聖書

 

Obadiah 1

勉強

1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.

2 Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?

4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD.

5 If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?

6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!

7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.

8 Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

10 For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.

11 In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.

12 But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.

13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;

14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.

15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.

19 And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.

21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.

解説

 

Food

  
"The Chef" by Unknown Master, Spanish (active 17th century)

Just as natural food feeds the natural body, so too does spiritual food feed the spiritual body. And since our spiritual body is the expression of what we love, then spiritual food is what feeds our state of love: It is the desire for good, the delight of being good, the understanding of what it is to be good and the knowledge of all that's true and leads to what is good. So when food is talked about in the Bible, that's what it means, and the huge variety of forms food can take represent the huge variety of good we can seek in life and the huge variety of thought we can have leading to it.

(参照: Arcana Coelestia 680, 1695, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5576, 9003)

スウェーデンボルグの著作から

 

Arcana Coelestia#1695

この節の研究

  
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1695. That 'all their food' means the power to think what was false is clear from the meaning of 'food'. What the celestial, spiritual, and natural food are which people enjoy in the next life has been shown already in 56, 58, 680, 681. These also correspond to food for the body, and therefore they are also represented in the Word by food and are actually called food. The food of evil and hellish spirits however is that which is the reverse of wisdom, intelligence, and true knowledge, namely all falsity; and what is remarkable, evil spirits are also sustained by this food. The reason they are sustained by it is that it is their life. Unless they are given the opportunity to revile the truth, and indeed to blaspheme it, they cannot live. Yet they are not given the freedom to think and speak anything false except that which subsists from their own evil; they are not free to think or speak that which is contrary to their own evil, for this is deception. Insofar as their own evil is the origin of the falsity they express, their own life is the source of it; and in this case it is also forgiven them, since their nature is such that they could not otherwise live at all.

[2] With regard to their being stripped of the power to do evil and to think falsity, the situation is that in the conflicts brought about by temptations evil spirits are permitted to draw forth all the evil and falsity residing in a person, and to fight from that person's evil and falsity. But once they have been overcome they are no longer allowed to do so, for, being within that person, they instantly perceive that good and truth have been confirmed. Such perception exists more completely with spirits than with men. From the very sphere of a person confirmed in truth and good they recognize in an instant what the situation is, what response they will get, and much else. This is quite clear in the case of a spiritual and regenerate person, with whom evil spirits are present just as much as they are with one who is not regenerate; but with the regenerate person they have been subdued and are subservient. These are the things meant by their being stripped of the power to do evil and to think falsity.

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