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Lamentations 3

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1 I am the man who has seen trouble by the rod of his wrath.

2 By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is no light.

3 Truly against me his hand has been turned again and again all the day.

4 My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken.

5 He has put up a wall against me, shutting me in with bitter sorrow.

6 He has kept me in dark places, like those who have been long dead.

7 He has put a wall round me, so that I am not able to go out; he has made great the weight of my chain.

8 Even when I send up a cry for help, he keeps my prayer shut out.

9 He has put up a wall of cut stones about my ways, he has made my roads twisted.

10 He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places.

11 By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have been pulled in bits; he has made me waste.

12 With his bow bent, he has made me the mark for his arrows.

13 He has let loose his arrows into the inmost parts of my body.

14 I have become the sport of all the peoples; I am their song all the day.

15 He has made my life nothing but pain, he has given me the bitter root in full measure.

16 By him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones, and I am bent low in the dust.

17 My soul is sent far away from peace, I have no more memory of good.

18 And I said, My strength is cut off, and my hope from the Lord.

19 Keep in mind my trouble and my wandering, the bitter root and the poison.

20 My soul still keeps the memory of them; and is bent down in me.

21 This I keep in mind, and because of this I have hope.

22 It is through the Lord's love that we have not come to destruction, because his mercies have no limit.

23 They are new every morning; great is your good faith.

24 I said to myself, The Lord is my heritage; and because of this I will have hope in him.

25 The Lord is good to those who are waiting for him, to the soul which is looking for him.

26 It is good to go on hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord.

27 It is good for a man to undergo the yoke when he is young.

28 Let him be seated by himself, saying nothing, because he has put it on him.

29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if by chance there may be hope.

30 Let his face be turned to him who gives him blows; let him be full of shame.

31 For the Lord does not give a man up for ever.

32 For though he sends grief, still he will have pity in the full measure of his love.

33 For he has no pleasure in troubling and causing grief to the children of men.

34 In a man's crushing under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

35 In his turning away the right of a man before the face of the Most High.

36 In his doing wrong to a man in his cause, the Lord has no pleasure.

37 Who is able to say a thing, and give effect to it, if it has not been ordered by the Lord?

38 Do not evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High?

39 What protest may a living man make, even a man about the punishment of his sin?

40 Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning again to the Lord;

41 Lifting up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens.

42 We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness.

43 Covering yourself with wrath you have gone after us, cutting us off without pity;

44 Covering yourself with a cloud, so that prayer may not get through.

45 You have made us like waste and that for which there is no use, among the peoples.

46 The mouths of all our haters are open wide against us.

47 Fear and deep waters have come on us, wasting and destruction.

48 Rivers of water are running down from my eyes, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 My eyes are streaming without stopping, they have no rest,

50 Till the Lord's eye is turned on me, till he sees my trouble from heaven.

51 The Lord is unkind to my soul, more than all the daughters of my town.

52 They who are against me without cause have gone hard after me as if I was a bird;

53 They have put an end to my life in the prison, stoning me with stones.

54 Waters were flowing over my head; I said, I am cut off.

55 I was making prayer to your name, O Lord, out of the lowest prison.

56 My voice came to you; let not your ear be shut to my breathing, to my cry.

57 You came near in the day when I made my prayer to you: you said, Have no fear.

58 O Lord, you have taken up the cause of my soul, you have made my life safe.

59 O Lord, you have seen my wrong; be judge in my cause.

60 You have seen all the evil rewards they have sent on me, and all their designs against me.

61 Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Lord, and all their designs against me;

62 The lips of those who came up against me, and their thoughts against me all the day.

63 Take note of them when they are seated, and when they get up; I am their song.

64 You will give them their reward, O Lord, answering to the work of their hands.

65 You will let their hearts be covered over with your curse on them.

66 You will go after them in wrath, and put an end to them from under the heavens of the Lord.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #672

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672. 15:7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls. This symbolizes the truths and goods by which evils and falsities in the church are exposed, drawn from the literal sense of the Word.

The four living creatures, being cherubim, symbolize the Word in its outmost expressions, and protections to keep its genuine truths and goods from being violated, as may be seen in no. 239 above. And because the interior truths and goods in the Word are protected by its literal meaning, therefore that meaning of the Word is symbolized by one of the four living creatures.

The seven bowls have the same symbolic meaning as the seven plagues, for the bowls are vessels, and vessels in the Word have the same symbolic meaning as their contents. So for example, a cup has the same symbolic meaning as the wine in it, and a dish the same symbolic meaning as the food. That cups, goblets, bowls, plates and saucers have the same symbolic meaning as their contents may be seen from the passages that follow after this.

We have already said what the seven angels symbolize above.

The angels were given the bowls because the subject is the influx of truth and goodness into the church in order to expose its evils and falsities, and naked goods and truths cannot flow in, as they are not accepted, but truths clothed can, such as are found in the literal sense of the Word. Moreover, the Lord also operates always from inmost elements through outmost ones, or in fullness. This is the reason the angels were given bowls, which symbolize containing truths and goods such as constitute the Word's literal sense, by which falsities and evils are exposed.

That the literal sense of the Word is a containing vessel may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, 27-36nos. and 37-49.

[2] That bowls, saucers, cups and goblets, and also wineskins, have the same symbolic meaning as the things they contain can be seen from the following passages:

(Jehovah said,) "Take this... cup of wrath from My hand, and cause all the nations... to drink... ...when they refuse to take the cup..., then you shall say to them, '...You shall surely drink!'" (Jeremiah 25:15-16, 28)

Babylon was a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunk. (Jeremiah 51:7)

...I will put (your sister's) cup in your hand... You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of... devastation, the cup of your sister Samaria. (Ezekiel 23:31-34)

The cup of... Jehovah will come around to you, that there may be vomit on your glory. (Habakkuk 2:16)

...O daughter of Edom...; the cup shall also pass over to you; you shall be drunk and laid bare. (Lamentations 4:21)

Upon the wicked (Jehovah) will rain... stormy winds, the portion of their cup. (Psalms 11:6)

...in the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and He has mixed it with wine; He has filled it with the mixed wine and poured it out; ...all the wicked of the earth shall drink... (Psalms 75:8)

(Those who worship the beast) shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed with pure wine in the cup of His indignation. (Revelation 14:10)

Awake...! Arise, O Jerusalem, who have drunk from the hand of Jehovah the cup of His wrath; You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling... (Isaiah 51:17)

The woman... having in her hand a golden chalice full of abominations and the filthiness of her licentiousness. (Revelation 17:4)

...repay her double...; in the cup in which she has mixed, mix double for her. (Revelation 18:6)

...I am making Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the surrounding peoples... (Zechariah 12:2)

Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup..., that the outside of them may be clean also. (Matthew 23:25-26, cf. Luke 11:39)

Jesus... said (to the sons of Zebedee), ."..Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink....?" (Matthew 20:22-23)

...Jesus said to Peter, ."..Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?" (John 18:11)

(In Gethsemane Jesus said,) ."..if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44)

(Jesus) taking the cup, ...gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood, the blood of the new covenant...." (Matthew 26:27-28, Luke 22:17)

O Jehovah, You are... my cup, You uphold my lot. (Psalms 16:5)

You will prepare a table before me...; my cup shall overflow. (Psalms 23:5)

What shall I render to Jehovah...? I will take the cup of salvation... (Psalms 116:12-13)

...the cup of consolation to drink... (Jeremiah 16:7)

A bowl has the same symbolic meaning as a cup or chalice, and so also does a wineskin (Matthew 9:17; Luke 5:37-38; Jeremiah 13:12; 48:12; Habakkuk 2:15).

Bowls, censers and thuribles containing incense have the same symbolic meaning as incense. Vessels of every kind in general have the same symbolic meaning as the things they contain.

  
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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.

The Bible

 

Matthew 26:44

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44 He left them again, went away, and prayed a third time, saying the same words.