The Bible

 

Hoseas 8

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1 Sæt hornet for din mund, som en ørn over Herrens Hus! fordi de brød min Pagt og overtrådte min Lov.

2 De råber til mig: "Min Gud! Vi, Israel, kender dig."

3 Israel vragede Lykken, lad så Fjenden forfølge dem.

4 De kårer sig Drot uden mig, uden mit Vidende Fyrster. Af deres Sølv og Guld lavede de sig Gudebilleder til egen Undergang.

5 Modbydelig er din kalv, Samaria; min Vrede luer imod dem hvor længe? De kan ikke slippe for Straf.

6 Thi den er et Værk af Israel, en Håndværker lavede den; den er ikke Gud. Nej, til Splinter skal Samarias Kalv blive.

7 Thi Vind har de sået, og Storm skal de høste, Sæd uden Spire, der ej giver Mel; og gav den, slugte fremmede Melet.

8 Israel er opslugt, blandt Folkene regnes det nu for et Kar uden Værd.

9 Thi de er draget til Assur som et enligt strejfende Vildæsel. Efraim tinged med Elskovsgaver.

10 Selv om de tinger blandt Folkene, samler jeg dem nu; snart salver de ikke mere konge og Fyrster.

11 Thi så mange Altre Efraim har bygget, de er blevet ham Altre til Synd;

12 jeg skriver ham mange Love, han regner dem ikke.

13 Slagtofre elsker de slagter, elsker Kød og æder; HE EN behager de ej. Han mindes nu deres Skyld og straffer deres Synder. De skal tilbage til Ægypten.

14 Israel glemte sin Skaber og byggede Helligdomme, og Juda byggede mange faste Stæder; derfor sender jeg Ild imod hans Byer, og den skal fortære hans Borge.

   


The Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie Mellon University

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #242

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242. The second living creature like a calf. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its affection.

Beasts of the earth symbolize various natural affections. They are also embodiments of them. And a calf symbolizes an affection for knowing. This affection is represented by a calf in the spiritual world, and in the Word it is consequently also symbolized by a calf, as in Hosea,

...we repay (to Jehovah) the calves of our lips. (Hosea 14:2)

"Calves of the lips" are confessions from an affection for truth.

In Malachi:

To you who fear My name the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in its wings... that you may grow fat like fattened calves. (Malachi 4:2)

A comparison is made with fattened calves because they symbolize people who are filled with concepts of truth and goodness owing to an affection for knowing them.

In the book of Psalms:

The voice of Jehovah... makes (the cedars of Lebanon) dance like a calf... (Psalms 29:5, 6)

The cedars of Lebanon symbolize concepts of truth. That is why the passage says that the voice of Jehovah makes them dance like a calf. The voice of Jehovah is Divine truth, in the process here of affecting.

[2] Since the Egyptians loved knowledge, they therefore made themselves calves as a sign of their affection for it. But after they began to worship the calves as deities, then calves in the Word symbolized affections for knowing falsities, as in Jeremiah 46:20-21). Therefore we are told in Hosea:

...they have made for themselves a molten image... of their silver... Sacrificing a human being, they kiss the calves. (Hosea 13:2)

To make for oneself a molten image of silver means, symbolically, to falsify truth. To sacrifice a human being means, symbolically, to destroy wisdom. And to kiss calves means, symbolically, to accept falsities out of an affection for them.

In Isaiah:

There the calf will feed; there it will lie down and consume its branches. (Isaiah 27:10)

The same is symbolically meant by the calf in Jeremiah 34:18-20.

[3] Since all Divine worship springs from affections for truth and goodness and so for concepts of them, therefore the sacrifices in which the worship of the church primarily consisted among the children of Israel used various animals, such as lambs, she-goats, kids, sheep, he-goats, calves, and oxen; and calves were used because they symbolized an affection for knowing truths and goods, which is the first natural affection. This affection was symbolically meant by the sacrifices of calves in Exodus 29:11-12, 1 1 Samuel 1:25; 16:2, 1 Kings 18:23-26, 33.

The second living creature looked like a calf because the Divine truth of the Word, which it symbolizes, affects hearts, and so teaches and instills.

Footnotes:

1. Prima editio: 29.

  
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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.