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Ezekiel 26

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1 Now in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she who was the doorway of the peoples is broken; she is turned over to them; she who was full is made waste;

3 For this cause the Lord has said, See, I am against you, O Tyre, and will send up a number of nations against you as the sea sends up its waves.

4 And they will give the walls of Tyre to destruction and have its towers broken: and I will take even her dust away from her, and make her an uncovered rock

5 She will be a place for the stretching out of nets in the middle of the sea; for I have said it, says the Lord: and her goods will be given over to the nations.

6 And her daughters in the open country will be put to the sword: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

7 For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will send up from the north Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, king of kings, against Tyre, with horses and war-carriages and with an army and great numbers of people.

8 He will put to the sword your daughters in the open country: he will make strong walls against you and put up an earthwork against you, arming himself for war against you.

9 He will put up his engines of war against your walls, and your towers will be broken down by his axes.

10 Because of the number of his horses you will be covered with their dust: your walls will be shaking at the noise of the horsemen and of the wheels and of the war-carriages, when he comes through your doorways, as into a town which has been broken open.

11 Your streets will be stamped down by the feet of his horses: he will put your people to the sword, and will send down the pillars of your strength to the earth.

12 They will take by force all your wealth and go off with the goods with which you do trade: they will have your walls broken down and all the houses of your desire given up to destruction: they will put your stones and your wood and your dust deep in the water.

13 I will put an end to the noise of your songs, and the sound of your instruments of music will be gone for ever.

14 I will make you an uncovered rock: you will be a place for the stretching out of nets; there will be no building you up again: for I the Lord have said it, says the Lord.

15 This is what the Lord has said to Tyre: Will not the sea-lands be shaking at the sound of your fall, when the wounded give cries of pain, when men are put to the sword in you?

16 Then all the rulers of the sea will come down from their high seats, and put away their robes and take off their clothing of needlework: they will put on the clothing of grief, they will take their seats on the earth, shaking with fear every minute and overcome with wonder at you.

17 And they will send up a song of grief for you, and say to you, What destruction has come on you, how are you cut off from the sea, the noted town, which was strong in the sea, she and her people, causing the fear of them to come on all the dry land!

18 Now the sea-lands will be shaking in the day of your fall; and all the ships on the sea will be overcome with fear at your going.

19 For this is what the Lord has said: I will make you a waste town, like the towns which are unpeopled; when I make the deep come upon you, covering you with great waters.

20 Then I will make you go down with those who go down into the underworld, to the people of the past, causing your living-place to be in the deepest parts of the earth, in places long unpeopled, with those who go down into the deep, so that there will be no one living in you; and you will have no glory in the land of the living.

21 I will make you a thing of fear, and you will come to an end: even if you are looked for, you will not be seen again for ever, says the Lord.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8278

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8278. 'The depths have covered them' means that falsities resulting from evil desires have overwhelmed them. This is clear from the meaning of 'the depths' as falsities which exist as a result of evil desires. In the Word 'depths' is used to mean waters and large amounts of waters in deep places, 'waters' in the good sense meaning truths and in the contrary sense falsities, 739, 790, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, and deep places' meaning the hells. So it is that 'depths' means falsities resulting from evil desires, as well as meaning the hells. The fact that 'depths' is used in the Word to mean waters in deep places and to mean large amounts of waters is clear in Ezekiel,

The waters caused the cedar to grow, the depth made it high, so that it went with its rivers around the place of its planting, and he sent out his lines of water to all the trees of the field. Ezekiel 31:4.

In David,

He split the rocks in the wilderness, and caused them to drink the great depths. He brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to descend as streams. Psalms 78:15-16.

In Moses,

... a good land, a land of rivers of water, springs, and depths gushing out of valley and mountain. Deuteronomy 8:7.

In these places 'depths' stands for waters in large amounts; and waters in large amounts or 'depths' stands for the truths of faith in abundance. 'Causing them to drink great depths from the rock' stands for the truths of faith never failing, for 'rock' is faith derived from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect of faith. 'Depths gushing out of valley and mountain' stands for the truths of faith coming out of love. This also explains why the blessings of Joseph included the blessings of the deep Lying beneath, Genesis 49:25; Deuteronomy 33:13

[2] The fact that 'the depths' 1 means falsities resulting from evil desires as well as meaning the hells is clear in Isaiah,

Awake as in the days of antiquity, the generations of long ago. Do You not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep, and make the deep places of the sea a road, in order that the redeemed may go across? Isaiah 51:9-11.

In the same prophet,

... Jehovah who divided the waters before them, who led them through the depths; as a horse in the wilderness they did not stumble. Isaiah 63:12-14.

In Ezekiel,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, When I make you a city laid desolate, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall cause the deep to come up against you, and many waters have covered you ... Ezekiel 26:19.

In John,

I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. To him was given the key of the pit of the abyss; and he opened the pit of the abyss. Revelation 9:1-2, 11.

In the same author,

The beast that comes up from the abyss will make 2 war with them. Revelation 11:7.

Yet again in the same author,

The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will come up out of the abyss and go away to perdition. Revelation 17:8.

In these places 'the depths', 'the deep', or 'the abyss' stands for the hells, and so also for the falsities resulting from evil desires, since these desires exist in the hells and constitute them.

[3] Since these things are meant by 'the depths', temptations are also meant by them, for temptations are brought about by falsities and evils which the hells have introduced. This further meaning occurs in Jonah,

The waters surrounded me, even to [my] soul, the deep closed around me. Jonah 2:5. In David,

Deep is calling to deep at the noise of Your waterspouts; all Your breakers and Your waves have passed over me. Psalms 42:7.

You who have shown me many severe troubles, 3 turn back and revive me, and cause me to turn back and come up from the depths of the earth. Psalms 71:20.

Footnotes:

1. In the quotations that follow the same Latin word is rendered variously - the depths, the deep, or the abyss.

2. Reading faciet (will make), which Swedenborg has in his rough draft and also in another place where he quotes this verse, for fecit (has made)

3. literally, many and evil distresses

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

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