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Ezekiel 5

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1 Og du Menneskesøn tag dig et skarbt sværd, brug det som agekniv og lad det gå over dit Hoved og dit Skæg; tag dig så en Vægtskål og del Håret.

2 En Tredjedel skal du brænde i et Bål midt i Byen, når Belejringens Dage er omme; en Tredjedel skal du tage og slå den med Sværdet rundt om Byen; og en Tredjedel skal du sprede for Vinden; så drager jeg Sværdet bag dem.

3 Derefter skal du tage lidt deraf og svøbe det ind i din kappeflig;

4 og deraf skal du atter tage noget og kaste det midt ind i Ilden og brænde det. Og du skal sige til hele Israels Hus:

5 siger den Herre HE EN: Dette er Jerusalem; jeg satte det midt iblandt Folkene, omgivet af lande.

6 Men det var gudløst og genstridigt mod mine Lovbud mere end Folkene og mod mine Vedtægter mere end Landene rundt om; thi de lod hånt om mine Lovbud og vandrede ikke efter mine Vedtægter.

7 Derfor, så siger den Herre HE EN: Fordi I var mere genstridige end Folkene rundt om og ikke vandrede efter mine Vedtægter eller holdt mine Lovbud, men gjorde efter de omboende Folks Lovbud,

8 derfor, så siger den Herre HE EN: Se, jeg kommer over dig og holder Dom i din Midte for Folkenes Øjne.

9 For alle dine Vederstyggeligheders Skyld vil jeg gøre med dig, hvad jeg aldrig har gjort og aldrig vil gøre Mage til.

10 Derfor skal Fædre æde deres Børn i din Midte og Børn deres Fædre; jeg holder Dom over dig, og alle, som er til est i dig, spreder jeg for alle Vinde.

11 Derfor, så sandt jeg lever, lyder det fra den Herre HE EN: Sandelig, fordi du gjorde min Helligdom uren med alle dine væmmelige Guder og Vederstyggeligheder, vil jeg også støde dig fra mig uden Medynk eller Skånsel.

12 En Tredjedel af dig skal af Pest og omkomme af Hunger i din Midte, en Tredjedel skal falde for Sværdet rundt om dig, og en Tredjedel spreder jeg for alle Vinde og drager Sværdet bag dem.

13 Min Vrede skal udtømme sig, og jeg vil køle min Harme på dem og tage Hævn, så de skal kende at jeg, HE EN, har talet i min Nidkærhed, når jeg udtømmer min Vrede over dem.

14 Jeg gør dig til en Grushob og til Spot blandt Folkene rundt om, for Øjnene af enhver, som drager forbi.

15 Du skal blive til Spot og Hån, til Advarsel og ædsel for Folkene rundt om, når jeg holder Dom over dig i Vrede og Harme og harm fuld evselse. Jeg, HE EN, har talet!

16 Når jeg sender Hungerens onde Pile mod eder, og de, som jeg sender for af ødelægge eder, volder Ødelæggelse, og jeg lader Hungeren tage til, da sønderbryder jeg Brødets Støttestav for eder

17 og sender Hunger over eder og ovdyr, som skal affolke dig; Pest og Blodsudgydelse skal hjemsøge dig, og jeg bringer Sværd over dig. Jeg, HE EN, har talet.

   


The Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie Mellon University

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #649

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649. And when they shall have finished their testimony.- That this signifies in the end of the church, when the Divine of the Lord is no longer acknowledged, and thence when there is no longer the good of love and the truth of doctrine, is evident from the signification of testimony, as denoting the acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord, and thence the good of love and truth of doctrine, of which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of finishing, as denoting to end; and because this ending takes place in the end of the church, therefore the end of the church is here signified by finishing. And because there is then no longer any acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord, therefore there is not any good of love and truth of doctrine.

[2] That this is signified by testimony, is evident from what has been thus far said concerning the two witnesses, namely, that by them is meant the good of love and of charity and the truth of doctrine and of faith, because these principally bear witness concerning the Lord, for they are from Him, and are of Him with man, therefore their testimony signifies preaching concerning them. That the acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord is here signified by testimony, is evident from the statement in the Apocalypse:

"That the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (19:10).

For unless man acknowledges this from the heart, and believes it from spiritual faith, he cannot be in any power of receiving the good of love and the truth of doctrine.

[3] At the end of the church the Lord is, indeed, preached, and also, from doctrine, a Divine similar to the Divine of the Father is attributed to Him; but nevertheless scarcely any one thinks of His Divine, because it is placed above or outside of His Human, therefore when they look to His Divine they do not look to the Lord, but to the Father as to another, when yet the Divine, which is called the Father, is in the Lord, as He Himself teaches in John (10:30, 38; 14:7). Hence it is that man does not think of the Lord otherwise than as of an ordinary man, and his faith flows from that thought, although he may say with his lips that he believes in His Divine. Let any one examine, if he can, the idea of his thought concerning the Lord, whether it be not of this character, and if this is the case, he cannot be conjoined to Him in faith and love, nor by conjunction receive any good of love and truth of faith. It is for these reasons that at the end of the church there is not any acknowledgment of the Lord, that is, of the Divine in the Lord and from the Lord. There is a kind of belief as though the Divine of the Lord were acknowledged, because it is affirmed in the doctrine of the church. But when the Divine is separated from His Human, so far His Divine is not acknowledged inwardly, but only outwardly, and to acknowledge it outwardly is to acknowledge it with the mouth only and not in the heart, or in speech only and not in faith.

[4] That this is so is evident from the case of Christians in the other life, where the thoughts of the heart are made manifest. When they are permitted to speak from doctrine, and from what they have heard from preaching, then they attribute a Divine to the Lord, and call it their faith; but when their interior thought and faith are examined, then [it is found] that they have no other idea concerning the Lord than as it were of an ordinary man in whom there is nothing Divine. The interior thought of man is the ground of his faith, and because such is the thought and thence the faith of his spirit, it is evident that there is not any acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord and from the Lord in the Christian world at the end of the church. In a word, there is, indeed, an external, but no internal acknowledgment of the Divine of the Lord; and external acknowledgment belongs to the natural man alone, but internal acknowledgment belongs to his spirit itself; and the external is laid asleep after death, and the internal belongs to his spirit. From these considerations it may in some degree be evident what is meant by the beast coming up out of the abyss shall overcome and kill the two witnesses, and by their bodies being seen on the street of the city which is called Sodom and Egypt, and by the spirit of life afterwards entering into them.

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Psalms 79:2

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2 They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.