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Mihej 2

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1 Teško onima koji smišljaju nedjelo i snuju zlo na posteljama svojim! Kad svane dan, oni ga izvrše, jer je sila u njihovoj ruci.

2 Zažele li polja, otimaju ih, i kuće, uzimaju ih; čine nasilje čovjeku i kući njegovoj, vlasniku i posjedu njegovu.

3 Zato ovako govori Jahve: "Evo tome rodu smišljam zlo iz kojega nećete izvući vratova, niti ćete hoditi ponosito, jer će biti zlo vrijeme.

4 U onaj će vam se dan složiti rugalica, zapjevati tužaljka i reći: 'Propalo je! Posve smo opustošeni, baština je naroda moga otuđena i nitko da mu je vrati, naša polja podijeljena su odmetniku.'

5 Zato neće biti nikoga tko bi bacio kocku za dio tvoj u zboru Jahvinu."

6 "Ne balite!" - bale oni - "Tako se ne bali! Sramota na nas neće pasti!

7 Zar će biti proklet dom Jakovljev? Zar je Jahve izgubio strpljivost? Zar on tako postupa? Nisu li riječi njegove ugodne Izraelu, narodu njegovu?"

8 Vi se sami dižete kao neprijatelji narodu mojemu. Čovjeku nezazornu vi otimate kabanicu, onome koji bez straha putuje ratne strahote dosuđujete.

9 Vi izgonite žene moga naroda iz njihovih milih domova; djeci njihovoj zauvijek oduzimate slavu koju sam im dao:

10 "Ustanite, idite! Ovo nije počivalište! Zbog nečistoće teško vas uže svezalo."

11 Kad bi mogao biti nadahnut čovjek koji izmišlja ovu opsjenu: "Prorokujem ti vino i piće", on bi bio prorok narodu ovome.

12 Svega ću te sabrati, Jakove, sakupit ću Ostatak Izraelov! Smjestit ću ih zajedno kao ovce u toru, kao stado na paši - neće se bojati nikoga.

13 Pred njima stupa rušilac: oni će se porušiti i ući, kroz vrata će proći i izaći; pred njima će ići njihov kralj, Jahve će biti na čelu.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #434

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434. They had hair like women's hair. (9:8) This symbolically means that they seemed to themselves to have an affection for truth.

In the Word a man symbolizes an understanding of truth, and a woman an affection for truth, because a man is by birth a form of the intellect, and a woman a form of affection, as we say in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Marriage. 1 Hair in the Word symbolizes the lowest level of a person's life, which is the sensual level, as said in no. 424. It is on this level that it seems to these people that they have an affection for truth, when in fact they have an affection for falsity, since they believe it to be true.

That a woman symbolizes an affection for truth can be seen from many passages in the Word. So it is that the church is called a wife, woman, daughter, and virgin. The church, moreover, is a church by virtue of its love or affection for truth, for this is what gives rise to an understanding of truth.

[2] The church is called a woman in the following places:

...there were two women, the daughters of one mother, (who) committed harlotry in Egypt..., Oholah (being) Samaria, and Oholibah (being) Jerusalem. (Ezekiel 23:2-4)

...Jehovah has called you like a woman forsaken and afflicted in spirit, and a youthful woman... (Isaiah 54:6-7)

...Jehovah has created a new thing in the earth - a woman shall encompass a man. (Jeremiah 31:21-22)

The woman clothed with the sun, whom the dragon pursued (Revelation 12), symbolizes the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.

Women symbolize affections for truth, by virtue of which the church is a church, in many other places, as in the following:

The women of My people you cast out from its delightful house. (Micah 2:9)

(The families of the houses shall mourn by themselves,) and... women by themselves... (Zechariah 12:11-13)

Rise up, you women at ease, hear... my speech. (Isaiah 32:9)

Why do you do... evil..., to cut off from you man and woman...? (Jeremiah 44:7)

...I will scatter man and woman... (Jeremiah 51:22)

A man and woman, here and elsewhere, mean, symbolically in the spiritual sense, an understanding of truth and an affection for truth.

Footnotes:

1. A reference to a work by that title never published by the writer. Extant in manuscript are a brief outline, a relatively short preliminary draft, and two indices for a longer draft on the subject of marriage that has not been found. The content of the existing material makes clear that these manuscripts, including the missing longer draft, were written in preparation for Delights of Wisdom Relating to Married Love (or Conjugial Love), Followed By Pleasures of Insanity Relating to Licentious Love, which the writer published in 1768, two years after publishing the present work on the Apocalypse.

  
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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.

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