The Bible

 

Daniel 8

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1 In the third year of the reign of king Baltasar, a vision appeared to me. I Daniel, after what I had seen in the beginning,

2 Saw in my vision when I was in the castle of Susa, which is in the province of Elam: and I Saw in the vision that I was over the gate of Ulai.

3 And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold a ram stood before the water, having two high horns, and one higher than the other, and growing up. Afterward

4 I saw the ram pushing with his horns against the west, and against the north, and against the south: and no beasts could withstand him, nor be delivered out of his hand: and he did according to his own will, and became great.

5 And I understood: and behold a he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and he touched not the ground, and the he goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

6 And he went up to the ram that had the horns, which I had seen standing before the gate, and he ran towards him in the force of his strength.

7 And when he was come near the ram, he was enraged against him, and struck the ram: and broke his two horns, and the ram could not withstand him: and when he had cast him down on the ground, he stamped upon him, and none could deliver the ram out of his hand.

8 And the he goat became exceeding great: and when he was grown, the great horn was broken, and there came up four horns under it towards the four winds of heaven.

9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn: and it became great against the south, and against the east, and against the strength.

10 And it was magnified even unto the strength of heaven: and it threw down of the strength, and of the stars, and trod upon them.

11 And it was magnified even to the prince of the strength: and it took away from him the continual sacrifice, and cast down the place of his sanctuary.

12 And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice, because of sins: and truth shall be cast down on the ground, and he shall do and shall prosper.

13 And I heard one of the saints speaking, and one saint said to another, I know not to whom that was speaking: How long shall be the vision, concerning the continual sacrifice, and the sin of the desolation that is made: and the sanctuary, and the strength be trodden under foot?

14 And he said to him: Unto evening and morning two thousand three hundred days: and the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

15 And it came to pass when I Daniel saw the vision, and sought the meaning, that behold there stood before me as it were the appearance of a man.

16 And I heard the voice of a man between Ulai: and he called, and said: Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.

17 And he came and stood near where I stood: and when he was come, I fell on my face trembling, and he said to me: Understand, O son of man, for in the time of the end the vision shall be fulfilled.

18 And when he spoke to me I fell flat on the ground: and he touched me, and set me upright,

19 And he said to me: I will shew thee what things are to come to pass in the end of the malediction: for the time hath its end.

20 The ram, which thou sawest with horns, is the king of the Medes and Persians.

21 And the he goat, is the king of the Greeks, and the great horn that was between his eyes, the same is the first king.

22 But whereas when that was broken, there arose up four for it: four kings shall rise up of his nation, but not with his strength.

23 And after their reign, when iniquities shall be grown up, there shall arise a king of a shameless face, and understanding dark sentences.

24 And his power shall be strengthened, but not by his own force: and he shall lay all things waste, and shall prosper, and do more than can be believed. And he shall destroy the mighty, and the people of the saints,

25 According to his will, and craft shall be successful in his hand: and his heart shall be puffed up, and in the abundance of all things he shall kill many: and he shall rise up against the prince of princes, and shall be broken without hand.

26 And the vision of the evening and the morning, which was told, is true: thou therefore seal up the vision, because it shall come to pass after many days.

27 And I Daniel languished, and was sick for some days: and when I was risen up, I did the king's business, and I was astonished at the vision, and there was none that could interpret it.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Faith #63

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63. 1. Experience in the spiritual world shows that in the Word, goats mean people who are devoted to a faith divorced from caring. In the spiritual world we can see everything we see in this earthly world. We can see houses and mansions, parks and gardens with all kinds of trees in them. We can see fields and farmland, plains and meadows, as well as herds and flocks, all looking much as they do in our world. In fact, the only difference is that those in our world come from an earthly origin, while those in the spiritual world come from a spiritual origin. Since angels are spiritual, they see things that are from a spiritual origin just the way we see things that are from an earthly origin.

[2] Everything visible in the spiritual world is a correspondence. That is, everything corresponds to something the angels and spirits are feeling. That is why people who are moved by what is good and true and who therefore enjoy wisdom and intelligence live in splendid mansions that are surrounded by gardens with an abundance of trees (all of which things are correspondences), and these in turn are surrounded by farmlands and fields where flocks lie at rest (all of which things are manifestations).

For people who are drawn to evil, the correspondences are quite the opposite. These people are either confined to windowless workhouses in the hells where the only light is like that of marsh gas, or live in shacks in the wilderness where everything around is barren, where there are snakes, lizards, owls, and many other things that correspond to their evils.

[3] There is an intermediate space between heaven and hell called the world of spirits. That is where we all arrive immediately after death. We interact with each other there much the way we do here on earth; and there as well, everything we see is a correspondence. We see gardens and groves there, forests with trees and bushes, and green, flowery meadows, along with all kinds of animals, tame and wild, all corresponding to what we are feeling.

[4] I have often seen sheep and goats there and fights between them like the one described in the eighth chapter of Daniel [Daniel 8:2-14]. I have seen goats with horns bent forward or backward and have seen them angrily attacking sheep. I once saw goats with two horns using them to batter some sheep, and when I looked to see what was happening, I saw some people arguing about caring and faith. I could see from this that what looked like a goat was faith divorced from caring and that what looked like a sheep was a caring that gave rise to faith.

Because I have seen this so often, I have been granted the opportunity to know for certain that in the Word, goats mean people devoted to a faith divorced from caring.

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