The Bible

 

西番雅書 1

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1 猶大王亞們的兒子約西亞在位的時候,耶和華的臨到希西家的玄孫,亞瑪利雅的曾孫,基大利的孫子,古示的兒子西番雅。

2 耶和華:我必從地上除滅萬類。

3 我必除滅人和牲畜,與空中的裡的魚,以及絆腳石和惡人;我必將人從地上剪除。這是耶和華的。

4 我必伸攻擊猶大耶路撒冷的一切居民,也必從這地方剪除所下的巴力,並基瑪林的名和祭司

5 與那些在房頂上敬拜上萬象的,並那些敬拜耶和華指著他起誓,又指著瑪勒堪起誓的,

6 與那些去不跟從耶和華的,和不尋求耶和華也不訪問他的。

7 你要在耶和華面前靜默無聲,因為耶和華的日子快到。耶和華已經預備祭物,將他的客分別為

8 到了我─耶和華獻祭的日子,必懲罰首領和王子,並一切穿外邦衣服的。

9 到那日,我必懲罰一切跳過門檻、將強暴和詭詐得來之物充滿房屋的。

10 耶和華:當那日,從魚必發出悲哀的聲音,從二城發出哀號的聲音,從山間發出破裂的響聲。

11 瑪革提施的居民哪,你們要哀號,因為迦南的商民都滅亡了!凡搬運子的都被剪除。

12 那時,我必用巡查耶路撒冷;我必懲罰那些如酒在渣滓上澄清的;他們心裡耶和華必不降福,也不降禍。

13 他們的財寶必成為掠物;他們的房屋必變為荒場。他們必建造房屋,卻不得在其內;栽種葡萄園,卻不得所出的酒。

14 耶和華的日臨近,臨近而且甚快,乃是耶和華日子的風聲;勇士必痛痛地哭號。

15 那日是忿怒的日子,是急難困苦的日子,是荒廢淒涼的日子,是黑暗幽冥、密烏黑的日子,

16 是吹角吶喊的日子,要攻擊堅固城和大的城樓。

17 我必使災禍臨到人身上,使他們行走如同瞎眼的,因為得罪了我。他們的血必倒出如灰塵;他們的肉必拋棄如糞土。

18 耶和華發怒的日子,他們的不能救他們;他的忿怒如必燒滅全,毀滅這的一切居民,而且大大毀滅。

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #991

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991. 'All fish of the sea' means facts. This is clear from the meaning of 'a fish'. In the Word fish mean facts that spring from sensory evidence, for there are three types of facts - intellectual, rational, and sensory. All are implanted in the memory - or rather, in the memories 1 - and in someone who is regenerate are summoned from there by the Lord by way of the internal man. These facts which come from sensory evidence enter a person's consciousness or perception during his earthly life, for they are the basis of his thinking. The rest, which are more interior, do not do so until he has shed the body and enters the next life. On the point that fish or creeping things which the waters produce mean facts, see what has been said already in 40; and that sea-monsters or whales mean general sources of facts, see 42. These points become additionally clear from the following places in the Word:

In Zephaniah,

I will cause man and beast to cease, I will cause the birds of the air and the fish of the sea to cease. Zephaniah 1:3.

Here 'birds of the air' stands for rational concepts, 'fish of the sea' for rational concepts of a lower order, that is, for human thought from factual knowledge derived through the senses.

[2] In Habakkuk,

You will make man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler. Habakkuk 1:14.

'Making man like the fish of the sea' stands for making him dependent solely on the senses.

In Hosea,

The land will mourn, and every inhabitant will languish, even the wild animal of the field, and the birds of the air, 2 and even the fish of the sea will all be gathered together. Hosea 4:3.

Here 'fish of the sea' stands for factual knowledge derived through the senses.

In David,

You have put all things under His feet, the beasts of the fields, the flying things of the air, 3 and the fish of the sea, and that crossing the paths of the seas. Psalms 8:6-8.

This refers to the Lord's dominion over man. 'Fish of the sea' stands for facts. That 'seas' means a gathering of facts or cognitions, see what has appeared already in 28.

In Isaiah,

The fishermen will lament, and all who cast a hook into the river will mourn, and those who spread nets over the face' 4 of the waters will languish. Isaiah 19:8.

'Fishermen' stands for people who rely on sensory evidence alone and hatch falsities out of it, the subject being Egypt, or factual knowledge.

Footnotes:

1. i.e. in the interior memory and in the exterior memory. See 2469 and following paragraphs

2. literally, bird of the heavens (or the skies)

3. literally, the flying thing of the heavens (or the skies)

4. literally, the faces

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