The Bible

 

Hosea 6

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1 In their affliction they will rise early to me: Come, and let us return to the Lord:

2 For he hath taken us, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us.

3 He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.

4 What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning.

5 For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light.

6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts.

7 But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant, there have they dealt treacherously against me.

8 Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood.

9 And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.

10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel is defiled.

11 And thou also, O Juda, set thee a harvest, when I shall bring back captivity of my people.

   

Commentary

 

Morning

  
Two gorgeous red poppies -- one popped, and one just about to.

Morning comes with the rising of the sun, and the sun -- which gives life to the earth with its warmth and light -- represents the Lord in His divinity, bringing spiritual life through love and wisdom. Thus, the morning represents the coming of the Lord into our lives, and all the things that flow from it: the love, joy and enlightenment He brings; the peace and tranquility of passing the spiritual obscurity of night; the anticipation of the learning and usefulness of a new day; and the awareness of The Lord's renewed presence.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 179; Apocalypse Revealed 151; Arcana Coelestia 2333 [1-3], 2540, 2780, 5740, 8211, 8812, 10134, 10200, 10413; True Christian Religion 764 [1-2])

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #247

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247. There are many passages in the prophets describing how the church among the Israelite or Jewish race was utterly destroyed and annihilated by their falsifying the meaning or understanding of the Word; for it is this and nothing else which destroys a church. The understanding of the Word, both true and false, is described in the prophets, especially Hosea, by Ephraim; for this name stands in the Word for the understanding of the Word in the church. Since the understanding of the Word makes the church, Ephraim is called the precious son and the child of delight (Jeremiah 31:20); the first-born (Jeremiah 31:9); the strength of Jehovah's head (Psalms 60:7; 108:8); the powerful one (Zechariah 10:7); the one armed with the bow (Zechariah 9:13). The sons of Ephraim are called armed men and shooters of the bow (Psalms 78:9); for a bow means doctrine from the Word militating against falsities. For the same reason too Ephraim was transferred to Israel's right hand and blessed, and also received in place of Reuben 1 (Genesis 48:5, 11ff). Also Ephraim with his brother Manasseh was raised above all others by Moses when he blessed the sons of Israel in the name of Joseph their father (Deuteronomy 33:13-17).

[2] What the church, however, is like when its understanding of the Word is destroyed is also described by Ephraim in the prophets, especially in Hosea, as in the following passages:

Israel and Ephraim will fall; Ephraim will become a wilderness. Ephraim is overwhelmed and shaken in judgment, Hosea 5:5, 9, 11-14.

What shall I do to you, Ephraim? For your holiness has departed, like the clouds of dawn and like the dew that falls in the morning, Hosea 6:4.

They will not dwell in the land of Jehovah; Ephraim will return to Egypt, and will eat unclean food in Assyria, Hosea 9:3.

The land of Jehovah is the church; Egypt is the factual knowledge of the natural man; Assyria is reasoning from this. It is these two together which lead to falsification of the Word in respect of its inward understanding. This is why it is said that Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

[3] Ephraim pastures the wind and pursues the east wind; every day he increases the lie and devastation; he makes an agreement with Assyria and oil is carried down into Egypt, Hosea 12:1.

Pasturing the wind, pursuing the east wind and increasing the lie and devastation is falsifying truths and so destroying the church. Ephraim's whoring has a similar meaning, as whoring means the falsification of the understanding of the Word, that is, of its genuine truth, in the following passages:

I know Ephraim, that he has utterly given himself to whoring, and Israel is defiled, Hosea 5:3.

In the house of Israel I have seen a foul thing; there Ephraim went whoring and Israel is defiled, Hosea 6:10.

Israel is the church itself, and Ephraim is the understanding of the Word, the source which determines what sort of church it is. This is why it says that Ephraim went whoring and Israel is defiled.

[4] The church among the Israelite and Jewish people was utterly destroyed by falsifying the Word, so therefore it is said of Ephraim:

I shall give you up, Ephraim, I shall hand you over, Israel, like Admah and I shall make you like Zeboyim, Hosea 11:8.

So because the book of the prophet Hosea from the first chapter to the last is about the falsification of the genuine understanding of the Word and the resultant destruction of the church, and because whoring there means the falsification of truth, that is why the prophet was ordered to represent that state of the church by taking to wife a whore and having sons by her (chapter 1), and again by taking an adulterous woman (chapter 3).

These passages have been quoted to provide knowledge and proof from the Word that what the church is like depends on how the Word is understood in it. It is excellent and valuable, if its understanding is based upon genuine truths from the Word, but ruined and actually foul, if based upon falsified truths.

Footnotes:

1. Thought by some editors to be an error for Manasseh, but the reference may be to verse 5: 'Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are.'

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