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Ezekiel 30

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1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Howl ye, Alas for the day!

3 For the day is at hand, yea, the day of Jehovah is at hand, a day of clouds; it shall be the time of the nations.

4 And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and there shall be anguish in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be overthrown.

5 Cush, and Phut, and Lud, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the children of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.

6 Thus saith Jehovah: They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her strength shall come down: from Migdol to Syene shall they fall in her by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah.

7 And they shall be desolated in the midst of the countries that are desolated, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.

8 And they shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers shall be broken.

9 In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships, to make careless Ethiopia afraid; and anguish shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for behold, it cometh!

10 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.

11 He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with slain.

12 And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I Jehovah have spoken [it].

13 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince out of the land of Egypt; and I will put fear in the land of Egypt.

14 And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgment in No.

15 And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.

16 And I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin shall be in great anguish, and No shall be rent asunder, and at Noph [there shall be] enemies in open day.

17 The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these shall go into captivity.

18 And at Tehaphnehes the day shall be darkened, when I break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her strength shall cease in her; as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.

19 Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

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

21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it shall not be bound up to apply remedies, to put a bandage to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.

22 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong one, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.

23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; and I will break Pharaoh's arms, so that he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly-wounded [man].

25 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when I have put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall have stretched it out upon the land of Egypt.

26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries: and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #583

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583. IV. The process of regeneration is on the model of a person's conception, gestation in the womb, birth and upbringing.

The natural and spiritual events in a person's life, that is, what happens to his body and what to his spirit, are so ordered as permanently to correspond. The reason is that a person is by birth spiritual as regards his soul, and he is clothed with a natural form which is constituted by his material body. When therefore this is laid aside, his soul, clothed in his spiritual body, comes into the world where all things are spiritual, and there associates with people like him. Now the spiritual body has to be formed in the material one, a process accomplished by the inflow of truths and various kinds of good from the Lord through the spiritual world. These are inwardly received by the person in such things belonging to the natural world as are called civil and moral; so it is evident how the process of formation takes place. Because, as already said, there is a permanent correspondence between the natural and spiritual events in a person's life, it follows that this process must resemble his conception, gestation in the womb, birth and upbringing. That is why natural births in the Word mean spiritual births, that is, the birth of good and truth. For whatever stands in the literal or natural sense of the Word, enfolds and stands for something spiritual. I demonstrated fully in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture that every detail of the literal sense of the Word contains a spiritual sense.

[2] The natural births mentioned in the Word refer to spiritual births, as is evident from the following passages.

We have conceived, we have given birth, we have as it were brought forth [wind], we have not done what is sound, Isaiah 26:18.

At the presence of the Lord you give birth 1 , O earth, Psalms 114:7.

Has the earth given birth in one day? Shall I break and not bring to birth, and cause to give birth but close 2 up the womb? Isaiah 66:7-10. Sin gives birth and No shall be on the point of being breached, Ezekiel 30:16.

The pangs of childbirth shall come upon Ephraim. He is an unwise child, because at the right time he does not stand in the womb of sons, Hosea 13:12-13.

There are many other similar passages. Since natural births in the Word mean spiritual births, and these are the Lord's work, He is called He who forms and brings out of the womb. This is clear from these passages among others:

Jehovah your maker and who forms you from the womb, Isaiah 44:2.

He who brings me from the womb, Psalms 22:9.

I have been placed upon you from the womb, from my mother's inmost parts it was you who brought me forth, Psalms 71:6.

Pay attention to me, you who were carried by the belly, borne by the womb, Isaiah 46:3.

This is why the Lord is called 'Father' (as at Isaiah 9:6; 63:16, John 10:30; 14:8-9), and those who are in possession of good and truth from Him are called 'sons', 'born of God' and 'brothers' among themselves (Matthew 23:8-9). It is also why the church is called 'mother' (Hosea 2:2, 5; Ezekiel 16:45).

Footnotes:

1. Reading parturis for parturit, as elsewhere when this verse is quoted.

2. 'not close' in the Latin, but corrected in the author's copy.

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

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