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Ezekiel 3

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1 And he said unto me, Son of man, eat what thou findest; eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel.

2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll which I give thee. And I ate, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

4 And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.

5 For thou art not sent to a people of strange language, and of difficult speech, [but] to the house of Israel;

6 not to many peoples of strange language and of difficult speech, whose words thou canst not understand: had I sent thee to them, would they not hearken unto thee?

7 But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee, for none of them will hearken unto me. For all the house of Israel are hard of forehead and stiff of heart.

8 Behold, I have made thy face hard against their faces, and thy forehead hard against their foreheads.

9 As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead. Fear them not, neither be dismayed at them, for they are a rebellious house.

10 And he said unto me, Son of man, all my words which I shall speak unto thee, receive in thy heart, and hear with thine ears;

11 and go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, -- whether they will hear or whether they will forbear.

12 And the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the sound of a great rushing, [saying,] Blessed be the glory of Jehovah from his place!

13 -- and the sound of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, and the sound of a great rushing.

14 And the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of Jehovah was strong upon me.

15 And I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river Chebar, and I sat where they sat; and I sat there astonied among them seven days.

16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

17 Son of man, I have appointed thee a watchman unto the house of Israel, and thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and give them warning from me.

18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt certainly die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, that he may live: the same wicked [man] shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand.

19 But if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

20 And when a righteous [man] doth turn from his righteousness, and do what is wrong, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die; because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous acts which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thy hand.

21 And if thou warn the righteous [man], that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall certainly live, for he hath taken warning; and thou hast delivered thy soul.

22 And the hand of Jehovah was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the valley, and there I will talk with thee.

23 And I arose, and went forth into the valley, and behold, the glory of Jehovah stood there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

24 And the Spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet; and he spoke with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thy house.

25 And thou, son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee therewith, and thou shalt not go out among them.

26 And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious house.

27 And when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #666

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666. And they stood upon their feet.- That this signifies a new life such as the regenerated man of the church has, is evident from the signification of standing, as denoting to be and to live, and also to sustain (concerning which see above 414); and from the signification of feet, as denoting the Natural, which is the ultimate of Divine order, and the basis upon which things prior or higher rest and upon which they subsist (concerning which also, see above 69, 600:1, 606). Standing upon the feet therefore signifies life in fulness, because in the ultimate; new life is signified, because the witnesses, who are here treated of, were slain and lived again. Standing upon the feet signifies here such life as pertains to the regenerated man of the church, because these things are said of the two witnesses, by whom are meant all who are in the goods of love by means of truths of doctrine, and who are such as have been regenerated; also, because when the Natural signified by the feet, is regenerated, then the whole man has life, such as pertains to a regenerated man, according to the words of the Lord in John:

[2] Jesus said to Peter,

"He that is washed, needeth not save to be washed as to the feet, and he is wholly clean" (13:10).

To be washed signifies to be purified from evils and falsities, which is to be regenerated, therefore he that is washed signifies he who is purified, that is, regenerated, as to what is spiritual, which is the good of love and the truth of doctrine; and these are first to be received in the memory and understanding, that is, to be known and acknowledged. Needeth not save to be washed as to the feet signifies that the natural or external man is then to be purified or regenerated, which is done by a life according to the precepts of love and faith, that is, according to the goods and truths of doctrine from the Word; when this takes place, the man himself is purified or regenerated. For to live according to the goods and truths of doctrine from the Word, is to will them, and thus to do them, which is the same thing as to be affected with them, and to love them; for what is done from the will, is done from affection and love, consequently from the man himself, the will being the man himself, because a man is his own love and his own affection; it is therefore said that then the whole man is clean.

[3] From these considerations it is evident why it is, that to stand upon the feet denotes life such as pertains to a regenerated man. Also of the dry bones seen by the prophet on the face of the valley, after they were covered with sinews, flesh, and skin it is said, "When I prophesied" concerning the spirit, "the spirit entered into them, and they lived again, and stood upon their feet" (Ezekiel 37:10). Here also by standing upon the feet is signified new life, such as pertains to a regenerated man. For the dry bones to which the house of Israel is likened signify the state of the church with them, namely, that it was without the goods of love and truths of doctrine; and by being clothed with sinews, flesh, and skin, is signified regeneration, and by the spirit which entered, new life by the influx and reception of Divine Truth; it is therefore then said, that they lived again and stood upon their feet. The signification of standing upon the feet elsewhere in the same prophet is similar.

A voice speaking to me said "Son of Man, stand upon thy feet, that I may speak to thee; then the spirit entered into me, when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, and I heard him speaking to me" (Ezekiel 2:1, 2).

And again:

"I fell upon my faces, but the spirit entered into me, and raised me upon my feet" (Ezekiel 3:23, 24).

These things happened, because life itself, when it is in its fulness, is signified by standing upon the feet, and it is in its fulness when the Natural lives from the Spiritual. For the ultimate of man's life is in his Natural, this ultimate being a base as it were for his interior and higher [things], for these terminate in the ultimate and subsist there. Unless therefore life be in the ultimate, it is not full, thus not perfect; and moreover, all the interior or higher co-exist in the ultimate, as in their simultaneity; thus interior or higher things are according to the quality of the ultimate, for these accommodate themselves to the ultimate, because it receives them.

[4] The signification of standing upon the feet in David is similar:

"Thou hast made my feet to stand in a broad place" (Psalm 31:8).

A broad place signifies the truth of doctrine from the Word, therefore to make my feet to stand in a broad place signifies to cause him to live according to Divine truths.

Again in the same:

"He made me to come up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock" (Psalm 40:2).

The pit of destruction signifies falsity of doctrine, and the miry clay, evil of life; the signification of setting his feet upon a rock is similar to that of making his feet stand in a broad place, for a rock signifies the truth of doctrine from the Word, and, in the highest sense, the Lord as to Divine truth.

[5] It is therefore evident, what is signified in the spiritual sense by Jehovah "will not suffer my foot to totter" (Psalm 121:3), namely, that He will not suffer the Natural to go astray from truths; for in proportion as the natural goes astray, the interiors which belong to the understanding and will also go astray.

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