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Ezekiel 26

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1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first of the month, [that] the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, because Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken, the gate of the peoples! she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished [now] she is laid waste;

3 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth its waves to come up.

4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers. And I will scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.

5 She shall be [a place] for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken [it], saith the Lord Jehovah; and she shall become a spoil for the nations.

6 And her daughters that are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

7 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring from the north, against Tyre, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, the king of kings, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and an assemblage, and much people.

8 He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field, and he shall make forts against thee, and cast up a mound against thee, and lift up the target against thee;

9 and he shall set his engines of attack against thy walls, and with his spikes he shall break down thy towers.

10 By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee; thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter through thy gates, as a city is entered into, wherein is made a breach.

11 With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall slay thy people by the sword, and the pillars of thy strength shall go down to the ground.

12 And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy wares; and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the waters.

13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.

14 And I will make thee a bare rock; thou shalt be [a place] for the spreading of nets; thou shalt be built no more: for I Jehovah have spoken [it], saith the Lord Jehovah.

15 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to Tyre: Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

16 And all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling, they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble [every] moment, and be astonied because of thee.

17 And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How hast thou perished, that wast inhabited from the seas, O renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, -- she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all them that dwell therein!

18 Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; and the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure.

19 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I bring up the deep upon thee, and the great waters cover thee:

20 then will I bring thee down, with them that go down to the pit, to the people of old time, and will cause thee to dwell in the lower parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living.

21 And I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no [more]; and thou shalt be sought for, and shalt never be found again, for ever, saith the Lord Jehovah.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #6419

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6419. 'Daughters, [each one] marches onto the wall' means going out to fight against falsity. This is clear from the meaning of 'a daughter' as the Church, dealt with in 2362, 3963, here the spiritual Church since that Church is the subject; and from the meaning of 'marching onto the wall' as going out to fight against falsity, as is evident from the words that immediately follow - 'they exasperate him and shoot at him and hate him, do the archers; and he will sit in the strength of his bow', meaning the fight put up by falsity against truth.

[2] The expression 'marches onto the wall' is used because the subject in the internal sense is the attack made by falsities on truth and the protection of truth against falsity; for the spiritual Church represented by 'Joseph' is constantly under attack, but the Lord is constantly protecting it. This explains why in the Word all that makes up that Church is compared to a city with a wall, rampart, gates, and bars; and attacks made on the city describe attacks made on truth by falsities. Hence it also is that 'a city' means matters of doctrine, 402, 2268, 2449, 2712, 2943, 3216, 4492, 4493, and 'a wall' the truths of faith that serve to defend, or in the contrary sense falsities that serve to destroy. The first meaning - the truths of faith that serve to defend - may be seen in Isaiah,

Ours is a strong city; He will establish salvation for walls and rampart. Open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. Isaiah 26:1-2.

In the same prophet,

You will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. Isaiah 60:18.

In the same prophet,

Behold, I have engraved you upon [My] hands, your walls are continually before Me. Isaiah 49:16

'Walls' stands for the truths of faith. In the same prophet,

Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have placed watchmen, all day and night they will not be silent, calling Jehovah to mind. Isaiah 62:6.

Here the meaning is similar. In Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah, the God of Israel, 1 I will convert the weapons of war with which you are fighting with the king of Babel, besieging you outside the wall; I Myself will fight with you with an outstretched hand. Jeremiah 21:4-5.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah thought to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion, He caused rampart and wall to mourn; they will languish together. Her gates have sunk into the earth, He has destroyed and broken in pieces her bars. Lamentations 2:8-9.

In Ezekiel,

The sons of Arvad, and your army, were on your walls round about, and the Gammadim were in your towers; they hung their shields on your walls round about and they made perfect your beauty. Ezekiel 27:11.

This refers to Tyre, which means cognitions of good and truth.

[3] The fact that such things are meant by a city and its walls becomes perfectly clear from the description of the holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, as seen by John. From every detail of the description it is evident that a new Church is meant by that city; and by its wall is meant Divine Truth going forth from the Lord. The city is depicted in John as follows,

The holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven, having a wall great and high, having twelve gates - the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. He who talked to me measured the city and its gates, and its wall. Its wall was a hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. The structure of the wall was jasper, and the city pure gold, like pure glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone. Revelation 21:10, 12, 14, 15, 17-19.

[4] The fact that 'the wall' means Divine Truth going forth from the Lord, and from this means the truth of faith coming out of the good of charity, is evident from the details regarding the wall that are mentioned in that description, such as the detail that the wall had twelve foundations, and in them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb; for 'twelve means all, 3272, 3858, 3913, and 'the wall and its foundations' the truths of faith - much the same as is meant by 'the twelve apostles', 3488, 3858 (end), 6397. Then there is the detail that the wall was a hundred and forty-four cubits high, much the same being meant by that number as by twelve, which is all, since it is the product of twelve multiplied by twelve. And since that number used in reference to the wall means all truths and goods of faith, the expression 'which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel' is added. Other details that are given are that the structure of the wall was jasper, and that its foundations were adorned with every precious stone; for 'jasper' and 'precious stones' mean the truths of faith, 114.

[5] The meaning of 'wall' in the contrary sense - falsities that serve to destroy - is evident from the following places: In Isaiah,

A day of tumult in the valley of vision. The Lord Jehovih Zebaoth has destroyed the wall, so that there is a shout towards the mountain. For Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men (homo), [and] horsemen. The horsemen surely positioned themselves right at the gate. Isaiah 22:5-7.

In the same prophet,

The defence-work of your walls providing refuge 2 He will pull down, cast down, lay flat on the ground, 3 right down into the dust. Isaiah 25:12.

In Jeremiah,

Go up onto its walls and throw down. Jeremiah 5:10.

In the same prophet,

I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, which will consume the palaces of Benhadad. Jeremiah 49:27.

In the same prophet,

Raise a standard against the walls of Babel, keep watch, post watchmen. Jeremiah 51:12.

In Ezekiel,

They will overturn the walls of Tyre, and destroy her towers, and I will scrape her dust from her and make her a bare rock. Ezekiel 16:4, 8-9, 11.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin means Jehovah Zebaoth but the Hebrew means Jehovah, the God of Israel.

2. literally, The fortification of refuge of your walls

3. literally, earth or land

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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