The Bible

 

Obadiah 1

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1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning Edom: We have heard tidings from Jehovah, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, [saying], Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.

2 Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art greatly despised.

3 The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?

4 Though thou mount on high as the eagle, and though thy nest be set among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence, saith Jehovah.

5 If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night (how art thou cut off!), would they not steal [only] till they had enough? if grape-gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes?

6 How are [the things of] Esau searched! how are his hidden treasures sought out!

7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee on thy way, even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; [they that eat] thy bread lay a snare under thee: there is no understanding in him.

8 Shall I not in that day, saith Jehovah, destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one may be cut off from the mount of Esau by slaughter.

10 For the violence done to thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.

11 In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.

12 But look not thou on the day of thy brother in the day of his disaster, and rejoice not over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither speak proudly in the day of distress.

13 Enter not into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, look not thou on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither lay ye [hands] on their substance in the day of their calamity.

14 And stand thou not in the crossway, to cut off those of his that escape; and deliver not up those of his that remain in the day of distress.

15 For the day of Jehovah is near upon all the nations: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee; thy dealing shall return upon thine own head.

16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually; yea, they shall drink, and swallow down, and shall be as though they had not been.

17 But in mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall burn among them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining to the house of Esau; for Jehovah hath spoken it.

19 And they of the South shall possess the mount of Esau, and they of the lowland the Philistines; and they shall possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria; and Benjamin [shall possess] Gilead.

20 And the captives of this host of the children of Israel, that are [among] the Canaanites, [shall possess] even unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, that are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the South.

21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be Jehovah's.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #338

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338. Hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. This symbolically means that they were now caught up in evils and in the falsities accompanying evil.

Hiding themselves in caves and in mountain rocks means, symbolically, to be caught up in evils and in the falsities accompanying evil, because the people who pretended before the world that they were prompted by the goodness of love, and yet were caught up in evil, after death hid themselves in caves. And those who pretended that they were prompted by truths of faith, and yet were caught up in the falsities accompanying evil, hid themselves in mountain rocks.

The entrances appear as holes in the ground and as crevices in the mountains, into which they slip like snakes and there hide themselves.

That such is the nature of their abodes is something I have often seen.

It is in consequence of this that caves in the following places symbolize the evils in such people, and holes and crevices the falsities accompanying evil:

(In that day) they shall go into caves in the rocks, and into crevices in the cliffs..., when (Jehovah) rises to terrify the earth. (Isaiah 2:19)

In that day...(they shall) go into clefts in the rocks and into crevices in the cliffs, because of their terror of Jehovah... (Isaiah 2:20-21)

(They shall) live in crevices in the valleys, (and) in holes in the earth, and in rocks. (Job 30:6)

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in crevices... (Obadiah v. 3)

...in that day... they will come, and... will rest in the desolate river beds and in the crevices of the rocks... (Isaiah 7:18-19)

...the palace will be a wilderness... The stronghold and watchtower shall be upon caves forever... (Isaiah 32:14)

...the pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the holes of the rock... (Jeremiah 49:16)

...they shall hunt them upon every mountain and hill, and out of the holes of the rocks... They are not hidden before Me, nor is their iniquity hidden... (Jeremiah 16:16-17)

(In that day) the nursing child shall play on the viper's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk's 1 cave. (Isaiah 11:8)

Footnotes:

1. Legendary serpents or dragons, whose breath and glance were said to be lethal. Formerly identified in English translations of the Latin Vulgate with the cockatrice, and retained as such in the King James Bible.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.