The Bible

 

耶利米哀歌 1

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1 先前满有人民的城,现在何竟独!先前在列国中为大的,现在竟如寡妇;先前在诸省中为王后的,现在成为进贡的。

2 她夜间痛哭,泪流满腮;在一切所亲的中间没有一个安慰她的。她的朋友都以诡诈待她,成为她的仇敌。

3 犹大因遭遇苦难,又因多服劳苦就迁到外邦。她在列国中,寻不着安息;追逼她的都在狭窄之地将她追上。

4 锡安的径因无人守圣节就悲伤;她的城凄凉;她的祭司叹息;她的处女受艰难,自己也愁苦。

5 她的敌人为首;她的仇敌亨通;因耶和华为她许多的罪过使她受苦;她的孩童被敌人掳去。

6 锡安城(原文是女子;下同)的威荣全都失去。她的首领像不着场的鹿;在追赶的人前无力行走。

7 耶路撒冷在困苦窘迫之时,就追想古时一切的乐境。她百姓落在敌人中,无人救济;敌人见,就因她的荒凉嗤笑。

8 耶路撒冷大大犯罪,所以成为不洁之物;素来尊敬她的,见她赤露就都藐视她;她自己也叹息退後。

9 她的污秽是在衣襟上;她不思想自己的结局,所以非常地败落,无人安慰她。她说:耶和华啊,求你我的苦难,因为仇敌夸大。

10 敌人伸,夺取她的美物;她眼见外邦人进入她的圣所─论这外邦人,你曾吩咐不可入你的会中。

11 她的民都叹息,寻求食物;他们用美物换粮食,要救性命。他们说:耶和华啊,求你观,因为我甚是卑贱。

12 你们一切过的人哪,这事你们不介意麽?你们要观:有像这临到我的痛苦没有─就是耶和华在他发烈怒的日子使我所受的苦?

13 他从使进入我的骨头,克制了我;他铺下罗,绊我的,使我回;他使我终日凄凉发昏。

14 我罪过的轭是他所绑的,犹如轭绳缚在我颈项上;他使我的力量衰败。主将我交在我所不能敌挡的人中。

15 耶和华轻弃我中间的一切勇士,招聚多人〔原文作大会〕攻击我,

16 我因这些事哭泣;我眼泪汪汪;因为那当安慰我、救我性命的,离我甚远。我的儿女孤苦,因为仇敌得了胜。

17 锡安举,无人安慰耶和华雅各已经出令,使四围的人作他仇敌;耶路撒冷在他们中间像不洁之物。

18 耶和华是公的!他这样待我,是因我违背他的命令。众民哪,请我的话,我的痛苦;我的处女和少年人都被掳去。

19 我招呼我所亲的,他们却愚弄我。我的祭司长老正寻求食物、救性命的时候,就在城中绝气。

20 耶和华啊,求你观,因为我在急难中。我肠扰乱;我在我里面翻,因我大大悖逆。在外,刀使人丧子;在家,犹如死亡。

21 见我叹息的有人;安慰我的却无人!我的仇敌都见我所遭的患难;因你做这事,他们都喜乐。你必使你报告的日子到,他们就像我一样。

22 愿他们的恶行都呈在你面前;你怎样因我的一切罪过待我,求你照样待他们;因我叹息甚多,中发昏。

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #543

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543. She bore a male Child. (12:5) This symbolizes the doctrine of the New Church.

A son in the Word symbolizes doctrinal truth, and also an understanding of and consequent thought about truth and goodness. A daughter, on the other hand, symbolizes the goodness taught by doctrine, and also a willing of and consequent affection for truth and goodness. A male child, moreover, symbolizes truth conceived in the spiritual self and born in the natural one.

The reason for this is that generations and births in the Word symbolize spiritual generations and births, all of which relate in general to goodness and truth (no. 535). For nothing else is begotten and born of the Lord as husband and of the church as wife.

Now because the woman who bore the child symbolizes the New Church (no. 533), it is apparent that the male child symbolizes that church's doctrine.

The doctrine meant here is The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (London, 1758), and also The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, and The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem in Accordance With the Ten Commandments (Amsterdam, 1763). For doctrine means all the truths of doctrine, since doctrine embraces them all. When I was writing these doctrines, followers of the dragon stood about me and with all their fury endeavored to devour them, that is, to extinguish them.

I am permitted to report this new information, because of a truth it happened as I have said. The followers of the dragon who stood about me came from all over the Protestant Reformed Christian world.

[2] Since these and no other are the offspring born of the spiritual marriage, and male offspring are truth and good in the intellect and consequent thought, while female offspring are truth and good in the will and consequent affection, therefore a son in the Word symbolizes truth. To confirm this we will cite some passages from which it can in some measure be seen:

Behold, sons are a heritage from Jehovah, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of one's youth. (Psalms 127:3-5)

Make yourself bald and shave yourself, because of your delightful sons..., for they are gone from you. (Micah 1:16)

(I saw two olive trees beside the lampstand,) and he said, "These are the two sons of the olive tree, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth." (Zechariah 4:11, 14)

My tent is destroyed...; my sons have gone from me, and they are no more. (Jeremiah 10:20)

My sons are made desolate because the enemy prevailed. (Lamentations 1:16)

Your sons, (O Jerusalem,) have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets... (Isaiah 51:17-18, 20)

...fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers..., and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds. (Ezekiel 5:10)

Son will be divided against father, and father against son... (Luke 12:53, cf. Matthew 10:21, Mark 13:12)

You have also taken your beautiful vessels of My gold... and made for yourself male images with which you played the harlot. (Ezekiel 16:17)

(Jesus said,) ...the... seeds are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of evil. (Matthew 13:38)

[3] That the Son of Man is the Divine truth in the Word, thus the Lord, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 19-28.

In the passages cited, sons mean people who possess doctrinal truths drawn from the Word, and abstractly, those truths themselves. So, too, elsewhere, as in Isaiah 13:17-18; 14:21-23; 43:6; 49:17, 22; 51:17-18; 60:9; Deuteronomy 32:8.

That daughters symbolize an affection for the church's truth, thus the church in relation to that affection, follows from so many passages in the Word that if I were to quote them, they would fill many pages. Nothing else is meant by daughter of Zion, daughter of Jerusalem, daughter of Judah, and daughter of Israel. See some passages cited in no. 612[1-4] regarding the daughter of Zion. Who cannot see that no actual daughter of Zion, of Jerusalem, of Judah or of Israel, so often mentioned in the Word, can be meant?

  
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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

 

Isaiah 49:22

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22 Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.