New Christian Bible Study

The Bible

 

Jeremiah 50

Study

   

1 The word that Jehovah spake concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Declare ye among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed.

3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and beast.

4 In those days, and in that time, saith Jehovah, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Jehovah their God.

5 They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward, [saying], Come ye, and join yourselves to Jehovah in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.

6 My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting-place.

7 All that found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Jehovah, the habitation of righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers.

8 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.

9 For, lo, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain.

10 And Chaldea shall be a prey: all that prey upon her shall be satisfied, saith Jehovah.

11 Because ye are glad, because ye rejoice, O ye that plunder my heritage, because ye are wanton as a heifer that treadeth out [the grain], and neigh as strong horses;

12 your mother shall be utterly put to shame; she that bare you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13 Because of the wrath of Jehovah she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against Jehovah.

15 Shout against her round about: she hath submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Jehovah: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.

17 Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

18 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

19 And I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.

20 In those days, and in that time, saith Jehovah, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.

21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: slay and utterly destroy after them, saith Jehovah, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against Jehovah.

25 Jehovah hath opened his armory, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, hath a work [to do] in the land of the Chaldeans.

26 Come against her from the utmost border; open her store-houses; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.

27 Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

28 The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God, the vengeance of his temple.

29 Call together the archers against Babylon, all them that bend the bow; encamp against her round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her; for she hath been proud against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel.

30 Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, saith Jehovah.

31 Behold, I am against thee, O thou proud one, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts; for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.

32 And the proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all that are round about him.

33 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; and all that took them captive hold them fast; they refuse to let them go.

34 Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah of hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith Jehovah, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

36 A sword is upon the boasters, and they shall become fools; a sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed.

37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed.

38 A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of graven images, and they are mad over idols.

39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, saith Jehovah, so shall no man dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

41 Behold, a people cometh from the north; and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

42 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.

43 The king of Babylon hath heard the tidings of them, and his hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of him, [and] pangs as of a woman in travail.

44 Behold, [the enemy] shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoso is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd that can stand before me?

45 Therefore hear ye the counsel of Jehovah, that he hath taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.

46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembleth, and the cry is heard among the nations.

   

Commentary

 

Cut off, to be

  

In Daniel 9:26, this signifies that divine truth shall be taken from the people, but will live again in a new church. (Apocalypse Explained 315[23])

In Genesis 17:14, this signifies eternal death. (Arcana Coelestia 2058)

In Exodus 23:23, this signifies that hell is removed solely through the protection of heaven by the Lord. (Arcana Coelestia 9316) To be cut off, as in Genesis 41:36, signifies to perish.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 5302, Genesis 41)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #783

Study this Passage

  
/ 1232  
  

783. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority, signifies that those who separate faith from life support and corroborate their doctrinals by reasonings from fallacies, and thus powerfully seduce. This is evident from the signification of the "beast" to which the dragon gave his powers, as being reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life (See above, n. 774). These reasonings are from the fallacies of the senses, because that beast appeared like a leopard, and his feet were "as of a bear," and "the feet of a bear" signify fallacies, 781.

Also from the signification of "giving his power, his throne, and great authority," as being to support and corroborate doctrinals; "power" signifying efficacy; "throne" the church in respect to doctrine that is from falsities, and "great authority" support and corroboration thereby. That this is added to their reasonings and their fallacies has been shown above.

[2] It is not because the falsities in which they are have any power in themselves that those who separate faith from life, that is, from good works, have "power, a throne, and great authority," for falsities from evil have no power whatever, since all power is in truths from good. But falsities have power over falsities, as like over like. This can be clearly seen from the power of infernal spirits with one another, which they exercise by things imaginary and by semblances of correspondences, by which they are desirous of seeming most powerful and mighty; but yet they have no power whatever against truths, and so wholly none that it is nothing at all. This I could confirm by much experience were there space to digress so far in these explanations of Revelation. But this can be seen from the fact that the hells, in which there are myriads of myriads, are so held bound by Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, that no one in them dares raise up a finger of his hand; also from this fact that a single angel by means of truths from the Lord is able to lead, to control, to bind, or to scatter a thousand companies of evil spirits, and this merely by a look from an intention of the will. Such power also has been sometimes granted to me by the Lord. It may seem strange that the church at its end should be in falsities and in evils from them, and in evils and in falsities from them, and yet that truths from good have all power; and it seems as if such truths might be given by the Lord by means of truths from the Word. But the reason is that falsities have power against those who are in falsities from evil; and at the end of the church these falsities reign, and when these reign truths are not received. For this reason falsities cannot be dispersed by truths, and therefore the devil is then called powerful, and loosed from bonds. This is why infernal falsity is called in the Word a "lion," a "bear," a "wolf," a "beast," also a "wild beast" strong and fierce.

[3] For the same reason those who are in falsities are called in the Word "powerful," "vigorous," "mighty," "strong," "heroes," "rulers," "terrible," "dreadful," and "wasters," as can be seen from various passages, as from the following.

In Jeremiah:

Behold I bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, a vigorous nation, all strong men (Jeremiah 5:15, 16).

In the same:

Go up ye horses, rage ye chariots, ye strong men go forth (Jeremiah 46:9).

In the same:

O sword against the strong, that they may be dismayed (Jeremiah 50:36).

In Ezekiel:

I will give Pharaoh into the hand of a strong one of the nations (Ezekiel 31:11, 12).

In Hosea:

Thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy strong ones (Hosea 10:13).

In Joel:

A people great and vigorous, like heroes they run, they climb over the wall (Joel 2:2, 7).

In Amos:

The refuge of the swift perisheth, and the strong shall not confirm his might, neither shall the powerful deliver his soul; he that is strong in his heart among heroes shall flee naked in that day (Amos 2:14, 16).

In David:

Rebuke the wild beast of the reed; the congregation of the strong (Psalms 68:30).

In the first book of Samuel:

The bows of the strong are broken (1 Samuel 2:4).

In Revelation:

All the kings, the great ones, the rich, the commanders of thousands, and the powerful, hid themselves in caves and in the rocks (Revelation 6:15).

In Matthew:

The rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them (Matthew 20:25).

And in Luke:

This is your hour and the authority of darkness (Luke 22:53);

and various other passages.

[4] To what has been said above it may be added, that infernal spirits believe themselves to be stronger and more powerful than others, but this for the reason that they prevail over those who are in evils and in falsities therefrom, thus one infernal spirit over another infernal spirit, or one evil by means of falsity over another evil by falsity; from this appearance they believe themselves to be powerful. But such power may be compared to that of a mite against a mite, or of a flea against a flea, of dust against dust, or of chaff against chaff, the power of which is merely relative to their mutual forces. Add to this that infernal spirits are elated in mind, and wish to be called vigorous, strong, and heroes for the most trivial reasons.

[5] As "the power and great authority" that the dragon gave from himself to "the beast coming up out of the sea," thus the power of infernal spirits among one another, are here treated of, I will unfold some arcana respecting their arts for acquiring power in the spiritual world. There are some who acquire for themselves power by means of the Word, for they are acquainted with some passages of it, and these they recite, and by these a communication with the simple good is effected and conjunction with them in respect to externals; and so far as they are in that conjunction they prevail over others. The reason is that all things of the Word are truths, and truths have all power, and the simple good are in truths; so from conjunction with them they have power, but only so long as that conjunction continues, and this does not continue long, because they are very soon separated from each other by the Lord. Some acquire for themselves power by simulated affections of good and truth and by the affections belonging to the love of what is sincere and just; by these they lead the simple good to feel well disposed towards them and to cherish good will towards them, and to join themselves to them. And so long as that kindly feeling continues to be mutual they continue more powerful than others. Some acquire for themselves power by representatives of various kinds, which are abuses of correspondences; and some in other ways. And as truths that are from good have all power, and these are found with angels, so nothing is more desired by evil spirits than to attract good spirits to their side, because thus the evil prevail; but as soon as they are separated from these they are in the falsities of their own evil, and when they are in these they are deprived of all power.

[6] This, too, is why all the evil who flock out of this world are first separated from the goods and truths that they have merely known from memory, and thus carried in the mouth; and when they have been separated from these their interiors appear, which consist of nothing but masses of falsities from evils. And when they are in these, because they no longer have any power they fall down headlong into hell, as heavy bodies in the air fall to the earth. That goods and truths are taken away from the evil is known from the Word; for the Lord says:

Take the talent from him and give it to him that hath the ten talents; for unto everyone that hath shall be given that he may have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye out the useless servant into the outer darkness; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:28-30; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18; 19:26).

  
/ 1232  
  

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

©2024 New Christian Bible Study Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed from newchristianbiblestudy.org