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Amos 2

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1 Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath burnt the bones of the king of Edom even to ashes.

2 And I will seed a fire into Moab, and it shall devour the houses of Carioth: and Moab shall die with a noise, with the sound of the trumpet:

3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all his princes with him, saith the Lord.

4 Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Juda, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath cast away the law of the Lord, and hath not kept his commandments: for their idols have caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked.

5 And I will send a fire into Juda, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem.

6 Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath sold the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of shoes.

7 They bruise the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the humble: and the son and his father have gone to the same young woman, to profane my holy name.

8 And they sat down upon garments laid to pledge by every altar: and drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.

9 Yet I cast out the Amorrhite before their face: whose height was like the height of cedars, and who was strong as an oak: and I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots beneath.

10 It is I that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and I led you forty years through the wilderness, that you might possess the land of the Amorrhite.

11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not so, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord?

12 And you will present wine to the Nazarites: and command the prophets, saying: Prophesy not.

13 Behold, I will screak under you as a wain screaketh that is laden with hay.

14 And flight shall perish from the swift, and the valiant shall not possess his strength, neither shall the strong save his life.

15 And he that holdeth the bow shall not stand, and the swift of foot shall not escape, neither shall the rider of the horse save his life.

16 And the stout of heart among the valiant shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #349

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349. 'A gift' is used to mean worship. This becomes clear from the representative acts in the Jewish Church where, in addition to first-fruits of the earth and of all it yields, and also presentation of the firstborn, sacrifices of every kind are called 'gifts'. It was in these acts that worship consisted. And because they each represented something heavenly and had reference to the Lord, these gifts meant true worship, a fact that anyone is capable of recognizing. For what is any representative without the real thing it represents, and what is anything external without an internal but some idol or object that is dead? That which is external has life from things that are internal, that is, from the Lord through those internal things. From this it is clear that all gifts in the representative Church mean worship of the Lord. Further details on these points will in the Lord's Divine mercy be presented later on.

[2] That 'gifts' in general means worship becomes clear from various places in the Prophets, as in Malachi,

Who endures the day of His coming? He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them like gold, and like silver, and they will be people who present to Jehovah a gift in righteousness. Then the gift of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Jehovah as in the days of old and as in the former years. Malachi 3:2-4.

'A gift in righteousness' means something internal, which 'the sons of Levi', that is, devout worshippers, are going to offer. 'The days of old' means the Most Ancient Church, and 'former years' the Ancient Church.

In Ezekiel,

On My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel, all the house of Israel, the whole of that land, will worship Me. There I will be well-disposed towards them, and there I will require your offerings and the first-fruits comprising your gifts in all your holy acts. Ezekiel 20:40.

'Offerings and first-fruits comprising gifts in holy acts' similarly are works that have been made holy through charity from the Lord. In Zephaniah,

From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia those who adore Me will bring My gift. Zephaniah 3:10.

'Ethiopia' stands for people who are in possession of celestial things, namely love, charity, and works stemming from charity.

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

The Bible

 

Isaiah 37:31

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31 The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

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