Bibliorum

 

Ezekiel 39

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1 And thou, son of man, prophesy concerning Gog, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against thee, O Gog, Prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal,

2 And have turned thee back, and enticed thee, And caused thee to come up from the sides of the north, And brought thee in against mountains of Israel,

3 And have smitten thy bow out of thy left hand, Yea, thine arrows out of thy right I cause to fall.

4 On mountains of Israel thou fallest, Thou, and all thy bands, and the peoples who [are] with thee, To ravenous fowl -- a bird of every wing, And [to] a beast of the field, I have given thee for food.

5 On the face of the field thou fallest, for I have spoken, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

6 And I have sent a fire against Magog, And against the confident inhabitants of the isles, And they have known that I [am] Jehovah.

7 And My holy name I make known in the midst of My people Israel, And I pollute not My holy name any more, And known have the nations that I, Jehovah, the holy One, [am] in Israel.

8 Lo, it hath come, and it hath been done, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, It [is] the day of which I spake.

9 And gone out have the inhabitants of cities of Israel, And they have burned and kindled [a fire], With armour, and shield, and buckler, With bow, and with arrows, And with hand-staves, and with javelins, And they have caused a fire to burn with them seven years,

10 And they do not take wood out of the field, Nor do they hew out of the forests, For with armour they cause the fire to burn, And they have spoiled their spoilers, And they have plundered their plunderers, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

11 And it hath come to pass, in that day, I give to Gog a place there -- a grave in Israel, the valley of those passing by, east of the sea, and it is stopping those passing by, and they have buried there Gog, and all his multitude, and have cried, O valley of the multitude of Gog!

12 And the house of Israel have buried them -- in order to cleanse the land -- seven months.

13 Yea, all the people of the land have buried them, and it hath been to them for a name -- the day of My being honoured -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

14 And men for continual employment they separate, passing on through the land, burying with those passing by those who are left on the face of the earth, to cleanse it: at the end of seven months they search.

15 And those passing by have passed through the land, and seen a bone of man, and one hath constructed near it a sign till those burying have buried it in the valley of the multitude of Gog.

16 And also the name of the city [is] The multitude; and they have cleansed the land.

17 And thou, son of man, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Say to the bird -- every wing, and to every beast of the field: Be assembled and come in, Be gathered from round about, For My sacrifice that I am sacrificing for you, A great sacrifice on mountains of Israel, And ye have eaten flesh, and drunk blood.

18 Flesh of the mighty ye do eat, And blood of princes of the earth ye drink, Of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, Of calves, fatlings of Bashan -- all of them.

19 And ye have eaten fat to satiety, And ye have drunk blood -- to drunkenness, Of My sacrifice that I sacrificed for you.

20 And ye have been satisfied at My table with horse and rider, Mighty man, and every man of war, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

21 And I have given My honour among nations, And seen have all the nations My Judgment that I have done, And My hand that I have laid on them.

22 And known have the house of Israel that I [am] Jehovah their God, From that day and henceforth.

23 And known have the nations that for their iniquity, Removed have the house of Israel, Because they have trespassed against Me, And I do hide My face from them, And give them into the hand of their adversaries, And they fall by sword -- all of them.

24 According to their uncleanness, And according to their transgressions, I have done with them, And I do hide My face from them.

25 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Now do I bring back the captivity of Jacob, And I have pitied all the house of Israel, And have been zealous for My holy name.

26 And they have forgotten their shame, And all their trespass that they trespassed against Me, In their dwelling on their land confidently and none troubling.

27 In My bringing them back from the peoples, I have assembled them from the lands of their enemies, And I have been sanctified in them before the eyes of the many nations,

28 And they have known that I [am] Jehovah their God, In My removing them unto the nations, And I have gathered them unto their land, And I leave none of them any more there.

29 And I hide not any more My face from them, In that I have poured out My spirit on the house of Israel, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!'

   

Commentarius

 

Eat

  
"A Peasant Family at Lunch" by Albert Neuhuys

When we eat, our bodies break down the food and get from it both energy and materials for building and repairing the body. The process is similar on a symbolic level in the Bible. Food represents the desire for good and the insight that comes from that desire for good – goodness and understanding that come from the Lord. But to put them to use we have to take them in and make them our own – which is spiritual eating.

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #680

Studere hoc loco

  
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680. The fact that goods and truths are man's real food may be clear to anyone, for the person who is deprived of them has no life within himself, and is a dead man. The food on which the soul of the person feeds who is dead in this sense consists of the delights arising from evils, and of the pleasures gained from falsities. These are the food of death. These delights and pleasures also derive from bodily, worldly, and natural things, which have no life at all within them. Furthermore such a person does not know what spiritual and celestial food is. Every time 'food' or 'bread' is mentioned in the Word he assumes that food for the body is meant. In the words of the Lord's Prayer, 'Give us our daily bread', for example, he thinks purely of nourishment for the body. There are some whose ideas do extend further and who assert that this petition includes all other physical requirements, such as clothing, money, and so on. Indeed they will argue fiercely that no other kind of food is meant, even though they clearly see that the petitions coming before and after it entail purely celestial and spiritual things, and refer to the Lord's kingdom, and possibly know as well that the Lord's Word is celestial and spiritual.

[2] From this and other similar considerations it becomes sufficiently clear just how bodily-minded the man of today is, and that like the Jews, he is unwilling to accept anything stated in the Word except in a very crude and materialistic way. The Lord Himself clearly teaches what His Word means by 'food' and 'bread': He speaks of food in John as follows,

Jesus said, Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man gives you. John 6:27.

And of bread He says in the same gospel,

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread he will live for ever. John 6:49-51, 58.

Even today there are people who, like those who first heard these words, declare,

This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? And some drew back and no longer walked with Him. John 6:60, 66.

To those people the Lord said,

The words which I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. John 6:63.

[3] It is similar with water, in that it means the spiritual things of faith: He speaks of water in John as follows,

Jesus said, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but he who drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life. John 4:13-14.

Even today there are people like the woman to whom the Lord spoke at the spring, who replied,

Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. John 4:15.

[4] In the Word 'food' means nothing other than spiritual and celestial food, which is faith in the Lord and love. This is clear from many places in the Word, as in Jeremiah,

The enemy has stretched out his hand over all the desirable things of Jerusalem, because she saw the nations come into her sanctuary, concerning whom You did command, They shall not enter your congregation. All the people groan as they search for bread. They have given their desirable things for food to restore the soul. Lamentations 1:10-11.

Here no other bread or food is meant than spiritual, for the subject is the sanctuary. In the same author,

I called to my lovers, they deceived me. My priests and my elders breathed their last in the city, for they sought food for themselves to refresh their soul. Lamentations 1:19.

Here the meaning is similar. In David,

They all look to You to give them their food in due season. You givest to them - they gather it up. You openest Your hand - they are satisfied with good. Psalms 104:27-28.

This in like manner stands for spiritual and celestial food.

[5] In Isaiah,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1.

Here 'wine and milk' stands for spiritual and celestial drink. In the same prophet,

A virgin is conceiving and bearing a son, and you will call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey will He eat that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. It will be that because of the abundance of milk they produce he will eat butter, for butter and honey will everyone eat that is left in the midst of the land. Isaiah 7:14-15, 22.

Here 'eating honey and butter' means that which is celestial-spiritual, and 'those who are left' stands for remnants, which are referred to in Malachi as well,

Bring all the tithes 1 to the storehouse that there may be food in My house. Malachi 3:10.

'Tithes' 1 stands for remnants. Further concerning the meaning of 'food', see 56-58, 276.

V:

1. or tenths

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