The Bible

 

Ezekiel 47

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1 And he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the front of the house was eastward. And the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, south of the altar.

2 And he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me round outside unto the outer gate towards [the gate] that looketh eastward; and behold, waters ran out on the right side.

3 When the man went forth eastward, a line was in his hand; and he measured a thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters: the waters were to the ankles.

4 And he measured a thousand [cubits], and caused me to pass through the waters: the waters were to the knees. And he measured a thousand and caused me to pass through: the waters were to the loins.

5 And he measured a thousand: it was a river that I could not pass through, for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.

6 And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen [this]? And he led me, and brought me back to the bank of the river.

7 When I returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.

8 And he said unto me, These waters issue out toward the east district, and go down into the plain, and go into the sea; when they are brought forth into the sea, the waters [thereof] shall be healed.

9 And it shall come to pass that every living thing which moveth, whithersoever the double river shall come, shall live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters shall come thither, and [the waters of the sea] shall be healed; and everything shall live whither the river cometh.

10 And it shall come to pass, that fishers shall stand upon it; from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim shall be [a place] to spread forth nets: their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.

11 But its marshes and its pools shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt.

12 And by the river, upon its bank, on the one side and on the other, shall grow all trees for food, whose leaf shall not fade, nor their fruit fail: it shall bring forth new fruit every month, for its waters issue out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for food, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

13 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: This shall be the border whereby ye shall allot the land as inheritance according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph [shall have two] portions.

14 And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another, [the land] concerning which I lifted up my hand to give it unto your fathers; and this land shall fall to you for inheritance.

15 And this shall be the border of the land: toward the north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Zedad,

16 Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazer-hatticon, which is by the border of Hauran.

17 And the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath: this is the north side.

18 -- And on the east side ye shall measure between Hauran and Damascus, and Gilead and the land of Israel [by] the Jordan, from the border unto the east sea: this is the east side.

19 -- And the south side southward, from Tamar to the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, by the torrent, unto the great sea: this is the south side southward.

20 -- And the west side shall be the great sea from the border, as far as over against the entering into Hamath: this is the west side.

21 And ye shall divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel.

22 And it shall come to pass that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, who shall beget children among you; and they shall be unto you as the home-born among the children of Israel: with you shall they draw by lot inheritance among the tribes of Israel.

23 And it shall come to pass that in the tribe in which the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give [him] his inheritance, saith the Lord Jehovah.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #935

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935. Yielding its fruit according to the month. This symbolically means that the Lord produces the goods in a person in accordance with every state of truth in him.

A month symbolizes a person's state of life in respect to truth, as will be seen below. To yield fruit means, symbolically, to produce goods. That fruits are goods of love and charity is something we just showed in no. 934 above. Moreover, because it is the Lord who essentially produces these in a person - even though the person does them as though of himself, thus apparently, as we said in no. 934 above - it follows that the symbolic meaning here is that the Lord produces them inmostly when He is present there.

But we must say how one is to understand the Lord's producing goods of charity in a person in accordance with every state of truth in him.

Someone who believes that a person does good acceptable to the Lord, good that is called spiritual good, without possessing in him truths from the Word, is much mistaken. Goods without truths are not good, and truths without goods are not true in the person, even though they are true in themselves. For good without truth is like something a person wills without understanding, a volition that is not human, but one like that of an animal, or like that of a robot that an operator causes to function.

On the other hand, volition together with comprehension becomes human in accordance with the state of the intellect by which it finds expression. For the condition of everyone's life is such that a person's will can do nothing without the instrumentality of the intellect, nor can the intellect entertain any thought without doing so from the will. The case is the same with goodness and truth, since goodness has to do with the will, and truth with the intellect.

[2] It is apparent from this that the good that the Lord produces in a person accords with the state of truth in him that forms his understanding.

This is what the tree of life yielding its fruit every month symbolizes, because a month symbolizes the state of truth in a person.

All periods of time, such as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and centuries, symbolize states of life, as may be seen in nos. 476, 562. Months symbolize states of life in respect to truths, because months mean times determined by the moon, and the moon symbolizes the truth of the intellect and of faith (nos. 332, 413, 414, 919).

Months have the same meaning in the following:

Blessed of Jehovah is (Joseph's) land..., with the precious fruits of the sun, and with the precious produce of the months... (Deuteronomy 33:13-14)

It shall come to pass that from month to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to bow down before (Jehovah).... (Isaiah 66:23)

Because of the symbolic meaning of a month, which is the same as that of the moon, sacrifices were made at the beginnings of each month or new moon (Numbers 29:1-6, Isaiah 1:14). The Israelites also sounded the trumpets then (Numbers 10:10, Psalms 81:3). And they were commanded to observe the month of Abib, in which they celebrated Passover (Exodus 12:2, Deuteronomy 16:1).

Months symbolize states of truth in a person, and in an opposite sense states of falsity in him, as may also be seen above in Revelation 9:5, 10, 15; 11:2, and 13:5.

A month has the same symbolic meaning here as in Ezekiel 47:12.

  
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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.