The Bible

 

Ezekiel 22

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1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 And you, son of man, will you be a judge, will you be a judge of the town of blood? then make clear to her all her disgusting ways.

3 And you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: A town causing blood to be drained out in her streets so that her time may come, and making images in her to make her unclean!

4 You are responsible for the blood drained out by you, and you are unclean through the images which you have made; and you have made your day come near, and the time of your judging has come; for this cause I have made you a name of shame to the nations and a cause of laughing to all countries.

5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will make sport of you; your name is unclean, you are full of sounds of fear.

6 See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you.

7 In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow.

8 You have made little of my holy things, and have made my Sabbaths unclean.

9 In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death; in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in your streets they have put evil designs into effect.

10 In you they have let the shame of their fathers be seen; in you they have done wrong to a woman at the time when she was unclean.

11 And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter.

12 In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord.

13 See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath against your taking of goods by force and against the blood which has been flowing in you.

14 Will your heart be high or your hands strong in the days when I take you in hand? I the Lord have said it and will do it.

15 And I will send you in flight among the nations and wandering among the countries; and I will completely take away out of you everything which is unclean.

16 And you will be made low before the eyes of the nations; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord.

17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

18 Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste.

19 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have all become waste metal, see, I will get you together inside Jerusalem.

20 As they put silver and brass and iron and lead and tin together inside the oven, heating up the fire on it to make it soft; so will I get you together in my wrath and in my passion, and, heating the fire with my breath, will make you soft.

21 Yes, I will take you, breathing on you the fire of my wrath, and you will become soft in it.

22 As silver becomes soft in the oven, so you will become soft in it; and you will be certain that I the Lord have let loose my passion on you.

23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

24 Son of man, say to her, You are a land on which no rain or thunderstorm has come in the day of wrath.

25 Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her.

26 Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them.

27 Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit.

28 And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing.

29 The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land.

30 And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one.

31 And I let loose my passion on them, and have put an end to them in the fire of my wrath: I have made the punishment of their ways come on their heads, says the Lord.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #374

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374. That 'the voice of blood' 1 means violence done to charity is clear from many places in the Word where 'voice' stands for everything that accuses, and 'blood' for all sin, especially hatred. For anyone who hates his brother murders him in his own heart, as the Lord teaches,

You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills will be liable to judgement. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgement. Whoever indeed says to his brother, Raca! will be liable to the Sanhedrin. And whoever says You fool! will be liable to the Gehenna of fire. Matthew 5:21-22.

These sayings denote degrees of hatred. Hatred is contrary to charity; and though a person does not actually commit murder, the intention to do so is still there, and by whatever possible method. It is external restraints alone which prevent murder actually being committed. And this is why all hatred is called blood, as in Jeremiah,

How well you direct Your way in the quest for love! Yes, in your skirts the blood of needy innocent souls is found. Jeremiah 2:33-34.

[2] And since hatred is meant by blood, so is every kind of wickedness, for hatred is the source of all wickedness, as in Hosea,

Perjuring, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they commit robbery, and blood' has followed on blood. 1 Therefore the land will mourn and every inhabitant will anguish. Hosea 4:2-3.

And in Ezekiel,

Will you judge the city of blood' and declare to her all her abominations? A City that sheds blood' in the midst of her. By your blood which you have shed you have become guilty. Ezekiel 22:2-4, 6, 9.

This is referring to the lack of compassion. In the same prophet,

The land is full of the judgement of blood, 1 and the city is full of violence. Ezekiel 7:23.

And in Jeremiah,

For the sins of the prophets of Jerusalem, the iniquities of her priests who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous, they wander blind in the streets; they are defiled with blood. Lamentations 4:13-14.

In Isaiah,

When the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and wiped away from its midst the blood 1 of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Isaiah 4:4.

In the same prophet,

Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Isaiah 59:3.

In Ezekiel,

I passed by you and saw you weltering in your blood, 1 and I said to you, Live in your blood 1 I indeed said to you, Live in your blood. 1 Ezekiel 16:6, 22.

This refers to the abominations of Jerusalem, which are called 'blood' 1 . Lack of compassion, and hatred, in the last times a real so described as blood in Revelation 16:3-4. The plural 'bloods' is used because all forms of iniquity and abomination well up out of hatred, just as all forms of good and holiness do out of love. Anyone therefore who hates his neighbour would murder him if he could, and he does do so in whatever way he can. That is to say, he does him violence, which is strictly the meaning here of 'voice of blood'. 1

Footnotes:

1. literally, bloods

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