The Bible

 

以西結書 32

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1 十二年十二初一日,耶和華的臨到我說:

2 人子啊,你要為埃及法老哀歌:從前你在列國中,如同少壯獅子;現在你卻像中的大魚。你衝出江,用爪攪動諸,使江渾濁。

3 耶和華如此:我必用多國的人民,將我的撒在你身上,把你拉上來。

4 我必將你丟在上,拋在田野,使空中的飛都落在你身上,使遍的野獸吃你得飽。

5 我必將你的丟在間,用你高大的屍首滿谷。

6 我又必用你的血澆灌你所游泳之,漫過頂;河道都必充滿。

7 我將你撲滅的時候,要把遮蔽,使眾昏暗,以密遮掩太陽月亮也不放

8 我必使上的亮都在你以上變為昏,使你的黑暗。這是耶和華的。

9 我使你敗亡的風聲傳到你所不認識的各國。那時,我必使多民的因你愁煩。

10 我在許多國民和君面前向你掄我的刀,國民就必因你驚奇,君也必因你極其恐慌。在你仆倒的日子,他們各為自己的性命時刻戰兢。

11 耶和華如此:巴比倫王的刀必臨到你。

12 我必藉勇士的刀使你的眾民仆倒;這勇士都是列國中強暴的。他們必使埃及的驕傲歸於無有;埃及的眾民必被滅絕。

13 我必從埃及多水旁除滅所有的走;人必不再攪渾這水。

14 那時,我必使埃及澄清,江緩流。這是耶和華的。

15 我使埃及變為荒廢淒涼;這缺少從前所充滿的,又擊殺其中一切的居民。那時,他們就知道我是耶和華

16 人必用這哀歌去哀哭,列國的女子為埃及和他的群眾也必以此悲哀。這是耶和華的。

17 十二年十二十五日,耶和華的臨到我說:

18 人子啊,你要為埃及群眾哀號,又要將埃及和有名之國的女子,並的人,一同扔到陰府去。

19 你埃及的美麗勝過誰呢?你去與未受割禮的人一同躺臥罷!

20 他們必在被殺的人中仆到。他被交,要把他和他的群眾拉去。

21 強盛的勇士要在陰間對埃及王和幫助他的說話;他們是未受割禮被殺的人,已經去,躺臥不動。

22 亞述和他的眾民都在那裡,他民的墳墓在他四圍;他們都是被殺倒在刀下的。

23 他們的墳墓中極深之處。他的眾民在他墳墓的四圍,都是被殺倒在刀下的;他們曾在活人之使人驚恐。

24 以攔也在那裡,他的群眾在他墳墓的四圍,都是被殺倒在刀、未受割禮而陰府的;他們曾在活人之使人驚恐,並且與的人一同擔當羞辱

25 他和他的群眾在被殺的人中設立榻。他民的墳墓在他四圍,他們都是未受割禮被刀殺的;他們曾在活人之使人驚恐,並且與的人一同擔當羞辱。以攔已經放在被殺的人中。

26 米設、土巴,和他們的群眾都在那裡。他民的墳墓在他四圍,他們都是未受割禮被刀殺的;他們曾在活人之使人驚恐。

27 他們不得與那未受割禮仆倒的勇士一同躺臥;這些勇士帶著兵器陰間,枕刀骨頭上有本身的罪孽;他們曾在活人之使勇士驚恐。

28 法老啊,你必在未受割禮的人中敗壞,與那些被殺的人一同躺臥。

29 以東也在那裡。他君和一切首領雖然仗著勢力,還是放在被殺的人中;他們必與未受割禮的和的人一同躺臥。

30 在那裡有北方的眾王子和一切西頓人,都與被殺的人去。他們雖然仗著勢力使人驚恐,還是蒙羞。他們未受割禮,和被刀殺的一同躺臥,與的人一同擔當羞辱

31 法老見他們,便為他被殺軍隊安慰。這是耶和華的。

32 我任憑法老在活人之使人驚恐,法老和他的群眾必放在未受割禮和被殺的人中。這是耶和華的。

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #49

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49. His feet were like fine brass, as though fired in a furnace. (1:15) This symbolizes natural Divine good.

The Lord's feet symbolize His natural Divinity. Fire or being fired symbolizes goodness. And fine brass symbolizes the natural goodness of truth. Consequently the feet of the Son of Man like fine brass, as though fired in a furnace, symbolize natural Divine good.

His feet have this symbolic meaning because of their correspondence.

Present in the Lord, and so emanating from the Lord, are a celestial Divinity, a spiritual Divinity, and a natural Divinity. His celestial Divinity is meant by the head of the Son of Man; His spiritual Divinity by His eyes and by His breast girded with a golden girdle; and His natural Divinity by His feet.

[2] Because these three elements are present in the Lord, therefore the same three are also present in the angelic heaven. The third or highest heaven exists on the celestial Divine level, the second or middle heaven on the spiritual Divine level, and the first or lowest heaven on the natural Divine level. The like is the case with the church on earth. For the whole of heaven is, in the Lord's sight, like a single person, in which those who are governed by the Lord's celestial Divinity form the head, and those who are governed by His spiritual Divinity form the trunk, while those who are governed by His natural Divinity form the feet.

For this reason, too, every person, having been created in the image of God, has in him the same three degrees, and as they are opened he becomes an angel either of the third heaven, or of the second, or of the last.

It is owing to this also that the Word contains three levels of meaning - a celestial one, a spiritual one, and a natural one.

The reality of this may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, particularly in Part Three, in which we discussed these three degrees.

To be shown that feet, the soles of the feet, and heels correspond to natural attributes in people, and that in the Word, therefore, they symbolize natural attributes, see in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), published in London, nos. 2162 and 4938-4952.

[3] Natural Divine good is also symbolically meant by feet in the following passages. In Daniel:

I lifted my eyes and looked; behold, a... man clothed in linen garments, whose loins were girded with the gold of Uphaz! And his body was like beryl, and... his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and his feet like the sheen of burnished bronze. (Daniel 10:5-6)

In the book of Revelation:

I saw... an angel coming down from heaven, ...his feet like pillars of fire. (Revelation 10:1)

And in Ezekiel:

(The feet of the cherubim) sparkled like the sheen of burnished bronze. (Ezekiel 1:7)

Angels and cherubim so appeared for the reason that the Lord's Divinity was represented in them.

[4] Since the Lord's church exists below the heavens, thus under the Lord's feet, it is therefore called His footstool in the following places:

The glory of Lebanon shall come to you..., to beautify the place of My sanctuary; ...I will make the place of My feet honorable. And... they shall bow themselves at the soles of your feet. (Isaiah 60:13-14)

Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. (Isaiah 66:1)

(God) does not remember His footstool in the day of His anger. (Lamentations 2:1)

...worship (Jehovah) in the direction of His footstool. (Psalms 99:5)

Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah (Bethlehem).... We will go into His dwelling places, we will bow ourselves at His footstool. (Psalms 132:6-7)

That is why worshipers fell at the Lord's feet (Matthew 28:9, Mark 5:22, Luke 8:41, John 11:32), and why they kissed His feet and wiped them with their hair (Luke 7:37-38, 44-46, John 11:2; 12:3).

[5] Because feet symbolize the natural self, therefore the Lord said to Peter, when He washed Peter's feet,

He who is washed needs only to have his feet washed, and he is completely clean. (John 13:10)

To wash the feet is to purify the natural self. When it has been purified, the whole self also is purified, as we showed many times in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), and in The Doctrines of the New Jerusalem. 1 The natural self, which is also the outer self, is purified when it refrains from the evils which the spiritual or inner self sees to be evils and ones to be shunned.

[6] Now because the feet mean the natural component of a person, and this perverts everything if it is not washed or purified, therefore the Lord says,

If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than to have two feet and be cast into hell, into the unquenchable fire... (Mark 9:45)

The foot here does not mean the foot, but the natural self.

The like is meant by treading down the good pasture with the feet and troubling waters with the feet (Ezekiel 32:2; 34:18-19, Daniel 7:7, 19, and elsewhere).

[7] Since the Son of Man means the Lord in relation to the Word, it is apparent that His feet mean the Word in its natural sense as well, which we dealt with at length in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, and also that the Lord came into the world to fulfill everything in the Word and to become thereby an embodiment of the Word, even in its outmost expressions (The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 98-100). But this is a secret for people who will be in the New Jerusalem.

[8] The Lord's natural Divinity was also symbolized by the bronze serpent that Moses was commanded to set up in the wilderness, so that all who had been bitten by serpents were healed by looking at it (Numbers 21:6, 8-9). That this symbolized the Lord's natural Divinity, and that those people are saved who look to it, the Lord Himself teaches in John:

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)

The serpent was made of bronze because bronze, like fine brass, symbolizes the natural self in respect to good, as may be seen in no. 775 below.

Footnotes:

1. Perhaps The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, and The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding Faith (Amsterdam, 1763). But perhaps The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (London, 1758).

  
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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.