The Bible

 

Ezekiel 39

Study

   

1 And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal;

2 and I will turn thee back, and lead thee, and will cause thee to come up from the uttermost north, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel.

3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.

4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the peoples that are with thee: I have given thee to be meat for the birds of prey of every wing, and to the beasts of the field.

5 Thou shalt fall on the open field; for I have spoken [it], saith the Lord Jehovah.

6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell at ease in the isles: and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

7 And my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not suffer my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I [am] Jehovah, the holy One in Israel.

8 Behold, it cometh, and shall be done, saith the Lord Jehovah. This is the day whereof I have spoken.

9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall kindle fire, and burn weapons, and shields, and targets, bows, and arrows, and hand-staves, and spears: and they shall make fires with them seven years.

10 And no wood shall be taken out of the field, neither cut down out of the forests; for they shall make fire with the weapons; and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and plunder those that plundered them, saith the Lord Jehovah.

11 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will give unto Gog a place there for burial in Israel, the valley of the passers-by to the east of the sea; and it shall stop [the way] of the passers-by; and there shall they bury Gog and all the multitude; and they shall call it, Valley of Hamon-Gog.

12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land;

13 and all the people of the land shall bury [them]; and it shall be to them for renown in the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord Jehovah.

14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment to go through the land, who, with the passers-by, shall bury those that remain upon the face of the land, to cleanse it: at the end of seven months shall they make a search.

15 And the passers-by shall pass through the land, and when [any] seeth a man's bone, he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-Gog.

16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

17 And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Speak unto the birds of every wing, and to every beast of the field, Gather yourselves together and come, assemble yourselves on every side to my sacrifice which I sacrifice for you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.

18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, [and] of bullocks, all of them fatted beasts of Bashan.

19 And ye shall eat fat till ye are full, and drink blood till ye are drunken, of my sacrifice which I sacrifice for you.

20 And ye shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord Jehovah.

21 And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment which I have executed, and my hand which I have laid upon them.

22 And the house of Israel shall know that I [am] Jehovah their God from that day and forward.

23 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they were unfaithful against me; and I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies, so that they fell all of them by the sword.

24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I did unto them, and I hid my face from them.

25 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name:

26 and they shall bear their confusion, and all their unfaithfulness in which they have acted unfaithfully against me, when they shall dwell safely in their land, and none shall make them afraid;

27 when I have brought them again from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations.

28 And they shall know that I [am] Jehovah their God, in that I caused them to be led into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.

29 And I will not hide my face any more from them, for I shall have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1292

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1292. That 'they found a valley in the land of Shinar' means that worship became more unclean and unholy is clear from the meaning of 'a valley' and from the meaning of 'the land of Shinar'. As regards the meaning of 'a valley', in the Word 'mountains' means love or charity because these are the highest points, or what amounts to the same, inmost features of worship, as shown already in 795. Consequently 'a valley' means that which is below the mountains, that is, the lower, or what amounts to the same, exterior aspect of worship. 'The land of Shinar' however means external worship which has unholiness within it, as shown already in 1183. Thus in this verse the statement that 'they found a valley in the land of Shinar' means that worship became more unclean and unholy.

[2] Verse one dealt with the Church having one lip and its words being one that is, one doctrine in general and in particular. This verse however deals with the decline of the Church - 'they travelled from the east' that is, they began to depart from charity. For to the extent that the Church, or a member of the Church, departs from charity, its worship departs from what is holy, or its worship approaches what is unclean and unholy. The reason 'they found a valley in the land of Shinar' means the decline of the Church, that is, of worship, into unholiness is that a valley is a low-lying area between mountains, which, as has been stated, mean the holy things of love or of charity within worship. This also becomes clear from the meaning of 'a valley' in the Word where in the original language several expressions for valley occur which mean, when used in that sense, things present in worship that are less or more unholy.

[3] That 'valleys' means such things is clear in Isaiah,

The burden of the valley of vision; for the Lord Jehovih Zebaoth has a day of tumult and of trampling and of confusion in the valley of vision. Isaiah 22:1, 5.

'The valley of vision' stands for delusions and for reasonings by which worship is rendered false and at length profaned. In Jeremiah,

How do you say, I have not been defiled, I have not walked after the baals? Look at your way in the valley. Jeremiah 2:23.

'The valley' stands for unclean worship. In the same prophet, They have built the high places of Topheth, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom. Therefore, behold, the days are coming when it will no more be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. Jeremiah 7:31, 34; 19:6.

'The valley of Hinnom' stands for hell, also for the profanation of truth and good.

[4] In Ezekiel,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys Behold, I, even I, am bringing a sword places. Ezekiel 6:3.

In the same prophet,

I will give to Gog a place there for burial in Israel, the valley of those that pass over towards the east of the sea. And they will call it the valley of the multitude of Gog. Ezekiel 39:11, 15.

This refers to worship in external things, 'the valley' standing for such worship. But when worship has not yet become unholy to that extent, it is described by the word for a valley used here in Genesis 11:2, as in Isaiah,

I will open rivers on the sloping heights, and I will place springs in the midst of valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into streams of water. Isaiah 41:18.

This refers to people who are in ignorance, that is, without cognitions of faith and charity, and who yet have charity. 'valley' here stands for those people, as does 'valley' in Ezekiel 37:1.

  
/ 10837  
  

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