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Ezekiel 6

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1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2 Son of man, set thy face towards the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them.

3 And say: Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus Faith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the rocks, and the valleys: Behold, I will bring upon you the sword, and I will destroy your high places.

4 And I will throw down your altars, and your idols shall be broken in pieces: and I will cast down your slain before your idols.

5 And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before your idols: and I will scatter Sour bones round about your altars,

6 In all your dwelling places. The cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be thrown down, and destroyed, and your altars shall be abolished, and shall be broken in pieces: and your idols shall be no more, and your temples shall be destroyed, and your works shall be defaced.

7 And the slain shall fall in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

8 And I will leave in you some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when I shall have scattered you, through the countries.

9 And they that are saved of you shall remember me amongst the nations to which they are carried captives: because I have broken their heart that was faithless, and revolted from me: and their eyes that went a fornicating after their idols: and they shall be displeased with themselves because of the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

10 And they shall know that I the Lord have not spoken in vain that I would do this evil to them.

11 Thus saith the Lord God: Strike with thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say: Alas, for all the abominations of the evils of the house of Israel: for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence.

12 He that is far off shall die of the pestilence: and he that is near, shall fall by the sword: and he that remaineth, and is besieged, shall die by the famine: and I will accomplish my indignation upon them.

13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain shall be amongst your idols, round about your altars, in every high hill, and on all the tops of mountains, and under every woody tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they burnt sweet smelling frankincense to all their idols.

14 And I will stretch forth my hand upon them: and I will make the land desolate, and abandoned from the desert of Deblatha in all their dwelling places: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #591

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591. 13:10 Anyone who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. This symbolically means that someone who uses that heresy to draw others away from believing rightly and living rightly is drawn by his own falsities and evils into hell.

To lead into captivity means, symbolically, to persuade and win over to one's side so that people consent to and attach themselves to that heresy meant by the dragon and the beast, and thus to draw them away from believing rightly and living rightly. To go into captivity means, symbolically, to be drawn by one's own falsities and evils into hell.

Captivity here means spiritual captivity, which is to be led astray and so to be drawn away from truths and goods into falsities and evils.

That captivity in the Word means this spiritual captivity can be seen from the following passages:

Hear now, all peoples, and behold my sorrow; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. (Lamentations 1:18)

(God) forsook His dwelling..., (and) the tent where He dwelt among men, and delivered His strength into captivity... (Psalms 78:60-61)

The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; ...then you will be ashamed... because of all your wickedness. (Jeremiah 22:22)

I will make My arrows drunk... with the blood of the slain and the captivity... (Deuteronomy 32:42)

They stooped (and) bowed down..., and their soul will go into captivity. (Isaiah 46:1-2)

(Jehovah) has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, ...to the bound, ...to the blind... (Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4:18-19)

I will stir him up in righteousness...; he shall... let My captives go free, not for price nor reward... (Isaiah 45:13)

You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive... (Psalms 68:18)

Shall... the captivity of the righteous be delivered? ..."Even the captivity of the strong shall be taken away, and the captured of the violent be delivered." (Isaiah 49:24-25)

Shake yourself from the dust...; sit, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion! (Isaiah 52:1-2)

And so on elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 48:46-47; 50:33-34, Ezekiel 6:1-10; 12:1-12, Obadiah 1:11, Psalms 14:7; 53:6.

The captivities of the children of Israel by their enemies described in the book of Judges, in 2 Kings 25, and in the prophets represented and so symbolized spiritual captivities, as discussed elsewhere.

The bound have the same symbolic meaning as captives in the following places:

...by the blood of your covenant I will set the bound free from the... pit. (Zechariah 9:11)

The groaning of the bound shall come to You. (Psalms 79:11)

...the bound shall be gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison. (Isaiah 24:22)

He made the world a wilderness..., He did not open the house to his bound ones. (Isaiah 14:17)

(The king said, "I was) in prison and you did not come to Me." (Matthew 25:43)

(Jesus said,) "Ought not this... daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound..., be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" (Luke 13:16)

  
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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.

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