámi, teprv přestanu.

8 I zbil je na hnátích i na bedrách porážkou velikou, a odšed, usadil se na vrchu skály Etam.

9 Pročež vytáhli Filistinští, a rozbivše stany proti Judovi, rozložili se až do Lechi.

10 Muži pak Juda řekli: Proč jste vytáhli proti nám? I odpověděli: Vytáhli jsme, abychom svázali Samsona, a učinili jemu tak, jako on nám učinil.

11 Tedy vyšlo tři tisíce mužů Juda k vrchu skály Etam, a řekli Samsonovi: Nevíš-liž, že panují nad námi Filistinští? Pročež jsi tedy nám to učinil? I odpověděl jim: Jakž mi učinili, tak jsem jim učinil.

12 Řekli také jemu: Přišli jsme, abychom tě svázali a vydali v ruku Filistinským. Tedy odpověděl jim Samson: Přisáhněte mi , že vy se na mne neoboříte.

13 Tedy mluvili jemu, řkouce: Nikoli, jediné tuze svížíce, vydáme tě v ruku jejich, ale nezabijeme tě. I svázali ho dvěma provazy novými, a svedli jej s skály.

14 Kterýž když přišel až do Lechi, Filistinští radostí křičeli proti němu. přišel pak na něj Duch Hospodinův, a učiněni jsou provazové, kteříž byli na rukou jeho, jako niti lněné, když v ohni hoří, i spadli svazové s rukou jeho.

15 Tedy našel čelist osličí ještě vlhkou, a vztáh ruku svou, vzal ji a pobil ní tisíc mužů.

16 Protož řekl Samson: Čelistí osličí hromadu jednu, nýbrž dvě hromady, čelistí osličí zbil jsem tisíc mužů.

17 A když přestal mluviti, povrhl čelist z ruky své, a nazval to místo Ramat Lechi.

18 Žíznil pak velice, i volal k Hospodinu a řekl: Ty jsi učinil skrze ruce služebníka svého vysvobození toto veliké, nyní pak již žízní umru, aneb upadnu v ruku těch neobřezaných.

19 Tedy otevřel Bůh skálu v Lechi, i vyšly z ní vody, a napil se; i okřál, a jako ožil. Protož nazval jméno její studnice vzývajícího, kteráž jest v Lechi až do dnešního dne.

20 Soudil pak Izraele za času Filistinských dvadceti let.

   

解説

 

Exploring the Meaning of Judges 15

作者: New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth

Judges 15: Samson defeats the Philistines.

At the beginning of this chapter, we learn that the one who gave Samson’s wife to another man was his father-in-law, who thought that Samson truly hated her. He then offered Samson her younger sister instead, saying, “Is she not better? Take her.”

Samson, enraged, took three-hundred foxes and tied them tail-to-tail in pairs, with a lit torch between them. He then released them in the Philistines’ standing grain, vineyards and olive groves to burn up their crops, as revenge for the loss of his wife. In retaliation, the Philistines went and burned her and her father. In a final act of vengeance, Samson killed very many of the Philistines, then went to dwell in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

The Philistines went to Judah, stating their intent to arrest Samson, and the men of Judah passed on the message to him. Samson made the Judeans promise not to kill him themselves, but only to bind him with two new ropes before giving him to the Philistines as a prisoner.

When the Philistines came, Samson broke apart the ropes, and killed a thousand of them with the jawbone of a donkey. Then he threw the jawbone away, and complained to the Lord that he was thirsty. The Lord answered his cry for help by splitting the ground where the jawbone fell, so that Samson could drink the water that flowed from it.

The final verse of this chapter tells us that Samson judged Israel twenty years.

*****

Samson’s marriage to a Philistine woman speaks to the appealing, or even enticing, nature of ‘faith alone’ spirituality, represented by the Philistines. We must stay on our guard, to ensure that we are not caught up in thinking that faith alone will save us. The father offers Samson his wife’s younger sister, saying she is even better, but Samson had already learned to be wary by that point.

The foxes, tied together with their tails lit on fire, vividly describes the twisted and destructive nature of faith alone, and the way it consumes our potential to lead a fruitful life. The Word often depicts the state of a nation or religion through a story illustrating its true nature (True Christian Religion 130)

The cycle of revenge between Samson and the Philistines represents our personal struggles during temptation and our wish to regenerate. Our whole effort during regeneration is to resist sins that might lure us in, and to maintain our intention to live the Word (see Swedenborg’s work, Divine Providence 83[6]). The men of Judah who bind Samson represent our love for the Lord and for everything of the Lord, although this seems contradictory on a surface level. In this case, being ‘bound up’ means to be bound in our commitment to the Lord, so that we are restrained from doing evil (see Swedenborg’s work, Heaven and Hell 577[4]).

Samson stands for the power of the Word acting in our lives to assert what is true, to protect what must be upheld, and to defend against evils. He uses the jawbone of a donkey because a jawbone allows us to eat food (spiritually, nourishment from the Word), and also to proclaim the Lord’s truths. This gives us the power to expose and reject the belief that spirituality consists of faith alone (see Swedenborg’s work, Arcana Caelestia 9049[6]).

聖書

 

Exodus 21

勉強

   

1 "Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.

2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.

3 If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.

4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.

5 But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;'

6 then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.

7 "If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do.

8 If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her.

9 If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her as a daughter.

10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.

11 If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.

12 "One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,

13 but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.

14 If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

15 "Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.

16 "Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

17 "Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

18 "If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed;

19 if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him shall be cleared: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed.

20 "If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.

21 Notwithstanding, if he gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property.

22 "If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow.

23 But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,

24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.

26 "If a man strikes his servant's eye, or his maid's eye, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.

27 If he strikes out his male servant's tooth, or his female servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.

28 "If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.

29 But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.

30 If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him.

31 Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.

32 If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.

33 "If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it,

34 the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.

35 "If one man's bull injures another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead animal.

36 Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely pay bull for bull, and the dead animal shall be his own.