The Bible

 

哈巴穀書 1

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1 先知哈巴谷所得的默示。

2 他說:耶和華啊!我呼求你,你不應允,要到幾時呢?我因強暴哀求你,你還不拯

3 你為何使我見罪孽?你為何著奸惡而不理呢?毀滅和強暴在我面前,又起了爭端和相鬥的事。

4 因此律法放鬆,公理也不顯明,惡人圍困人,所以公理顯然顛倒。

5 耶和華說:你們要向列國中觀,大大驚奇;因為在你們的時候,我行一件事,雖有人告訴你們,你們總是不信。

6 我必興起迦勒底人,就是那殘忍暴躁之民,通行遍,佔據那不屬自己的住處。

7 他威武可畏,判斷和勢力都任意發出。

8 他的更快,比晚上的豺更猛。兵踴躍爭先,都從遠方而;他們跑如抓食,

9 都為行強暴而,定住臉面向前,將擄掠的人聚集,多如塵沙。

10 他們譏誚君,笑話首領,嗤笑一切保障,築壘攻取。

11 他以自己的勢力為神,像猛然掃過,顯為有罪。

12 耶和華─我的,我的聖者啊,你不是從亙古而有麼?我們必不致耶和華啊,你派定他為要刑罰人;磐石啊,你設立他為要懲治人。

13 你眼目清潔,不邪僻,不奸惡;行詭詐的,你為何著不理呢?惡人滅比自己公的,你為何靜默不語呢?

14 你為何使人如中的魚,又如沒有管轄的爬物呢?

15 他用鉤鉤住,用網捕獲,用拉網聚集他們;因此,他歡喜快樂,

16 就向網獻祭,向網燒香,因他由此得肥美的分和富裕的食物。

17 他豈可屢次倒空網羅,將列國的人時常殺戮,毫不顧惜呢?

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #405

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405. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died. (8:9) This symbolically means that those who had lived that faith and continued to live it could not be reformed and receive life.

A third symbolizes all such, as said above. Creatures mean people who can be reformed (no. 290). The reason is that to create means, symbolically, to reform (no. 254). Their living means, symbolically, to be able by reformation to receive life. That they died means, symbolically, that people who live that faith alone cannot receive life. They cannot, because people are all reformed by a faith united to charity, thus by a faith accompanying charity, and none by faith alone; for charity is the life of faith.

[2] Since in the spiritual world the affections and consequent perceptions and thoughts of spirits and angels appear at a distance in the forms of animals or creatures on the earth called beasts, of creatures in the air called birds, and of creatures in the sea called fish, therefore the Word so often mentions beasts, birds, and fish, which nevertheless have precisely the meaning stated. So for example in the following places:

...Jehovah has a quarrel with the inhabitants of the land, for there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God... And everyone who dwells in it will waste away along with the beast of the field and the bird of the air; even the fish of the sea will be gathered up. (Hosea 4:1, 3)

I will consume man and beast..., the bird of the heavens, the fish of the sea, ...the stumbling blocks along with the impious... (Zephaniah 1:3)

There shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, and the fish of the sea, the bird of the heavens, and the beast of the field... shall tremble before Me. (Ezekiel 38:18-20)

You have made Him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet... the beasts of the fields, the bird of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the path of the seas. (Psalms 8:6-8)

The latter is said of the Lord.

Pray ask the beasts, and they will teach you; or the birds of the air, and they will inform you...; and the fish of the sea will tell you. Who of all these does not know that the hand of Jehovah has done this? (Job 12:7-9)

And in many other places as well.

[3] Fish, moreover, and creatures of the sea, as they are called here, mean the affections and consequent thoughts of such people as are concerned with general truths, and so who take more from a natural source than from a spiritual one. These people are meant by fish in the preceding passages, and also in the following ones:

By My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink... and die of thirst. (Isaiah 50:2)

...the king of Egypt, a great whale, you who lie in the midst of your rivers, you said, "The river is mine; I made myself..".. (Therefore) I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales..., and I will leave you in the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. (Ezekiel 29:3-5)

This was addressed to the king of Egypt, because Egypt symbolizes the natural level divorced from the spiritual one, and so the fish of his rivers mean people governed by doctrines, who because of them are caught up in faith separated from charity, a faith that is simply knowledge.

Because of that separation, moreover, one of the miracles in Egypt was the turning of their waters into blood, so that the fish died (Exodus 7:17-25, Psalms 105:29).

[4] Furthermore:

Why do You make mankind like fish of the sea...? Everyone draws them up with a hook, and gathers them in a net... (Habakkuk 1:14-16)

Fish here stand for people concerned with general truths and caught up in faith divorced from charity. In contrast, fish stand for people concerned with general truths and governed by a faith conjoined with charity in Ezekiel:

He said to me: "These waters flowing to the eastern boundary... enter the sea, (from which comes) every living soul that creeps... and very much fish... ...fishermen will stand by it... with a spreading of their nets. Its fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many. (Ezekiel 47:1, 8-10)

In Matthew:

(Jesus said,) the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, and they gathered (fish).... And they put the good ones into vessels and threw the bad away. (Matthew 13:47-49)

And in Jeremiah:

I will bring (the children of Israel) back into their land... And I will send for many fishermen...(who) shall fish them. (Jeremiah 16:15-16)

[5] Consequently, anyone who knows that fish symbolize people and things of the kind stated, can see the following: Why the Lord chose fishermen to be His disciples, and said,

Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:18-19)

Why the disciples, with the Lord's blessing, caught a huge multitude of fish, and the Lord said to Peter,

Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men. (Luke 5:2-10)

Why, when they wished to exact tribute from the Lord, He told Peter to go to the sea and draw out a fish, and to give them the coin found in it for Him and for himself (Matthew 16:24-27).

Why, after His resurrection, the Lord gave His disciples fish and bread to eat (John 21:2-13).

And why He told them to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). For the nations they were converting possessed only general truths, and were concerned more with natural things than spiritual ones.

  
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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.