The Bible

 

Joel 3

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1 For in those days and in that time, when I let the fate of Judah and Jerusalem be changed,

2 I will get together all the nations, and make them come down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will take up with them the cause of my people and of my heritage Israel, whom they have sent wandering among the nations, and of my land which has been parted by them.

3 And they have put the fate of my people to the decision of chance: giving a boy for the price of a loose woman and a girl for a drink of wine.

4 And further, what are you to me, O Tyre and Zidon and all the circle of Philistia? will you give me back any payment? and if you do, quickly and suddenly I will send it back on your head,

5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, putting in the houses of your gods my beautiful and pleasing things.

6 And the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem you have given for a price to the sons of the Greeks, to send them far away from their land:

7 See, I will have them moved from the place where you have sent them, and will let what you have done come back on your head;

8 I will give your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah for a price, and they will give them for a price to the men of Sheba, a nation far off: for the Lord has said it.

9 Give this out among the nations; make ready for war: get the strong men awake; let all the men of war come near, let them come up.

10 Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong.

11 Come quickly, all you nations round about, and get yourselves together there: make your strong ones come down, O Lord.

12 Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as judge of all the nations round about.

13 Put in the blade, for the grain is ready: come, get you down, for the wine-crusher is full, the vessels are overflowing; for great is their evil-doing.

14 Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining.

16 And the Lord will be thundering from Zion, and his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will be shaking: but the Lord will be a breastplate for his people and a strong place for the children of Israel.

17 And you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, living in Zion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem will be holy, and no strange person will ever again go through her.

18 And it will come about in that day that the mountains will be dropping sweet wine, and the hills will be flowing with milk, and all the streams of Judah will be flowing with water; and a fountain will come out from the house of the Lord, watering the valley of acacia-trees.

19 Egypt will be a waste and Edom a land of destruction, because of the evil done to the children of Judah, because they have let blood be drained out in their land without cause.

20 But Judah will be peopled for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21 And I will send punishment for their blood, for which punishment has not been sent, for the Lord is living in Zion.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

The Lord #65

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65. It says in the Book of Revelation, a new heaven and a new earth [Revelation 21:1], and after that, Behold, I am making all things new [Revelation 21:5]. This means simply that in the church that is now about to be established by the Lord, there will be a new body of teaching that did not exist in the former church. The reason it did not exist is that if it had existed it would not have been accepted. The Last Judgment had not yet been carried out, and until that happened the power of hell was stronger than the power of heaven. Consequently, if the Lord had given the new body of teaching too early, it would not have lasted with us; and even today it does not last except with people who turn to the Lord alone and acknowledge him as the God of heaven and earth (see above 61).

This same teaching had in fact already been given in the Word, but since the church changed into Babylon not long after its establishment-and then, among some, into Philistia -this teaching could not be seen in the Word. This is because a church sees the Word only through the lens of its own religious principles and teachings.

The new principles that are in this booklet are, in general terms, the following:

1. God is one in person and in essence, and is the Lord.

2. The whole Sacred Scripture is about him alone.

3. He came into the world to subdue the hells and to glorify his human nature. He accomplished these two goals by allowing himself to undergo trials; he accomplished them fully by the last of these trials, which was the suffering on the cross. By this means he became Redeemer and Savior, and by this means he alone has merit and justice.

4. He fulfilled all of the law, meaning that he fulfilled all of the Word.

5. He did not take away our sins by his suffering on the cross, but he did carry them like a prophet-that is, he suffered in order to be a representation of how the church had abused the Word.

6. The imputation of merit is nothing unless we understand it to be the forgiveness of sins after repentance.

These principles have been presented in this booklet. In forthcoming works-on Sacred Scripture, on teachings about life, on faith, and on divine love and wisdom-there will be more that is new.

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