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Jeremiah 46

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1 The word of Jehovah which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.

2 Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh-neco king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.

3 Prepare ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.

4 Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail.

5 Wherefore have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: terror is on every side, saith Jehovah.

6 Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates have they stumbled and fallen.

7 Who is this that riseth up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?

8 Egypt riseth up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he saith, I will rise up, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and the inhabitants thereof.

9 Go up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men go forth: Cush and Put, that handle the shield; and the Ludim, that handle and bend the bow.

10 For that day is [a day] of the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be satiate, and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain dost thou use many medicines; there is no healing for thee.

12 The nations have heard of thy shame, and the earth is full of thy cry; for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of them together.

13 The word that Jehovah spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.

14 Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand forth, and prepare thee; for the sword hath devoured round about thee.

15 Why are thy strong ones swept away? they stood not, because Jehovah did drive them.

16 He made many to stumble, yea, they fell one upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.

17 They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath let the appointed time pass by.

18 As I live, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts, surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.

19 O thou daughter that dwellest in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up, without inhabitant.

20 Egypt is a very fair heifer; [but] destruction out of the north is come, it is come.

21 Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they did not stand: for the day of their calamity is come upon them, the time of their visitation.

22 The sound thereof shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.

23 They shall cut down her forest, saith Jehovah, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.

24 The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

25 Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saith: Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and them that trust in him:

26 and I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith Jehovah.

27 But fear not thou, O Jacob my servant, neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

28 Fear not thou, O Jacob my servant, saith Jehovah; for I am with thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee; but I will not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure, and will in no wise leave thee unpunished.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #6502

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6502. 'And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians' means preservation from evils which would hinder it, that is to say, the joining together. This is clear from the meaning of 'commanding' as flowing into, dealt with in 5732; from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal, dealt with just above in 6499; and from the meaning of 'the physicians' as preservation from evils (for it is apparent from the train of thought here that the preservation is from evils which would hinder the joining together referred to immediately above in 6501). From all this it is evident that 'Joseph commanded his servants the physicians' means an influx from the internal regarding preservation from evils which would hinder the joining together. The reason why 'the physicians' means preservation from evils is that in the spiritual world 'sicknesses' are evils and falsities. Spiritual diseases are nothing else, for evils and falsities rob the internal man of good health; they introduce mental disorders and at length states of depression. Nothing else is meant in the Word by 'sicknesses'.

[2] In the Word 'physicians', 'medicine', and 'medicaments' mean forms of preservation from evils and falsities. This is clear from places where they are mentioned, as in Moses,

If you obediently hear the voice of your God, and do what is good in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will not put on you any sickness that I put on the Egyptians; for I, Jehovah, am your Physician. Exodus 15:26.

'Jehovah the Physician' stands for the preserver from evils; for these evils are meant by 'sicknesses on the Egyptians'. The fact that 'sicknesses on the Egyptians' means evils and falsities that arise when people reason about the arcana of faith on the basis of factual knowledge and false notions will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown where those sicknesses are dealt with. But spiritual ones are meant, as is evident from its being said that if they heard the voice of God, did what was good, gave ear to His precepts, and kept His statutes, none of those sicknesses would be put on them.

[3] In addition the Lord calls Himself 'a Physician' in the same sense in Luke,

Those who are healthy have no need of a physician but those who are ill. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:31, 32

Here also 'a physician' stands for a preserver from evils; for 'those who are healthy' is used to mean the righteous, and 'those who are ill' sinners. In Jeremiah,

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of My people? 1 Jeremiah 8:22.

'A physician' stands for preservation from falsities in the Church, for 'the health of the daughter of My people' is the truth of doctrine there.

[4] In the Word healing, cures, remedies, and medicaments are spoken of not in a natural but in a spiritual sense, as is evident in Jeremiah,

Why have You stricken us so that there is no remedy for us? Await peace, but no good comes; a time of healing, but behold, terror. Jeremiah 14:19; 8:15.

In the same prophet,

I will bring health and curing to it, 2 and I will heal them, and reveal to them the crown of peace, and truth. Jeremiah 33:6.

In the same prophet,

There is none judging your judgement for healthiness; you have no restorative medicaments. Jeremiah 30:13.

In the same prophet,

Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain you have multiplied medicaments; there is no healing for you. Jeremiah 46:11.

[5] In Ezekiel,

Beside the river there is rising up upon its bank, on this side and on that, every tree for food, whose leaf does not fall and whose fruit does not fail; it is reborn monthly, for its waters are flowing out from the sanctuary, wherefore its fruit is for food, and its leaf for a medicament. Ezekiel 47:12.

Here the prophet is describing a new house of God or a new temple, by which a new Church is meant, and in a more internal sense the Lord's spiritual kingdom. Therefore by 'the river upon whose bank there is rising up every tree for food' is meant things that belong to intelligence and wisdom, 108, 109, 2702, 3051 - 'trees' are perceptions and recognition of what is good and true, 103, 2163, 2682, 2722, 2972, 4552; 'food' is forms of good and truths themselves, 680, 4459, 5147, 5293, 5576, 5915; 'waters going out from the sanctuary' are truths that compose intelligence, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668; 'the sanctuary' is celestial love, and in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Human, which is the source of that love; 'fruits which are for food' means forms of the good of love, 917, 983, 2846, 2847, 3146; and 'leaf which is for a medicament' means the truth of faith, 885. From this it is evident what 'a medicament' means, namely that which preserves from falsities and from evils; for the truth of faith, when it leads to goodness of life because it leads away from evil, acts as a preserver.

Footnotes:

1. literally, Why then has there not gone up the health of the daughter of My people?

2. literally, I will cause health and curing to go up to it.

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

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