The Bible

 

何西阿书 12

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1 以法莲,且追赶东,时常增添虚谎和强暴,与亚述立约,把送到埃及

2 耶和华犹大争辩,必照雅各所行的惩罚他,按他所做的报应他。

3 他在腹中抓住哥哥的脚跟,壮年的时候与较力,

4 天使较力,并且得胜,哭泣恳求,在伯特利遇见耶和华。耶和华─万军之神在那里晓谕我们以色列人;耶和华是他可记念的名。

5 a

6 所以你当归向你的,谨守仁爱、公平,常常等候你的

7 以法莲是商人,里有诡诈的天平欺骗

8 以法莲:我果然成了富足,得了财宝;我所劳碌得来的,人必不见有甚麽不义,可算为罪的。

9 自从你出埃及以来,我就是耶和华─你的;我必使你再帐棚,如在大会的日子一样。

10 我已晓谕众先知,并且加增默示,藉先知设立比喻。

11 基列人没有罪孽麽?他们全然是虚假的。人在吉甲献牛犊为祭,他们的祭坛好像田间犁沟中的乱

12 从前雅各逃到亚兰地,以色列为得妻服事人,为得妻与人放羊。

13 耶和华先知以色列埃及上来;以色列也藉先知而得保存。

14 以法莲大大惹动怒,所以他流血的罪必归在他身上。必将那因以法莲所受的羞辱归还他。

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #242

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242. The second living creature like a calf. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its affection.

Beasts of the earth symbolize various natural affections. They are also embodiments of them. And a calf symbolizes an affection for knowing. This affection is represented by a calf in the spiritual world, and in the Word it is consequently also symbolized by a calf, as in Hosea,

...we repay (to Jehovah) the calves of our lips. (Hosea 14:2)

"Calves of the lips" are confessions from an affection for truth.

In Malachi:

To you who fear My name the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in its wings... that you may grow fat like fattened calves. (Malachi 4:2)

A comparison is made with fattened calves because they symbolize people who are filled with concepts of truth and goodness owing to an affection for knowing them.

In the book of Psalms:

The voice of Jehovah... makes (the cedars of Lebanon) dance like a calf... (Psalms 29:5, 6)

The cedars of Lebanon symbolize concepts of truth. That is why the passage says that the voice of Jehovah makes them dance like a calf. The voice of Jehovah is Divine truth, in the process here of affecting.

[2] Since the Egyptians loved knowledge, they therefore made themselves calves as a sign of their affection for it. But after they began to worship the calves as deities, then calves in the Word symbolized affections for knowing falsities, as in Jeremiah 46:20-21). Therefore we are told in Hosea:

...they have made for themselves a molten image... of their silver... Sacrificing a human being, they kiss the calves. (Hosea 13:2)

To make for oneself a molten image of silver means, symbolically, to falsify truth. To sacrifice a human being means, symbolically, to destroy wisdom. And to kiss calves means, symbolically, to accept falsities out of an affection for them.

In Isaiah:

There the calf will feed; there it will lie down and consume its branches. (Isaiah 27:10)

The same is symbolically meant by the calf in Jeremiah 34:18-20.

[3] Since all Divine worship springs from affections for truth and goodness and so for concepts of them, therefore the sacrifices in which the worship of the church primarily consisted among the children of Israel used various animals, such as lambs, she-goats, kids, sheep, he-goats, calves, and oxen; and calves were used because they symbolized an affection for knowing truths and goods, which is the first natural affection. This affection was symbolically meant by the sacrifices of calves in Exodus 29:11-12, 1 1 Samuel 1:25; 16:2, 1 Kings 18:23-26, 33.

The second living creature looked like a calf because the Divine truth of the Word, which it symbolizes, affects hearts, and so teaches and instills.

Footnotes:

1. Prima editio: 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.

The Bible

 

何西阿书 14:2

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2 当归向耶和华,用言语祷告他:求你除净罪孽,悦纳善行;这样,我们就把嘴唇的祭代替犊献上。