The Bible

 

耶利米书 50

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1 耶和华先知耶利米论巴比伦和迦勒底人

2 你们要在万国中传扬报告,竖立大旗;要报告,不可隐瞒,:巴比伦被攻取,彼勒蒙羞,米罗达惊惶。巴比伦的像都蒙羞;他的偶像都惊惶。

3 因有一国从北方上来攻击他,使他的荒凉,无人居住,连人带牲畜都逃走了。

4 耶和华:当那日子、那时候,以色列人要和犹大人同,随走随哭,寻求耶和华─他们的

5 他们必访问锡安,又面向这里,说:罢,你们要与耶和华联合为永远不忘的约。

6 我的百姓作了迷失的,牧人使他们走差,使他们上。他们从大走到小,竟忘了安歇之处。

7 凡遇见他们的,就把他们吞灭。敌人:我们没有罪;因他们得罪那作公居所的耶和华,就是他们列祖所仰望的耶和华

8 我民哪,你们要从巴比伦中逃走,从迦勒底人出去,要像羊群前面走的公山

9 因我必激动联合的国从北方上来攻击巴比伦,他们要摆阵攻击他;他必从那里被攻取。他们的好像善射之勇士的,一枝也不徒然返回

10 迦勒底必成为掠物;凡掳掠他的都必心满意足。这是耶和华的。

11 抢夺我产业的啊,你们因欢喜快乐,且像踹谷撒欢的母牛犊,又像发嘶声的壮马。

12 你们的母巴比伦就极其抱愧,生你们的必然蒙羞。他要列在诸国之末,成为旷野、旱地、沙漠。

13 耶和华的忿怒,必无人居住,要全然荒凉。凡经过巴比伦的要受惊骇,又因他所遭的灾殃嗤笑。

14 所有拉的,你们要在巴比伦的四围摆阵,射攻击他。不要爱惜枝,因他得罪了耶和华

15 你们要在他四围呐;他已经投降。外郭坍塌了,城墙拆毁了,因为这是耶和华报仇的事。你们要向巴比伦报仇;他怎样待人,也要怎样待他。

16 你们要将巴比伦撒种的和收割时拿镰刀的都剪除了。他们各因怕欺压的刀,必归回本族,逃到本土。

17 以色列是打散的羊,是被狮子赶出的。首先是亚述王将他吞灭,末後是巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒将他的骨头折断。

18 所以万军之耶和华以色列的如此:我必罚巴比伦王和他的,像我从前罚亚述王一样。

19 我必再领以色列回他的草场,他必在迦密和巴珊吃草,又在以法莲上和基列境内得以饱足

20 耶和华:当那日子、那时候,虽寻以色列的孽,一无所有;虽寻犹大罪恶,也无所见;因为我所留下的人,我必赦免。

21 耶和华:上去攻击米拉大翁之,又攻击比割的居民。要追杀灭尽,照我一切所吩咐你的去行。

22 境内有打仗和毁灭的响声。

23 的大锤何竟砍断坏?巴比伦在列国中何竟荒凉?

24 巴比伦哪,我为你设下网罗,你不知不觉被缠住。你被寻着,也被捉住;因为你与耶和华争竞。

25 耶和华已经开了,拿出他恼恨的兵器;因为─万军之耶和华迦勒底人有当做的事。

26 你们要从极远的边界攻击他,开他的仓廪,将他堆如高堆,毁灭净尽,丝毫不留。

27 要杀他的一切牛犊,使他们去遭遇杀戮。他们有祸了,因为追讨他们的日子已经到。

28 (有从巴比伦之逃避出来的人,在锡安扬声报告耶和华─我们的报仇,就是为他的殿报仇。)

29 招集一切弓箭手来攻击巴比伦。要在巴比伦四围安营,不要容一人逃脱,照着他所做的报应他;他怎样待人,也要怎样待他,因为他向耶和华以色列的圣者发了狂傲。

30 所以他的少年人必仆倒在街上。当那日,一切兵丁必默默无声。这是耶和华的。

31 ─万军之耶和华:你这狂傲的啊,我与你反对,因为我追讨你的日子已经到。

32 狂傲的必绊跌仆倒,无人扶起。我也必使在他的城邑中里起来,将他四围所有的尽行烧灭。

33 万军之耶和华如此以色列人犹大人一同受欺压;凡掳掠他们的都紧紧抓住他们,不肯释放。

34 他们的大有能力,万军之耶和华是他的名。他必伸清他们的冤,好使全得平安,并搅扰巴比伦的居民

35 耶和华:有刀临到迦勒底人和巴比伦的居民,并他的首领与智慧人。

36 有刀临到矜夸的人,他们就成为愚昧;有刀临到他的勇士,他们就惊惶。

37 有刀临到他的马匹、车辆,和其中杂族的人民;他们必像妇女一样。有刀临到他的宝物,就被抢夺。

38 有乾旱临到他的众水,就必乾涸;因为这是有雕刻偶像之,人因偶像而颠狂。

39 所以旷野的走兽和豺狼必在那里,鸵鸟也在其中,永无人烟,世世代无人居住

40 耶和华:必无在那里,也无在其中寄居,要像我倾覆所多玛、蛾摩拉,和邻近的城邑一样。

41 看哪,有一种民从北方,并有一国和许多被激动,从到。

42 他们拿和枪,性情残忍,不施怜悯,他们的声音浪匉訇。巴比伦城阿,〔城原文作女子〕他们,都摆队伍如上战场的,要攻击你。

43 巴比伦王见他们的风声,就发软,痛苦将他抓住,疼痛彷佛产难的妇人。

44 仇敌必像狮子从约但河边的丛林上来,攻击坚固的居所。转眼之间,我要使他们逃跑,离开这地。谁蒙拣选,我就派谁治理这地。谁能比我呢?谁能给我定规日期呢?有何牧人能在我面前站立得住呢?

45 你们要耶和华攻击巴比伦所说的谋略和他攻击迦勒底人所定的旨意。仇敌定要将他们众微弱的拉去,定要使他们的居所荒凉。

46 因巴比伦被取的声音就震动,人在列邦都见呼喊的声音

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #765

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765. 18:8 "Therefore her plagues will come in one day - death and mourning and hunger." This symbolically means that consequently, at the time of the Last Judgment the punishments for the evils they have done will come back on themselves - death, which is life in hell and an inner anguish at being cast down from their domination - mourning, which is an internal anguish owing to their poverty and wretchedness instead of opulence - and hunger, which is the loss of any understanding of truth.

"Therefore" refers to the fact that she said in her heart, "I sit as queen and am not a widow, and will not see grief," as explained just above in no. 764. In one day means, symbolically, at the time of the Last Judgment, called also the Day of Judgment. Plagues symbolize punishments for the evils they did in the world, which will then come back on them. Death symbolizes life in hell, and internal anguish at being cast down from their dominion, which in no. 763 above is called torment. We will say something about this death below. Mourning symbolizes an inner anguish owing to their poverty and wretchedness instead of wealth, as explained also in no. 764 above. Hunger symbolizes the loss of any understanding of truth.

People of the Roman Catholic religion who have exercised dominion from a love of self and without a love of useful services for their own sake, suffer these three plagues or punishments. They are also atheists at heart, since they attribute everything to their own prudence or to nature. All the rest of that tribe who are of the same character, but who do not think deeply within themselves, are idolaters.

That the plague or punishment called hunger means the loss of any understanding of truth may be seen in no. 323 above.

Every person, indeed, while living in the world, possesses rationality, that is, a faculty for understanding truth. This faculty continues to exist in every person after death. Yet those who from a love of self or a conceit in their own intelligence have imbued themselves with religious falsities in the world, after death refuse to understand truth, and to refuse is be virtually unable. This inability owing to a lack of will is found in all people of the character described, and it increases as the delight in their lust for falsity to gain dominion draws them to imbue themselves with new falsities to support it, so that intellectually they become embodiments of nothing but falsity and remain so to eternity.

Similar statements are made regarding Babylon in Jeremiah:

Your mother was deeply ashamed; she who bore you was filled with shame. Behold, the last of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert. Because of the wrath of Jehovah she shall not be inhabited, but shall be a complete wasteland. Everyone who passes by Babylon shall be astounded, and shall hiss at all her plagues. (Jeremiah 50:12-13)

  
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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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #323

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323. With sword, with famine, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. This symbolically means, by doctrinal falsities, by evil practices, by self-love, and by lusts.

To be shown that a sword symbolizes truths fighting against evils and falsities and destroying them, and in an opposite sense, falsity fighting against goods and truths and destroying them, see nos. 52, 108, 117 above. Accordingly, because the subject is the destruction of all good in the church, a sword here symbolizes doctrinal falsities.

That a famine symbolizes evil practices - this we will confirm below.

Death symbolizes a person's self-love because death symbolizes the extinction of spiritual life, and thus natural life divorced from any spiritual life, as shown in no. 321 above, and this life is the life of a person's self-love; for this life causes a person to love nothing but himself and the world, and so to love also evils of every kind, evils which, because of that life's love, are delightful to him.

That beasts of the earth symbolize lusts arising from the love will be seen in no. 567 below.

Here we will say something about the symbolic meaning of famine. A famine symbolizes the privation and rejection of concepts of truth and goodness, springing from evil practices. It symbolizes as well an ignorance of concepts of truth and goodness, owing to an absence of these in the church. And it symbolizes also a desire to know and understand them.

[2] I. That a famine symbolizes the privation and rejection of concepts of truth and goodness, springing from evil practices, and thus symbolizes evil practices, can be seen from the following passages:

They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, so that their corpses become food for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth. (Jeremiah 16:4)

These two things shall befall you...: devastation and ruin, and famine and sword... (Isaiah 51:19)

Behold, I am visiting punishment upon them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine. (Jeremiah 11:22)

...deliver up her children to famine, and cause them to flow down upon the hands of the sword..., that their men may be put to death... (Jeremiah 18:21)

...I will send on them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and will make them like rough figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence. (Jeremiah 29:17-18)

I will send upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, till they are consumed from the land... (Jeremiah 24:10)

...I proclaim liberty to you..., to the sword, to pestilence, and famine! And I will deliver you for turmoil to all nations. (Jeremiah 34:17)

...because you have defiled My sanctuary..., a third of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine...; and a third shall fall by the sword... When I send against them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for destruction... (Ezekiel 5:11-12, 16-17)

The sword is outside, and the pestilence and famine within. (Ezekiel 7:15)

...for all the evil abominations... they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. (Ezekiel 6:11-12)

...I will send My four evil judgments on Jerusalem - the sword, famine and wild beast, and pestilence - to cut off man and beast from it. (Ezekiel 14:13, 15, 21)

And so, too, elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 14:12-13, 15-16; 42:13-14, 16-18, 22; 44:12-13, 27, Mark 13:8, Luke 21:11. Sword, famine, pestilence and beasts in these places have similar symbolic meanings to those of the sword, famine, death, and beasts of the earth in the present verse. For the Word has a spiritual meaning in it in every single constituent, in which a sword means the destruction of spiritual life by falsities, in which famine means the destruction of spiritual life by evils, in which a beast of the earth means the destruction of spiritual life by the lusts accompanying falsity and evil, and in which pestilence and death means a complete destruction and thus damnation.

[3] II. That famine, or hunger, symbolizes an ignorance of concepts of truth and goodness, owing to an absence of these in the church, is clear as well from various passages in the Word, as in Isaiah 5:13; 8:19-22, Lamentations 2:19; 5:8-10, Amos 8:11-14, Job 5:17, 20, and elsewhere.

III. That famine or hunger symbolizes a desire to know and understand the church's truths and goods is apparent from the following: Isaiah 8:21; 32:6; 49:10; 58:6-7; Matthew 5:6; 25:35, 37, 44; Luke 1:53; John 6:35; and elsewhere.

  
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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.