Bibliorum

 

Oséias 9

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1 Não te alegres, ó Israel, não exultes como os povos; pois te prostituíste, apartando-te do teu Deus; amaste a paga de meretriz sobre todas as eiras de trigo.

2 A eira e o lagar não os manterão, e o vinho novo lhes faltará.

3 Na terra do Senhor não permanecerão; mas Efraim tornará ao Egito, e na Assíria comerão comida imunda.

4 Não derramarão libações de vinho ao Senhor, nem lhe agradarão com as suas ofertas. O pão deles será como pão de pranteadores; todos os que dele comerem serão imundos; pois o seu pão será somente para o seu apetite; não entrará na casa do Senhor.

5 Que fareis vós no dia da solenidade, e no dia da festa do Senhor?

6 Porque, eis que eles se foram por causa da destruição, mas o Egito os recolherá, Mênfis os sepultará; as suas coisas preciosas de prata as urtigas as possuirão; espinhos crescerão nas suas tendas.

7 Chegaram os dias da punição, chegaram os dias da retribuição; Israel o saberá; o profeta é um insensato, o homem possesso de espírito é um louco; por causa da abundância da tua iniqüidade e do teu grande ódio.

8 O profeta é a sentinela de Efraim, o povo do meu Deus; contudo um laço de caçador de aves se acha em todos os seus caminhos, e inimizade na casa do seu Deus.

9 Muito profundamente se corromperam, como nos dias de Gibeá; ele se lembrará das iniqüidades deles, e punirá os seus pecados.

10 Achei a Israel como uvas no deserto, vi a vossos pais como a fruta temporã da figueira no seu princípio; mas eles foram para Baal- Peor, e se consagraram a essa coisa vergonhosa, e se tornaram abomináveis como aquilo que amaram.

11 Quanto a Efraim, a sua glória como ave voará; não haverá nascimento, nem gravidez, nem concepção.

12 Ainda que venham criar seus filhos, eu os privarei deles, para que não fique nenhum homem. Ai deles, quando deles eu me apartar!

13 Efraim, assim como vi a Tiro, está plantado num lugar aprazível; mas Efraim levará seus filhos ao matador.

14 -lhes, ó Senhor; mas que lhes darás? -lhes uma madre que aborte e seios ressecados.

15 Toda a sua malícia se acha em Gilgal; pois ali é que lhes concebi ódio; por causa da maldade das suas obras lançá-los-ei fora de minha casa. Não os amarei mais; todos os seus príncipes são rebeldes.

16 Efraim foi ferido, secou-se a sua raiz; eles não darão fruto; sim, ainda que gerem, eu matarei os frutos desejáveis do seu ventre.

17 O meu Deus os rejeitará, porque não o ouviram; e errantes andarão entre as nações.

   

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

True Christianity #247

Studere hoc loco

  
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247. Many passages in the Prophets show that the church among the Israelite and Jewish nation was completely destroyed and was no longer a church because its members had falsified the meaning, or their understanding, of the Word. Nothing else destroys a church.

In the Prophets, especially in Hosea, the name "Ephraim" stands for an understanding of the Word, whether true or false. Throughout the Word, in fact, "Ephraim" means the church's understanding of the Word. Because an understanding of the Word forms the church, Ephraim is called a precious child and one born of delight (Jeremiah 31:20); a firstborn (Jeremiah 31:9); the strength of Jehovah's head (Psalms 60:7; 108:8); powerful (Zechariah 10:7); and someone outfitted with a bow (Zechariah 9:13); and Ephraim's children are said to be armed and to shoot with a bow (Psalms 78:9). A "bow" means a body of teaching from the Word that fights against false ideas. For this reason Israel laid his right hand rather than his left on Ephraim and blessed him, and Ephraim took the place of Reuben (Genesis 48:5, 11, and following). For this reason during Moses' blessing of the children of Israel, Ephraim and his brother Manasseh were exalted above all the rest as part of Moses' blessing of their father, Joseph ().

[2] The Prophets, especially Hosea, also describe as "Ephraim" what the church is like when it has lost its understanding of the Word. For example,

Israel and Ephraim will collapse. Ephraim will be desolate. Ephraim will be oppressed and broken in judgment. (Hosea 5:5, 9, )

What will I do to you, Ephraim, since your holiness has gone away like a cloud at sunrise and like the dew that falls in the morning? (Hosea 6:4)

They will not live on Jehovah's land. Ephraim will go back to Egypt and will eat what is unclean in Assyria. (Hosea 9:3)

"Jehovah's land" is the church; "Egypt" is scholarly study on the part of our earthly self; "Assyria" is reasoning based on that study. The latter two things together falsify our deeper understanding of the Word. This is why it says that Ephraim will go back to Egypt and eat what is unclean in Assyria.

[3] Ephraim is feeding on the wind and pursuing the east wind. Every day he increases lying and devastation. He is making a pact with Assyria and oil is being carried down to Egypt. (Hosea 12:1)

"Feeding on the wind," "pursuing the east wind," and "increasing lying and devastation" means falsifying truths and thereby destroying the church.

Ephraim's whoring means the same thing, in that "whoring" in the following passages means falsifying an understanding of the Word and its genuine truth:

I know that Ephraim has whored in every way and Israel has become defiled. (Hosea 5:3)

In the house of Israel, I have seen a foul thing. Ephraim has whored there and Israel has become defiled. (Hosea 6:10)

"Israel" is the church itself; "Ephraim" is the understanding of the Word on which the church depends and is based. This is why it says that Ephraim whored and Israel became defiled.

[4] Since the church in the Israelite and Jewish nation was obviously destroyed by falsifying the Word, therefore we read of Ephraim,

I will give you away, Ephraim. I will hand you over, Israel, like Admah, and I will make you like Zeboiim. (Hosea 11:8)

Because the prophet Hosea from the first chapter to the last is about a genuine understanding of the Word becoming falsified and the church being destroyed by that, and because "whoring" there means falsifying the truth, therefore the prophet Hosea was commanded to represent the condition of the church by marrying a whore and having sons by her (Hosea 1); and later by marrying an adulterous woman (Hosea 3).

I have quoted these passages to make known, and to support the concept, that the quality of the church is the quality of its understanding of the Word. If its understanding is based on genuine truths from the Word, the church is excellent and highly valuable. If its understanding is based on falsified truths from the Word, the church is ruined and in fact becomes something foul.

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

Bibliorum

 

Jeremiah 31

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1 At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

2 Thus says Yahweh, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

3 Yahweh appeared of old to me, [saying], Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.

4 Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.

5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy [its fruit].

6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.

7 For thus says Yahweh, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, [and] with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.

9 They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

10 Hear the word of Yahweh, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd does his flock.

11 For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

12 They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Yahweh.

15 Thus says Yahweh: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.

16 Thus says Yahweh: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

17 There is hope for your latter end, says Yahweh; and [your] children shall come again to their own border.

18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.

19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh.

21 Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man.

23 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.

24 Judah and all its cities shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.

25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished.

26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.

27 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal.

28 It shall happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says Yahweh.

29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

30 But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

31 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh.

33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:

34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all Know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

35 Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name:

36 If these ordinances depart from before me, says Yahweh, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.

37 Thus says Yahweh: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Yahweh.

38 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that the city shall be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.

39 The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah.

40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.