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Ezekiel 31

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1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, the third month, the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2 Son of man, speak to Pharao king of Egypt, and to his people: To whom art thou like in thy greatness?

3 Behold, the Assyrian was like a cedar in Libanus, with fair branches, and full of leaves, of a high stature, and his top was elevated among the thick boughs.

4 The waters nourished him, the deep set him up on high, the streams thereof ran round about his roots, and it sent forth its rivulets to all the trees of the country.

5 Therefore was his height exalted above all the trees of the country: and his branches were multiplied, and his boughs were elevated because of many waters.

6 And when he had spread forth his shadow, all the fowls of the air made their nests in his boughs, and all the beasts of the forest brought forth their young under his branches, and the assembly of many nations dwelt under his shadow.

7 And he was most beautiful for his greatness, and for the spreading of his branches: for his root was near great waters.

8 The cedars in the paradise of God wars not higher than he, the fir trees did not equal his top, neither were the plane trees to be compared with him for branches: no tree in the paradise of God was like him in his beauty.

9 For I made him beautiful and thick set with many branches: and all the trees of pleasure, that were in the paradise of God, envied him.

10 Therefore thus saith the Lord God Because he was exalted in height, and shot up his top green and thick, and his heart was lifted up in his height:

11 I have delivered him into the hands of the mighty one of the nations, he shall deal with him: I have cast him out according to his wickedness.

12 And strangers, and the most cruel of the nations shall cut him down, and cast him away upon the mountains, and his boughs shall fall in every valley, and his branches shall be broken on every rock of the country: and all the people of the earth shall depart from his shadow, and leave him.

13 All the fowls of the air dwelt upon his ruins, and all the beasts of the field were among his branches.

14 For which cause none of the trees by the waters shall exalt themselves for their height: nor shoot up their tops among the thick branches and leaves, neither shall any of them that are watered stand up in their height: for they are all delivered unto death to the lowest parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down into the pit.

15 Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when he went down to hell, I brought in mourning, I covered him with the deep: and I withheld its rivers, and restrained the many waters: Libanus grieved for him, and all the trees of the field trembled.

16 I shook the nations with the sound of his fall, when I brought him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of pleasure, the choice and best in Libanus, all that were moistened with waters, were comforted in the lowest parts of the earth.

17 For they also shall go down with him to hell to them that are slain by the sword: and the arm of every one shall sit down under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

18 To whom art thou like, O thou that art famous and lofty among the trees of pleasure? Behold, thou art brought down with the trees of pleasure to the lowest parts of the earth: thou shalt sleep in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword: this is Pharao, and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #8278

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8278. 'The depths have covered them' means that falsities resulting from evil desires have overwhelmed them. This is clear from the meaning of 'the depths' as falsities which exist as a result of evil desires. In the Word 'depths' is used to mean waters and large amounts of waters in deep places, 'waters' in the good sense meaning truths and in the contrary sense falsities, 739, 790, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, and deep places' meaning the hells. So it is that 'depths' means falsities resulting from evil desires, as well as meaning the hells. The fact that 'depths' is used in the Word to mean waters in deep places and to mean large amounts of waters is clear in Ezekiel,

The waters caused the cedar to grow, the depth made it high, so that it went with its rivers around the place of its planting, and he sent out his lines of water to all the trees of the field. Ezekiel 31:4.

In David,

He split the rocks in the wilderness, and caused them to drink the great depths. He brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to descend as streams. Psalms 78:15-16.

In Moses,

... a good land, a land of rivers of water, springs, and depths gushing out of valley and mountain. Deuteronomy 8:7.

In these places 'depths' stands for waters in large amounts; and waters in large amounts or 'depths' stands for the truths of faith in abundance. 'Causing them to drink great depths from the rock' stands for the truths of faith never failing, for 'rock' is faith derived from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect of faith. 'Depths gushing out of valley and mountain' stands for the truths of faith coming out of love. This also explains why the blessings of Joseph included the blessings of the deep Lying beneath, Genesis 49:25; Deuteronomy 33:13

[2] The fact that 'the depths' 1 means falsities resulting from evil desires as well as meaning the hells is clear in Isaiah,

Awake as in the days of antiquity, the generations of long ago. Do You not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep, and make the deep places of the sea a road, in order that the redeemed may go across? Isaiah 51:9-11.

In the same prophet,

... Jehovah who divided the waters before them, who led them through the depths; as a horse in the wilderness they did not stumble. Isaiah 63:12-14.

In Ezekiel,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, When I make you a city laid desolate, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall cause the deep to come up against you, and many waters have covered you ... Ezekiel 26:19.

In John,

I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. To him was given the key of the pit of the abyss; and he opened the pit of the abyss. Revelation 9:1-2, 11.

In the same author,

The beast that comes up from the abyss will make 2 war with them. Revelation 11:7.

Yet again in the same author,

The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will come up out of the abyss and go away to perdition. Revelation 17:8.

In these places 'the depths', 'the deep', or 'the abyss' stands for the hells, and so also for the falsities resulting from evil desires, since these desires exist in the hells and constitute them.

[3] Since these things are meant by 'the depths', temptations are also meant by them, for temptations are brought about by falsities and evils which the hells have introduced. This further meaning occurs in Jonah,

The waters surrounded me, even to [my] soul, the deep closed around me. Jonah 2:5. In David,

Deep is calling to deep at the noise of Your waterspouts; all Your breakers and Your waves have passed over me. Psalms 42:7.

You who have shown me many severe troubles, 3 turn back and revive me, and cause me to turn back and come up from the depths of the earth. Psalms 71:20.

Footnotes:

1. In the quotations that follow the same Latin word is rendered variously - the depths, the deep, or the abyss.

2. Reading faciet (will make), which Swedenborg has in his rough draft and also in another place where he quotes this verse, for fecit (has made)

3. literally, many and evil distresses

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