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Ezekiel 28

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1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

2 Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, This is what the Lord has said: Because your heart has been lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I am seated on the seat of god in the heart of the seas; but you are man and not god, though you have made your heart as the heart of god:

3 See, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret which is deeper than your knowledge:

4 By your wisdom and deep knowledge you have got power for yourself, and put silver and gold in your store-houses:

5 By your great wisdom and by your trade your power is increased, and your heart is lifted up because of your power:

6 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have made your heart as the heart of God,

7 See, I am sending against you strange men, feared among the nations: they will let loose their swords against your bright wisdom, they will make your glory a common thing.

8 They will send you down to the underworld, and your death will be the death of those who are put to the sword in the heart of the seas.

9 Will you say, in the face of those who are taking your life, I am God? but you are man and not God in the hands of those who are wounding you.

10 Your death will be the death of those who are without circumcision, by the hands of men from strange lands: for I have said it, says the Lord.

11 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

12 Son of man, make a song of grief for the king of Tyre, and say to him, This is what the Lord has said: You are all-wise and completely beautiful;

13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every stone of great price was your clothing, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the emerald and the carbuncle: your store-houses were full of gold, and things of great price were in you; in the day when you were made they were got ready.

14 I gave you your place with the winged one; I put you on the mountain of God; you went up and down among the stones of fire.

15 There has been no evil in your ways from the day when you were made, till sin was seen in you.

16 Through all your trading you have become full of violent ways, and have done evil: so I sent you out shamed from the mountain of God; the winged one put an end to you from among the stones of fire.

17 Your heart was lifted up because you were beautiful, you made your wisdom evil through your sin: I have sent you down, even to the earth; I have made you low before kings, so that they may see you.

18 By all your sin, even by your evil trading, you have made your holy places unclean; so I will make a fire come out from you, it will make a meal of you, and I will make you as dust on the earth before the eyes of all who see you.

19 All who have knowledge of you among the peoples will be overcome with wonder at you: you have become a thing of fear, and you will never be seen again.

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

21 Son of man, let your face be turned to Zidon, and be a prophet against it, and say,

22 These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, O Zidon; and I will get glory for myself in you: and they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I send my punishments on her, and I will be seen to be holy in her.

23 And I will send on her disease and blood in her streets; and the wounded will be falling in the middle of her, and the sword will be against her on every side; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

24 And there will no longer be a plant with sharp points wounding the children of Israel, or a thorn troubling them among any who are round about them, who put shame on them; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

25 This is what the Lord has said: When I have got together the children of Israel from the peoples among whom they are wandering, and have been made holy among them before the eyes of the nations, then they will have rest in the land which is theirs, which I gave to my servant Jacob

26 And they will be safe there, building houses and planting vine-gardens and living without fear; when I have sent my punishments on all those who put shame on them round about them; and they will be certain that I am the Lord their God.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #493

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493. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. (11:4) This symbolizes love and intelligence, or charity and faith, both of which people have in them from the Lord.

An olive tree symbolizes love and charity, as explained below. And a lampstand symbolizes enlightenment in truths (no. 43), thus intelligence and faith, inasmuch as intelligence comes from an enlightenment in truths, and faith in turn from this. To stand before God means, symbolically, to hear and do what He has commanded (no. 366). Here, therefore, it means that these two characteristics in them come from the Lord who is God of the earth, that is, in people who possess the two essential elements of the New Church, as described above. It is apparent from this that the statement that the two witnesses were the two olive trees and two lampstands means, symbolically, that they were love and intelligence, or charity and faith. For these two form the church - love and charity forming its life, and intelligence and faith its doctrine.

[2] An olive tree symbolizes love and charity because the olive tree symbolizes the celestial church, and thus an olive, being its fruit, symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord. Because of this, that love is symbolized also by olive oil, with which all the holy accouterments of the church were anointed. The oil called holy oil 1 was extracted from olives and mixed with spices (Exodus 30:23-24). Olive oil was also used to light the lamps of the lampstand in the Tabernacle every evening (Exodus 27:20, Leviticus 24:2).

The olive tree and olives have similar symbolic meanings in Zechariah:

Two olive trees were by (the lampstand), one at the right of the bowl, the other at its left..., (and) two olive berries... These are the two offspring of the olive tree, which stand before the Lord of the whole earth. (Zechariah 4:3, 11-12, 14)

In the book of Psalms:

I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. (Psalms 52:8)

And in Jeremiah:

Jehovah called your name, Green Olive Tree, lovely, of beautiful fruit. (Jeremiah 11:16-17)

And so on elsewhere.

[3] Since Jerusalem symbolized the church, therefore many things in it and about it also symbolized such things as are connected with the church. Near it, too, was the Mount of Olives, and it symbolized Divine love, which is why Jesus "was during the days in the temple teaching, and at night He went out and spent the night on the Mount of Olives?" (Luke 21:37, cf. 22:39, John 8:1). It is also why Jesus spoke with His disciples on that mountain regarding the end of the age and His coming then (Matthew 24:3ff., Mark 13:3ff.). It was also from that mountain that He went to Jerusalem and suffered the cross (Matthew 21:1; 26:30, Mark 11:1; 14:26, Luke 19:29, 37). Moreover, this accorded with the prediction in Zechariah:

In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. (Zechariah 14:4)

Because the olive tree symbolized the celestial component of the church, therefore the cherubim inside the Temple at Jerusalem were made of olive wood, and so, too, were the doors to the inner sanctuary, and the doorposts (1 Kings 6:23-33).

Footnotes:

1. Exodus 30:25, 31; 37:29

  
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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.

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