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Ezekiel 32

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1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first [day] of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou wast likened unto a young lion of the nations: yet art thou as a monster in the seas; and thou didst break forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.

3 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will spread out my net upon thee with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring thee up in my net.

4 And I will leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle upon thee, and I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with thee.

5 And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height.

6 I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of thee.

7 And when I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.

8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord Jehovah.

9 I will also vex the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.

10 Yea, I will make many peoples amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall.

11 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.

12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall; the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall bring to nought the pride of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.

13 I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside many waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.

14 Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord Jehovah.

15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Jehovah.

16 This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, saith the Lord Jehovah.

17 It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth [day] of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.

19 Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.

20 They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her away and all her multitudes.

21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

22 Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are round about her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword;

23 whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.

24 There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.

25 They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude; her graves are round about her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that are slain.

26 There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude; their graves are round about them; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living.

27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, that are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are upon their bones; for [they were] the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

28 But thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain by the sword.

29 There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with them that are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.

30 There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who are gone down with the slain; in the terror which they caused by their might they are put to shame; and they lie uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.

31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah.

32 For I have put his terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

   

Commentary

 

Bloods

  

Bloods signify evil in Ezekiel 16:9.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 3147 [1-10])

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #5945

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5945. 'Take for yourselves from the land of Egypt carts' means matters of doctrine belonging to factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as factual knowledge, dealt with already; and from the meaning of 'carts' as matters of doctrine. Chariots and horses are mentioned in various places in the Word where Egypt is the subject. There 'chariots' is used to mean matters of doctrine, sometimes false, at other times true ones, while 'horses' is used to mean intellectual concepts, likewise true or false ones. (For the meaning of 'chariots' as matters of doctrine, see 5721.) It is similar with 'carts' there, but matters of doctrine belonging to factual knowledge are meant by them. Matters of doctrine belonging to factual knowledge are religious teachings drawn from the literal sense of the Word, which serve especially those people who are being introduced for the first time to interior truths that the Church possesses, such as the teaching that good should be done above all to widows, to orphans, and to the poor in the streets. Other such religious teachings are contained in the ten commandments. These and many other teachings are matters of doctrine belonging to factual knowledge and are meant by 'carts belonging to Egypt'. Because such matters of doctrine are the first to be learned by a person they also serve him subsequently as a groundwork; for when progress is made towards more internal teachings those learned first become the last and lowest. Moreover celestial and spiritual realities actually terminate in them, for they stand and rest so to speak on the matters of doctrine learned first. Indeed the spiritual world has so to speak its feet and the soles of its feet planted on the natural world; and so far as his spiritual life is concerned a person has his feet planted on matters of doctrine that belong to factual knowledge. The internal sense of the Word rests in a similar way on its literal sense. The particular word for 'carts', by which those matters of doctrine are meant, occurs in only a few places in the Word. It is used in the original language where it is said that the Ark was placed on one, 1 Samuel 6:7; 2 Samuel 6:3; and also when the tabernacle was consecrated, Numbers 7:3. The reason for the use of the word is that 'the Ark' represented heaven, 3478, which stands and rests, as has been stated, on matters of doctrine belonging to factual knowledge.

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