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Micah 3

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1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice?

2 ye who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

3 who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

4 Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer them; yea, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings.

5 Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that make my people to err; that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and whoso putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him:

6 Therefore it shall be night unto you, that ye shall have no vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them.

7 And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

8 But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, that abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us.

12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #368

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368. 'A field' means doctrine, and so everything constituting doctrine concerning faith and charity. This is clear from the Word. In Jeremiah,

O My mountain in the field, I will give for spoil your resources, all your treasures. Jeremiah 17:3.

Here 'field' stands for doctrine, 'resources and treasures' for the spiritual riches of faith, that is, the things that constitute the doctrine of faith. In the same prophet,

Surely the snow of Lebanon will not leave the rock of My field? Jeremiah 18:14.

In reference to Zion it is said, in Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 3:12, that 'it will be ploughed up like a field' when the doctrine of faith does not exist. In Ezekiel,

He took from the seed of the land and planted it in a seed field. Ezekiel 17:5.

This refers to the Church and her faith, for doctrine is called 'a field' because of the seed it has in it. In the same prophet,

And let all the trees of the field know that I, Jehovah, will bring low the high tree. Ezekiel 17:24.

In Joel,

The field has been laid waste, the ground has been mourning because the corn has been laid waste, the new wine has failed, the oil has fallen off. Farmers have been put to shame, the harvest of the field has perished, all the trees of the field have withered. Joel 1:10-12.

Here 'field' stands for doctrine, 'trees' for cognitions, 'farmers' for people who cultivate them. In David,

The field will be exultant and everything in it; then all the trees of the wood will sing. Psalms 96:12.

Here it cannot be a field that is exultant nor trees of the wood that sing, but things residing with man, namely cognitions of faith. In Jeremiah,

How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? Jeremiah 12:4.

Here similarly it cannot be the land nor the grass of the field that mourns but something with man that has been laid waste. Similarly in Isaiah,

The mountains and hills will resound before you with song, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12.

The Lord too, when foretelling the close of the age, also calls the doctrine of faith 'a field',

Two will be in the field, one will be taken, the other left. Matthew 24:40; Luke 17:36.

'Field' is used to mean the doctrine of faith, false doctrine as well as true, as in the present verse in Genesis. Because 'field' means doctrine anyone receiving any seed of faith, whether the individual, the Church, or the world, is called a field.

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

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